In a fresh attack on the Dalai Lama, a mouthpiece of the Chinese government on Sunday criticised his call for greater autonomy for Tibet and questioned whether he was really qualified to speak for six million Tibetans.
In an article, the Peoples Daily, attacked the demands submitted by the spiritual leader’s representatives during their talks with Chinese officials early this year and said the Dalai Lama’s demand implies “greater Tibet,” which he never represented.
“In early 2010, the Dalai Clique filed a note relating to the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for All Tibetans to the Chinese government, requesting talks on the welfare of 6 million Tibetans,” the write up said inferring that his demand included all Tibetans living in four other provinces, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan, besides Tibet.
The article titled “Is the Dalai Lama qualified to speak on the welfare of 6 million Tibetans?” said the Dalai Lama himself hails from Tibetan majority Qinghai, which suffered heavy earthquake in April this year in which over 2,600 people were killed and thousands injured.
“Prior to the 1950s, (Before the take over of Tibet by China) Tibetan society was still extremely closed and backwards, and the production level and the development of the entire society were at an exceptionally low level... Countless Tibetans died from hunger, cold, poverty or disease,” the article in the Peoples Daily said.
It said the 14th Dalai Lama could not even guarantee the most fundamental rights of survival for numerous Tibetan farmers, and therefore “he is not qualified to talk about the welfare of 6 million Tibetans”. Furthermore, “six million Tibetans” implies a concept of a “Greater Tibet”.
As the 14th Dalai Lama had never managed any Tibetan region outside Tibet, he is even further from being qualified to discuss the “welfare of six million Tibetans,” it said.