DHARMSALA, India — The Dalai Lama said Saturday that he welcomed China’s offer to hold talks with his envoy but cautioned it would be meaningless to meet if Beijing was not serious about trying to solve the problems that caused recent unrest in Tibet.
But just as it appeared China was reaching out to the spiritual leader, Beijing’s state media on Saturday blamed him for the deadly violence in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa that threatens to overshadow this summer’s Olympics.
The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in Dharmsala, a northern Indian town, said the two sides needed to talk seriously about how to resolve the problems that triggered the riots in Tibet last month.
“We have to explore the causes of the problems and seek solution through talks,” he said a day after China said it would meet his envoy.
He said he has yet to receive detailed information about the offer but stressed that talks would be good.
“But just mere meeting some of my men in order to show the world that they are having dialogue, then it is meaningless,” the Dalai Lama told reporters after returning from a two-week trip to the United States.
China’s announcement Friday of its offer to meet the Dalai Lama’s envoy gave few details, saying only that a “relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days.”
But Saturday, Chinese state media started a new campaign attacking the Dalai Lama and his followers.
The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, printed an editorial on Saturday attacking “the Dalai clique” for seeking support from Western countries and ignoring “the efforts and achievements made by China after shaking off serfdom and poverty in Tibet.”
The Tibet Daily, another party newspaper, said that “the Lhasa March 14 incident is another ugly performance meticulously plotted by the Dalai clique to seek Tibet independence.”
