The Dalai Lama must show sincerity if he wants to talk to the central government, says Lung Chee-ming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in a signed article in Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po. The following is an excerpt:

The Dalai Lama must not say one thing, think about another and do something else. He should stop all activities designed to divide the motherland, including planning and inciting violence in Tibet and disrupting or even sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games, in order to create the right conditions for talks with the central government.

As the central government has said numerous times, the door to talks is always open for the Dalai Lama. The fundamental reason why such talks have made little headway so far is that the Dalai Lama lacks sincerity.

He has insisted he never demanded "Tibet independence", but the area under the "highly autonomous" region that he is demanding from the central government covers not only Tibet but also the surrounding areas where Tibetans live but which have never been part of Tibet to begin with.

The so-called "greater Tibet" region occupies almost a quarter of China's territory. And that is not all. He also demands that all people who are not ethnic Tibetan must move out of the "greater Tibet" region and the central government must pull all the armed forces out as well.

It is only natural for the central government to absolutely reject such outrageous demands. So it is for the people living in the so-called "greater Tibet" region who would become victims of the Dalai group's ethnic cleansing policy if he had his way.

(China Daily May 8, 2008)