China denounces proposed Dalai Lama visit to Taiwan

[samanthajane13]

By Ralph Jennings and Lucy Hornby Ralph Jennings And Lucy Hornby – Thu Aug 27, 8:41 am ET

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China promptly denounced a proposed trip to Taiwan by the Dalai Lama on Thursday, saying any such visit by a man Beijing brands a separatist threatened to "sabotage" improving relations.

Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by Beijing, approved the visit by the Nobel Peace laureate to comfort victims of a deadly typhoon at a time of burgeoning trade and investment between the rivals.

"No matter under what form or identity Dalai uses to enter Taiwan, we resolutely oppose this," China's Taiwan Affairs Bureau said in a statement carried by Xinhua news agency.

"Some of the people in the Democratic Progressive Party use the disaster rescue excuse to invite Dalai to Taiwan to sabotage the hard-earned positive situation of cross-straits relations."

Beijing brands the India-based Tibetan luminary as a separatist and condemns his trips abroad.

An aide to the Dalai Lama in the Indian town of Dharamsala said the spiritual leader had been keen to visit Taiwan.

"As of now, we are planning a visit to Taiwan and the dates are still being worked out," Tenzin Taklha said. "We want to make it very clear that the Dalai Lama is visiting Taiwan to express condolences to victims and lead prayers."

China is considered unlikely to retaliate by choking off growing economic ties between the long-time political rivals.

By blaming the opposition DPP and not Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou or the ruling Nationalist Party (KMT), Beijing may have indicated it does not wish to escalate the issue.

"Beijing will be a little uncomfortable, but if they understand how severe the disaster is they will show some respect to Taiwan's people," KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih said.

About 650 people are feared dead after Typhoon Morakot, the island's worst typhoon in 50 years, soaked Taiwan from August 7-9.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's KMT fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

But Beijing is also aware any strong moves against the Dalai Lama could play into the hands of Taiwanese opponents of President Ma, who has sought to ease tensions with Beijing.

RESTORING IMAGE

The Taiwan president's office, under fire for perceptions the response to Typhoon Morakot was too slow, and national security officials met for five hours late on Wednesday and decided to permit a visit, the Government Information Office said.

Admitting the Dalai Lama lets Ma give the impression that Ma is not driven solely concerned with ties with Beijing, said Hsu Yung-ming, a political science professor at Soochow University.

"He doesn't want people to think he cares only about China, that he also cares about Taiwan," Hsu said.

Taiwan, home to a large exiled Tibetan community and millions of Buddhists, allowed visits by the Dalai Lama in 1997 and 2001.

Ma last year quashed hopes for a new visit by the Tibetan spiritual leader, saying the timing was wrong. Taiwan Buddhist groups criticized that decision.

Since taking office in 2008, Ma's administration has avoided action that could anger Beijing as he pursues trade ties.

"We've ... decided to let the Dalai Lama visit as he is coming here to pray for the dead victims, as well as the survivors," Ma told reporters while visiting typhoon survivors.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule over Tibet.

(Additional reporting by Bappa Majumdar in New Delhi, Chris Buckley, Benjamin Kang Lim, Yu Le and Lucy Hornby in Beijing; Editing by Nick Macfie)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090827/wl_nm/us_taiwan_dalai;_ylt=AmoofWfB8kHCO5fp9jaI.dJH2ocA; _ylu=X3oDMTJpM2Z0MWdjBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMDkwODI3L3VzX 3RhaXdhbl9kYWxhaQRjcG9zAzQEcG9zAzQEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9 zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNjaGluYWRlbm91bmM-

[samanthajane13]

Dalai Lama says Taiwan visit is not political
By PETER ENAV, Associated Press Writer Peter Enav, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 34 mins ago

TAOYUAN, Taiwan – The Dalai Lama denied any political agenda as he began what he described as a "purely humanitarian" mission Sunday to comfort victims of Taiwan's worst storm, trying to calm fears that he would further anger China by verging into politics.

Although the Tibetan spiritual leader has traveled to Taiwan before, many fear his arrival could hurt the island's improving relations with rival China — the signature issue in the 15-month-old administration of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou. China has protested the visit.

The Dalai Lama, who clasped his hands and smiled as he greeted Buddhist followers and supporters at the Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei, said his visit would have no political overtone.

"I've visited different parts of the world, and I may have a political agenda there ... (but) my visit here is purely for humanitarian concerns," he said.

His arrival at a suburban Taipei train station was greeted by about 50 demonstrators waving Chinese flags and banners supporting unification with China and shouting "Go home Dalai Lama, don't come here." The demonstrators briefly scuffled with police.

"I'm here to oppose the Dalai Lama's visit," 62-year-old protester Feng Tsai-chiao said. "I want unification with China so I don't like him."

China has long vilified the Dalai Lama for what it says are his attempts to fight for independence in Tibet. Beijing has said it "resolutely opposes" the Taiwan visit "in whatever form and capacity."

Wu Poh-hsiung, the chairman of Ma's Nationalist Party, said earlier Sunday that his party has sought Beijing's understanding of the visit, but he did not give details or say whether China responded.

"We believe the Dalai Lama will have the wisdom to distinguish between religious empathy and political maneuvering," Wu told reporters.

Ma has said he approved the Dalai Lama's visit but will not meet him.

Before his departure, the Dalai Lama said he did not think his visit to Taiwan would cause tension between China and Taiwan.

"Broadly speaking, I don't think that is so," he told reporters in India, adding that he has a "very strict nonpolitical nature."

Taiwan's opposition invited the Dalai Lama to comfort the victims of Typhoon Morakot, which hit the island in early August and left an estimated 670 dead. During his five-day visit, he is to visit a village hit hard by the storm, lead a mass prayer ritual and address the island's Buddhist followers.

"There are many Buddhists there. So since they asked me, it is my moral responsibility, to accept, to go there," the Tibetan spiritual leader said.

China has blamed Taiwan's opposition, not Ma, for the invitation, in what appeared to be an effort to keep the improving relations on track. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949, and China's leaders want the self-governing island back.

The invitation put Ma in a bind — either risk angering China or give further ammunition to his detractors, who were already reveling over widespread perceptions that Ma's government had badly botched typhoon relief efforts.

Many members of Ma's party saw the invitation as an effort by the rival Democratic Progressive Party to embarrass the president.

Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng said he hoped the Dalai Lama would not make political statements that would "change the tune of what's supposed to be a religious trip."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090830/ap_on_re_as/as_taiwan_dalai_lama

[samanthajane13]

Dalai Lama Greeted with Protests, Tears in Taiwan's Disaster Zone
By NATALIE TSO / SIAOLIN Natalie Tso / Siaolin – 2 hrs 26 mins ago

Under a vast plain of dried mud, set between southern Taiwan's lush mountains, 400 bodies still lie that were buried alive three weeks ago in typhoon Morakot, the island's most recent and deadly natural disaster. The now infamous village of Siaolin - the worst hit by Morakot - was the first stop for the Dalai Lama, Tibet's leader-in-exile, on his visit to Taiwan this week. Wrapped in his saffron and maroon robes, he sat in the traditional leg-cross on a blue and gold straw mat, overlooking the tragic plain, and recited Tibetan prayers. He then stood up to speak to the dead.

"As a Buddhist, the only thing we can do is pray for them," the Dalai Lama said to a group of reporters following him to Siaolin. This week, the Tibetan spiritual leader has come to Taiwan to pray and console. Unlike his first two visits in 1997 and 2001, when he met with incumbent presidents Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, both advocates of independence for the island, he won't be meeting or even crossing paths with President Ma Ying-jeou, who has been drawing Taiwan closer to China.

The Dalai Lama was invited by local opposition leaders in southern Taiwan to come and visit the victims. Morakot hit Taiwan on August 8th and left at least 568 dead or missing and over 7000 homeless. The island has been angry at the government's slow relief efforts and is in pain from the loss of their loved ones and homes. For Ma, whose approval ratings have hit an all time low in Morakot's aftermath, rejecting the Tibetan leader's visit - as he did last December - would have been political suicide. A recent poll shows that sixty percent of Taiwan's public though the visit of Tibet's spiritual leader was a good idea. "If Ma refused the Dalai Lama, the trouble would be bigger," says political commentator Antonio Chiang.

But even as the Dalai Lama reiterated that he had come on purely humanitarian grounds, politics was very much on the minds of the people following him around Siaolin. Nearly a hundred reporters shadowed him on the long drive to the remote village in the mountains. After his prayers, they asked him about Tibet's own relations with China. "We Tibetans are not seeking separation," he replied. The Dalai Lama has been pursuing "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet and the preservation of his people's culture and religion, but China sees him as a separatist, and is wary of his interaction on the global front, especially in Taiwan, which China also sees as part of its territory. A day after Taipei announced his visit, China denounced the decision and lashed out at the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, who invited him, for their "attempt to sabotage the hard-earned good situation in cross-strait relations." On Monday, Beijing upped the ante, saying the visit could have a negative impact on cross-strait relations.

Since he came into office last year, Ma has sought closer ties with China and has succeeded - now Taiwan and China have direct transportation, financial and cultural exchanges. The Dalai Lama praised the warming of ties between Taiwan and China. "Things are moving better, that's good," he said on Monday. "The Taiwanese should have a very close and unique link to China, but at the same time, Taiwan enjoys democracy - that you must preserve."

The Tibetan leader got a taste of the island's raucous democracy immediately after he arrived. Holding up banners and the Chinese flag, dozens of pro-unification protestors shouted lines like "Roll back home!" and tried to prevent him from boarding the high-speed railway to the south. The next morning, across from his hotel, aborigine protestors held banners saying he was just doing "lip service," unlike other religious volunteers who were helping them rebuild their homes. When reporters asked him what he thought of the protests, the Dalai Lama cheerfully responded, "Wonderful. These people enjoy freedom of expression and thought. I love that."

After answering reporters' queries in Siaolin, a man named Wang Min-liang and his female friend kneeled before him offering a khata - a long white silk scarf usually given to bless a highly respected person in Tibetan culture. The Dalai Lama touched their cheeks with his hands and hugged them, and Wang, who lost fourteen family members including his parents and siblings to Siaolin's mudslides, began to cry. "I came to share their traumatic experience," the Dalai Lama said that day. "I don't want to cause any inconvenience to anybody." That anybody - President Ma - is probably glad to hear it.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090901/wl_time/08599191978600