BEIJING, April 29: China may be willing to resume talks with the exiled Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama if Washington was prepared to "act" on Taiwan, a more pressing issue for the communist government here, diplomatic sources said today. "Now that Dalai Lama himself has reportedly said that he is not demanding independence from China and sought only genuine self-rule, the Chinese side may be willing to restart negotiations so that they could tackle the more belligerent Taiwanese leaders," the sources told PTI here."Tibet as such is not a big problem for China since it has kept it under tight control in all respects," sources said adding that Beijing wanted more concessions from Washington on the Taiwan issue.
Madeleine Albright, currently on a two-day visit to China, has reportedly placed "Tibet issue" on top of her agenda during the talks here with senior Chinese officials including foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan.
The talks are expected to press Beijing for restarting the dialogue process with theIndia-based Dalai Lama.
During the upcoming state visit of US President Bill Clinton, China may say "yes" to talks with the Dalai Lama while it would ask President Clinton "to do something more" about Taiwan and help early "reunification" of the motherland, the sources said.
Meanwhile, media reports today said China has set up a special preparatory committee headed by Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan for coordinating the Taiwan issue during Clinton's visit in June.
President Jiang Zemin has laid down detailed instructions on the framework of discussions with Clinton and his aides, reports Hong Kong's leading newspaper, South China Morning Post.
Quong sources, it said China hoped President Clinton would agree in principle to promote, or at least remove obstacles to, mainland reunification with Taiwan.
Among those requests would be for the US to scale down sales of military hardware to Taiwan, particularly those which could be used against mainland missiles and other weapons.
Jiang also hopedWashington would put pressure on senior Taiwanese politicians to attend talks in Beijing. "Jiang hopes that after the Clinton trip, Washington can send a high-level official to Taipei to explain the new Sino-US understanding to Taiwan authorities," said a source familiar with Beijing's Taiwan policy.
During Jiang's state visit to the US last October, Clinton had said Washington would not get involved in reunification, an issue he viewed as a domestic Chinese one.
Since late last year, however, several retired US officials had visited Taiwan and some had passed on Beijing's message that reunification talks should start as soon as possible.
China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province since a 1949 civil war split, wants political talks to lead to eventual reunification under the "one country, two systems" principle under which Britain handed over capitalist Hong Kong to China on July one, 1997. Taipei, however, is not in favour of this proposal.
Albright arrives
Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright arrived here today on a strategic mission to boost US-China ties and to initiate a dialogue on contentious issues like human rights and nuclear non-proliferation in the run-up to visit by President Bill Clinton in late June. Soon after her arrival, the official Chinese news agency announced that a direct telephone hotline between the two countries has been established to reinforce strategic ties between Washington and Beijing. Albright would finalise all arrangements so as to ensure a "successful" presidential visit. "We are looking towards the 21st century in terms of our relationship with China and that is the focus of summit to try to look forward," she told newsmen.Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
