A three-day conference in Geneva called Finding Common Ground gathered more than 100 internationally-based Chinese and Tibetan scholars and writers. One of them was Yan Jiaqi 嚴家其, a Chinese political scientist and formerly director of the Institute of Political Research of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was one of the participants who addressed the conference – and with one remark he called the glass half full. Listing what he sees as the Dalai Lama’s achievements in exile, he mentioned that dialog and unity between Tibetan and Han people has been initiated abroad. Abroad, anyway.
Only few participants still lived in China, writes tibetfocus.com. While Beijing and the Dalai Lama both seem to agree that Tibet is a domestic issue, China’s government isn’t available for a dialog. Nevertheless, back in China, some 300 intellectuals apparently made twelve suggestions for dealing with the Tibetan situation.
The BBC’s China editor Shirong Chen (陈时荣) interviewed the Dalai Lama in Geneva on August 6. Both English and Chinese language transcripts are available on the BBC website.
