China plans to take the Dalai Lama's envoys to visit a
non-Tibetan minority, a source said, as it tries to persuade its
wary visitors it is sincere about talks on the Himalayan region's
future.
The envoys arrived in Beijing for fence-mending talks days after
the Dalai Lama, currently visiting neighbouring Japan, and
expressed dismay at China's attitude.
The rare trip out of the capital would be a chance for officials to
showcase ethnic relations less fraught than those of Tibet, which
erupted into deadly anti-Chinese riots in March.
But it is also a risky gamble because there are few areas of the
country where minorities are entirely content, and most major
ethnic groups have vocal advocates abroad who would be keen to
undermine any picture of harmony presented by the government.
The latest round of talks is the first since Beijing hosted the
Olympics in August, and comes amid growing concern about the Dalai
Lama's health and the diminishing possibility of a meaningful
settlement.
Tibetan exiles are frustrated with the lack of progress in talks
with China and the Dalai Lama said by email last week that Beijing
seemed to be making little effort to engage.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate revered by Buddhists in Tibet and
elsewhere, has said he wants a high level of autonomy for Tibet,
but not outright independence, while China considers him a
trouble-making separatist.
The Dalai Lama fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive
uprising against Chinese rule.
But a source familiar with the negotiations said the Chinese
government has insisted it is sincere and there is room for
progress in these meetings.
The trip out of the capital could be an effort to break an apparent
deadlock and build trust.
"The delegation will be taken to a province populated by a
non-Tibetan ethnic minority," said a source with knowledge of the
talks, who declined to say which area or discuss the reason for the
visit.
Inner Mongolia would be a likely destination because it shares a
common religious heritage with Tibetans, which is linked to Chinese
claims Lhasa has been under its rule for centuries.
However Tibetans worried about becoming a minority in their own
land as waves of Han Chinese migrants flood in on a recently built
railway may find cause for concern in Inner Mongolia's population
data - only around a fifth are Mongolian.
