The Tibet Issue in Post-Summit Sino-American Relations
1999; University of British Columbia; Volume: 72; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2672333
ISSN1715-3379
Autores Tópico(s)International Relations and Foreign Policy
ResumoAt the end of a press conference held by Presidents Clinton andJiang during their 1998 Beijing summit, Jiang asked for an extra five minutes to discuss Tibet and stated, [A] s long as the Dalai Lama can publicly make a statement and a commitment that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and that he must [sic] also recognize Taiwan as a province of China, then the door to dialogue and negotiation is open.1 These brief remarks surprised U.S. officials.Jiang had breached a taboo by broaching the Tibet Question with a foreigner and live on PRC national television. His statement has since provided a basis for U.S. officials to press the Tibet issue with PRC leaders. It also caused a sensation among Tibetans in Beijing and Tibet, who began to speak more optimistically about the possibility of a breakthrough in the dispute between the PRC and the Tibetan exile administration in Dharamsala, India.2 Jiang Zemin had said nothing new. The tone and setting of his remarks, however, markedly departed from recent practice. Just a day earlier, Ye Xiaowen, China's top official in charge of religion, had attacked the Dalai Lama as a duplicitous apostate bent on restoring feudalism in Tibet and had criticized U.S. officials as irresponsible for raising the Tibet Question. In contrast, Jiang did not denounce the Dalai Lama and directly responded to President Clinton's raising of the Tibet issue.Jiang did not require the Dalai Lama to state that Tibet had been part of China since the thirteenth century, as the PRC asserts. Observers, including the Dalai Lama's representatives, viewed Jiang's remarks as startling and a sign of positive movement in Beijing, attributable in part to U.S. efforts. Rumors quickly surfaced that the exiles would send a delegation to China to set the stage for negotiations.3
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