China says won't relax grip on Tibet

China said on Monday it made no concessions on Tibetan sovereignty during talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama over the future of the region -- the first such negotiations in more than a year. "(China's) national interests are inviolable and there is no room for discussion on the issues of national and territorial sovereignty," said a government statement on the talks. It marked China's first confirmation that the secretive talks had concluded, and came as the Tibetan spiritual leader's envoys returned Monday to their exile base in India. The negotiations between the two sides, which have held an intermittent but inconclusive dialogue over the years on the Dalai Lama's call for "meaningful autonomy" for the Buddhist Himalayan region, were the first in 14 months.

But while saying the "door to negotiations is open" the hardline Chinese statement seemed to dash hopes that progress could be achieved. It quoted Chinese negotiator Du Qinglin telling the Tibetan envoys the idea of a "high degree of autonomy (for Tibet) violates China's constitution" and repeating harsh rhetoric that Beijing has hurled at the Dalai Lama for years. It alleged "the Dalai side continues to engage in international anti-China propaganda and sabotage", adding that only when such activities are abandoned can progress be achieved in any dialogue. Du heads the United Front Work Department, a Communist Party organ that handles contact with the Dalai Lama in the absence of official ties.

"Whether seeking Tibet independence or disguised independence, violent or non-violent activities, or internationalising the Tibet issue, these actions bang the drum for world anti-China forces, leaving no way out," Du said. The Dalai Lama has consistently denied seeking independence. "We are not wishing to have Tibet as a sovereign state," a spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India, Thubten Samphel, told AFP. "We have made it clear to them that Tibet should enjoy autonomy and this was conveyed to the Chinese side," he said.

The Tibetan envoys, who flew to China on January 25, held meetings with Chinese officials first in the central province of Hunan and then in Beijing at the weekend, the Dalai Lama's senior secretary Chhime Chhoekyapa told AFP. He said the envoys, Lodi G. Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, were to travel to the Dalai Lama's base in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala later Monday for briefings on the talks, the ninth round since the dialogue began in 2002. At the previous round in November 2008, the Tibetans handed over a memorandum insisting their demands for autonomy in the mountainous Buddhist enclave were in line with China's constitution.

The Dalai Lama, 75, who has warned Tibetan culture is in danger of being extinguished, has sought some degree of autonomy for the region since he fled his homeland after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule. That came nine years after Chinese troops were sent to take control of the region. The resumption of dialogue had been warmly welcomed by Washington, which said it hoped for "positive results". But they came at a time in which Tibet-watchers said progress seemed remote.

Since the 2008 round of talks, China has maintained a tough crackdown in Tibet launched following a wave of anti-Chinese unrest that erupted in March of that year and which Beijing blamed on the Dalai Lama. Several people have reportedly been executed for their roles in the violence, and earlier this month China named a military veteran, Padma Choling, as Tibet's new governor. He promptly vowed to crush attempts at "secession" and to "safeguard national unity" -- rhetoric typically aimed at the Dalai Lama. The Chinese statement on the negotiations said Du told the Tibetans that China would continue with policies to accelerate economic development in the region, saying it had brought "happy lives" to its people.

Tibetan exiles have criticised such policies as aimed at seizing the region's mineral and other resources, calling them harmful to traditional culture. China announced it would hold a press briefing on Tuesday on the talks.