Cui, who was born in Tibet and later also became chief of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), said people living in TAR do not accept the political ideology held by Dalai Lama. “Foreign media might have been spreading rumors that Tibetan people want repatriation of Dalai Lama. But this is not the situation,” she said. “Our investigation has shown that Tibetans do not want to see Dalai Lama coming back.”[break]
Cui said that 14th Dalai Lama had not done anything to bring about development in Tibet. “Dalai Lama only tried to disintegrate the country. Tibetans do not agree with this kind of thought,” she told visiting journalists from Nepal and India on Thursday evening.
Stating that it was China, which gave him the title of Dalai Lama, Vice Minister Cui said, “The recognition was not given only for the 14th Dalai Lama, but also for all his predecessors. But Tibetan people do not agree with the political ideology of the 14th Lama.”
Asked if the Chinese government had made any initiatives to repatriate some 200,000 Tibetan refugees living in India, Cui said, “There is no problem for Tibetans who would enter Tibet individually. But it is difficult for those who enter Tibet as a representative of Dalai Lama,” she further said.
Dalai Lama, who has been advocating for Free Tibet, is living an exiled life in Dharmashala, India since 1959.
Cui said there won´t be any change in Chinese policy toward the Tibetans living abroad. “There are many rights and privileges secured for Tibetans returning to Tibet on individual basis. They will return to Tibet if they learn about this. Doors are always open for them to Tibet,” she said.
Cui said Dalai Lama might have told that Tibet was like heaven and the people had everything they needed during his rule. “But that was not the case. There was abject poverty in Tibet during those days,”
While claiming that US intelligence agency CIA had been distributing money to Dalai Lama and his followers, Cui said, “Dalai Lama has not spent that money wisely. This is the reason why his followers are living a miserable life,” she added.
On the occasion, she also mentioned that Chinese government had placed Tibet in its priority list and it was bringing about development in different sectors in Tibet. “Tibet was completely different 50 or 60 years ago. The life styles of Tibetan people have changed only recently,” she told.
While there was only one kilometer road from Potala Place to Winter Palace, only two percent of the population was literate in Tibet when Dalai Lama had left Tibet. There were no programs for the conservation of monasteries. The average life expectancy has now reached 70 years against 36 years back in the 1960s and 99 percent of the Tibetan people have access to free education. Tibet now has seven airports and widely connected road network.
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