The United States today urged China to stop vilifying the Dalai Lama and instead talk to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in order to achieve peace and stability in troubled, Chinese-ruled Tibet.
"The Chinese government should seize the opportunity to talk to those Tibetans, represented by the Dalai Lama, who oppose violence and do not seek independence for Tibet," Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a U.S. Senate hearing.
"Public vilification of the Dalai Lama will not help defuse the the situation," he said of China's angry tide of statements since protests erupted across Tibet in March.
Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that China's response to US attempts to persuade Beijing to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama and to allow diplomats or other observers into troubled Tibet have been "minimal at best."
But he said China would not achieve the stability it seeks without resolving grievances built up over decades of Chinese rule and failure to work with the 72-year-old Buddhist leader would create space for extremists in the Himalayan region.
"Through outreach and genuine dialogue, China and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the vast majority of Tibetans, can begin to bridge differences, explore the meaning of genuine autonomy and address long-standing grievances," he said.
Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of being behind March 14 riots in Lhasa and unrest that followed in other ethnic Tibetan areas, as part of a bid for Tibetan independence and to ruin the coming Olympic Games.