Tibet-China Negotiations: A Case for Canadian Leadership

Friday, April 23, 2004
The Drawing Room of the Chateau Laurier
Ottawa
1:30 - 4 p.m.

In 2002, representatives of the Dalai Lama traveled to China and Tibet and re-established contact with the Chinese leadership for the first time since 1993. Although actual negotiations between the two sides have yet to begin, indications suggest that one of the world's most neglected conflicts will soon receive international attention. The Dalai Lama will visit Canada in April 2004 and supporters are asking the Government of Canada to play the role of honest broker in the negotiation process.

Shifting Political Winds

This is a time of renewed hope for the Tibetan people. On November 23, 2003, Premier Wen Jiabao told The Washington Post that the "door to communication between the central government and the Dalai Lama is wide open." While Wen's overture is laden with conditions designed to extract political advantage to Beijing, observers are hopeful that the fledgling dialogue re-opened in 2002 could eventually lead to substantive negotiations on the future of Tibet.

The dialogue is significant because it represents the re-establishment of contact after formal communication between the parties was cut in 1993. Not limited to discussion via written correspondence, the renewed contact took the form of two delegation visits to Beijing. The first delegation, headed by the Dalai Lama's "special envoys," arrived in China on September 9, 2002 and was officially received by government representatives there. The delegation was also permitted to travel to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) where talks were held with Chinese and Tibetan officials.

On May 25, 2003, the Dalai Lama's envoys returned to Beijing for follow-up meetings with Chinese officials and a visit to the eastern Tibetan province of Kham (ch. Sichuan). Permission to travel to a Tibetan area outside the TAR is considered significant because it implies that all of historical Tibet, not just the TAR, could potentially be under discussion in an eventual negotiation process.