lmctala

我总觉得外国人似乎没有资格谈西藏。
看看今天的中国，和共产党，似乎外国人更不存在这种力量来谈西藏。 既没有资格，且没有能力，岂不是变得很可笑。
何况，达赖和一些海外的藏族流亡人士，就可以代表西藏了？可笑。

xqrjbk

今天破天荒来了一片正面报道，我们是不是该去信表扬他们？

China's old foes find common ground

20-minute encounter could help to thaw out relations between Beijing and Taipei（20分钟会面可帮解冻两岸关系）


HARRY STERLING（前外交官，渥太华评论员）, Freelance

Published: 4 hours ago
It was a brief meeting, lasting only 20 minutes, but the encounter between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan's vice-president-elect, Vincent Siew, was a historic event for the two adversaries. It was the highest-level meeting between the two regimes' officials since Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in 1949 following the Nationalists' defeat by Mao Zedung's communist forces.

Some would like to think the meeting signalled a willingness by Beijing to be more pragmatic in its policies, with possible implications for the leadership's approach to human rights in China, including in Tibet.

Taiwan's president-elect, Ma Ying-jeou, who won a resounding victory in last month's election with more than 58 per cent of the vote, said the meeting has "started to thaw the ice" between Taiwan and China.


Ma, who assumes office May 20, ran on a platform calling for renewed dialogue with Beijing and expansion of trade and direct transportation links. He said he hoped the encounter at a regional forum in southern China would lead to direct negotiations.

"Thanks to the meeting, some of the barriers for the resumption of talks have been removed," he said. "The mainland authorities displayed goodwill."

Considering frequent tension in the past between China and Taiwan, which increased following the election of independence-minded President Chen Shui-bian in 2000, this month's unprecedented meeting is regarded by many as a potential turning point between Beijing and Taipei.

Despite the residual hostility of the civil war, Beijing clearly prefers to deal with its old foes in the Kuomintang rather than President Chen's Democratic Progressive Party. That's because the DPP favours formal independence from China. Both Beijing and the Kuomintang support the "One China" policy of 1992 - which leaves the precise definition of what constitutes one China conveniently unclear.

Chen's unwillingness to work for a meaningful rapprochement with Beijing made many Taiwanese uneasy, especially after China's parliament passed legislation in 2005 threatening the use of force should Taiwan declare independence.

That uneasiness, coupled with growing worries over a stagnating economy, influenced many Taiwanese to give the Kuomintang an overwhelming victory during parliamentary elections in January, causing Chen to resign as head of the DPP.

Then in last month's presidential elections, Ma Ying-jeou easily defeated his DPP opponent, Frank Hsieh, returning the Kuomintang to power after an eight-year gap.

Putting aside the sensitive issue of Taiwan's political status - Beijing considers it a rogue province - there are many reasons for the two sides to establish better relations.

In spite of past tensions, Taiwan has been a major investor in mainland China for several years, with investment totalling more than $45 billion U.S. between 1979 and 2007. Nearly 650,000 Taiwanese business personnel and their families actually live on the mainland.

Taiwanese investments grew so large that the Taiwanese government started to impose restrictions, claiming businessmen were endangering Taiwan's technological advantages.

Ma, however, regards expansion of trade with China an important factor in overcoming Taiwan's present economic malaise. According to Chinese data, two-way trade in 2007 was $112.7 billion. More than 15 per cent of Taiwan's imports were from China.

Ma pledged to relax restrictions on Taiwanese investment in China and called for the creation of a "common market" between China and Taiwan. Greater tourism is to be promoted, as well as direct flights.

While the prospects for increasing trade and other co-operation appear encouraging, differences within the political sphere aren't as easy to reconcile.


Although Ma and the Kuomintang are far less strident about Taiwan's autonomy, he has made it clear Beijing must respect Taiwan's self-rule. He pointedly said "Taiwan is neither Hong Kong nor Tibet." During the election he promoted his "three nos": no independence, no reunification, no use of force.

Ma's more pragmatic approach to China has been welcomed by other nations, including the United States, which had come to view Chen's policies as unhelpful and provocative - especially since the U.S. had given assurances of American support for Taiwan's security against a Chinese invasion.

Given Ma's openness to a meaningful dialogue with China, Beijing could show its own goodwill by removing the 1,100 missiles aimed at Taiwan。
To cite an ancient Chinese proverb: The longest journey begins with a single step.
（引用一句中国谚语：千里之行始于足下）
Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator.

xqrjbk

可惜啊，刚表扬就发现几分钟之前其发布的一篇带有反面观点的文章。

China to meet Dalai Lama aides amid Tibet tension（中国会见达赖喇嘛助手）


Nick Mulvenney, Reuters

Published: 8 minutes ago
NYIMU COUNTY, China (Reuters) - China is to hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom it blames for a wave of unrest, state media reported on Friday, as the Olympic flame arrived in Japan.

The move comes after concerted pressure from the West on China to talk to the Dalai Lama and marks the first serious step to defuse tensions aside from coming down hard on protesters and lambasting Tibetans' spiritual leader.

Beijing has stepped up its vilification（北京继续污蔑） of the Dalai Lama since anti-government protests hit Tibet and rippled across ethnic Tibetan parts of China in the past weeks.

[url=javascript:void window.open('storyimage.html?id=cddd5921-7338-4f9a-b14c-73436aa4dfcd&img=5653aba7-1779-47ef-9e42-26d77318ad54&path=%2fmontrealgazette%2fnews%2f', 'storyimage', 'width=760,height=550,location=no,menubar=yes,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes')] View Larger Image[/url] The Dalai Lama at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 21, 2008. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook




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"In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with the Dalai's private representative in the coming days," the official Xinhua news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying.

An envoy to the Dalai Lama said on Friday he had received notice of China's offer to hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

"We have been told verbally, through private channels, that a meeting has been proposed," Dalai Lama envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen told Germany's Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

"We neither know the date, the location, nor the topics that must be addressed at the meeting," he added, speaking in German.

China denounces the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed 1959 uprising against Communist rule, as a traitor and has accused him of orchestrating the unrest, a charge the 72-year-old Nobel laureate denies.

But Tibet has become a flashpoint for anti-China protests that have disrupted the Olympic torch relay around the world and has led to calls for state leaders to boycott the Beijing Games, which open on August 8.

"It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks," the official was quoted as saying.

OFFICIAL DENUNCIATIONS

Recent official denunciations of the Dalai Lama had usually referred to the Dalai "clique," rather than Dalai "side."

The United States and France have urged Beijing to hold talks with the Dalai Lama, while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he would meet the Tibetan leader when he visits Britain in May.

France and the United States welcomed the announcement of talks.

"This is a major step. This renewed dialogue carries real hope," French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

The U.S. embassy in Beijing said in a statement that the dialogue would be "a very positive development."

The European Commission also backed the talks.

"As far as I understand the Chinese position, the Chinese say they are ready to discuss everything except sovereignty for Tibet," EC President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Reporters were allowed into Tibet on Friday and there was a heavy troop presence lining the road between the capital Lhasa and Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet.

Japan called for calm but braced for trouble with tight security, as low-key protests began ahead of its leg of the torch relay that begins on Saturday in the central city of Nagano, following emotional scenes at other venues.

Nagano police arrested a man carrying a knife near the site of the relay start, Japanese media said on Friday. The man claimed to be a monk and was carrying a document protesting the torch relay, Jiji and Kyodo news agencies said.

The flame is meant to transmit a message of peace and friendship, but its journey has been largely turned into a political event and the torch has been granted the sort of security usually reserved for state leaders.

The flame's arrival in Nagano was greeted by right-wing activists in trucks roaming the streets, displaying huge Japanese flags and blaring "go away."

POMP AND CEREMONY

In Hanoi, Vietnam state-run radio reported that a U.S. citizen of Vietnamese origin had been expelled on accusations of planning anti-Chinese protests at next week's Olympics torch relay in Ho Chi Minh City.

Reclusive North Korea, for its part, vowed to "astonish the world" with pomp, ceremony and safety during its stage of the relay on Monday, Chinese state media reported.

The Olympic torch is supposed to enter Tibet in early May to ascend Mt Everest and is to travel to its capital Lhasa on June 19, legs China has vowed to see through, despite the tensions.

The Dalai Lama says he is seeking meaningful autonomy for the strategic Himalayan border region, but China denounces that as a sham and says he is bent on splitting the country.

The Communist Party boss in Tibet has called the Dalai Lama "a jackal in Buddhist monk's robes, an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast."

But before the protests soured relations, China and envoys of the Dalai Lama had been engaged in a tentative dialogue process, though several rounds since 2002 had yielded little progress.

(Writing by Lindsay Beck and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Chisa Fujioka, Yoko Kubota and Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Chris Buckley in Beijing, Kerstin Gehmlich in Berlin and Francois Murphy in Paris; Editing by Nick Macfie and David Fogarty)

("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china )