Dalai Lama's Envoys Disappointed by Talks in China

BEIJING, July 5 -- Envoys for the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, said Saturday that their meetings with Chinese officials in the past week were so disappointing that they could not even get the Chinese to agree to issue a joint statement committing both sides to further talks.

Tibet advocates are now urging leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations to raise concerns about the fate of Tibetans who participated in widespread protests this spring against Chinese rule with Chinese President Hu Jintao at an outreach meeting in Hokkaido, Japan, in the coming week.

"We had hoped that the Chinese leadership would reciprocate our efforts by taking tangible steps during this round. On the contrary, due to their excessive concern about legitimacy, the Chinese side even failed to agree to our proposal of issuing a joint statement with the aim of committing both parties to the dialogue process," the envoys, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, said in a statement issued in Dharmsala, India, where the Dalai Lama's administration-in-exile is based.

Chinese officials were quoted in state-controlled media on Thursday as saying that the Dalai Lama must prove he does not support activities that would disturb the Olympic Games next month in Beijing and to "concretely curb" violent activities of groups advocating Tibet's independence. The Dalai Lama has often said he supports Beijing's being host of the Olympics and rejects violence, and that he is advocating autonomy, not independence, for Tibet.

The Chinese offered to meet again in October, and the Tibetan envoys said they accepted the offer. "The Chinese side expressed the view that the dialogue process has been productive and that we need to keep in mind that a half-a-century-old issue of great complexity cannot be resolved in a matter of years," the statement said.

"The talks this time were disappointing, and no breakthrough was achieved at a critical time, when the international community expected progress in the buildup to the Olympics," said Kate Saunders, spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, based in Washington. "It seems that hard-liners in China are fixed upon a failed policy in Tibet and blocking an achievable solution."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in the past week that he would announce during the G-8 meetings whether he will attend the Olympic Games' opening ceremony. The Reuters news agency on Friday cited French media reports affirming Sarkozy's decision to attend. Meanwhile, the White House announced Friday that President Bush will attend the Aug. 8 ceremony.