Dharamshala: In a fresh tirade against His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Chinese government mouthpiece has questioned Tibetan spiritual leader's right and authority to speak for all Tibetans. In the article that is titled "Is the Dalai Lama qualified to speak on the 'welfare of 6 million Tibetans?". The People's Daily criticized His Holiness and said that the demands that were submitted by the spiritual leader during his talks with Chinese officials spoke about "greater Tibet" an area that according to the Chinese government, he has no right to talk about.
The article went on to claim that "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" and also said that His Holiness the Dalai lama himself comes from the Tibetan majority area of Qinghai that suffered heavy damage in the April this year which left over 10,000 Tibetan people were killed and thousands injured. Greater Tibet consists of all Tibetans living in four other provinces, Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan, besides Tibetan autonomous region.
The article quoted from history saying that "Prior to the 1950s, (the occupation 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, and during this time the 14th Dalai Lama could not even guarantee the most fundamental rights of survival for numerous Tibetan farmers, and therefore was and is not qualified to talk about the welfare of 6 million Tibetans".
China refuses to recognize His Holiness the Dalai Lama's middle-way approach and the self-determination for the Tibetan people, saying the Dalai Lama is not qualified to talk about the "welfare of 6 million Tibetans." Furthermore, "6 million Tibetans" imply 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 6 million Tibetans."
The Chinese government had already earlier rejected appeals that called Tibet being granted special status as was prevalent in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, saying that this was just a veiled request for "disguised independence". This latest attack came just as Tibet was being opened for international tourism.
