Can the Dalai Lamas China talks succeed?
In These Times December 1, 2003 They had waited for him since dawn, sun-drenched along an uneven mountain road. But when the Dalai Lama’s motorcade swept by, his passing wave left many vaguely disenchanted. Officials had warned that he would not be stopping; nevertheless, disappointment is hard to accept from a man many consider a god. Now, as the 68-year-old Dalai Lama engages in talks with the Chinese government on the future of Tibet, there is a deepening sense of foreboding that he is falling short. Last September, after intense secret negotiations, a personal emissary of the Dalai Lama met with the Chinese government in Beijing for the first time since 1959. A second meeting followed in May this year. Many of Tibet’s 110,000 exiles see this as progress toward their return home. But others are irked by how much the Dalai Lama has conceded just to get a seat at the table. His Holiness, as the Dalai Lama is universally called here, has dropped Tibet’s demand for independence from Chi
