By KUNA
Tokyo : Chinese President Hu Jintao said the Tibet problem is entirely an internal issue of China, and national unification features the conflict between the central government and the Dalai group, official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday.
“Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem. It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland,” Xinhua quoted Hu as saying. He made the remarks while meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Sanya, a scenic city in south China’s Hainan Province.
Talking about the violent crimes in Lhasa, capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, and some other places, the president stressed that all these incidents were not “peaceful demonstrations” or “non-violent” actions proclaimed by some people, but sheer violent crimes.
Hu stressed that the door for dialogue between the central government and the Dalai Lama is open. “The barrier to contacts and talks does not lie on our side, but on the side of the Dalai Lama. If the Dalai Lama has the sincerity, he should put it into action.” “As long as the Dalai side stops activities splitting the motherland, stops activities scheming and instigating violence, and stops activities sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games, we are ready to continue contacts and talks with him at any time,” Hu said.
Rudd stressed that Australia fully recognizes China’s sovereignty over Tibet and Taiwan, the report said.
China occupied Tibet in 1951. The central government has accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of organizing the riots that broke out in Lhasa on March 14 and which have sparked protests and violence in neighboring ethnic-Tibetan provinces. The March 14 riots were the largest anti-government demonstrations in Lhasa for nearly 20 years.
Rudd arrived in China on Wednesday for a four-day trip. The Australian prime minister attended the opening ceremony of the annual meeting of the Boao Forum for Asia on Saturday afternoon in Boao of Hainan Province.