During his current Europe visit, the Dalai Lama will deliver a keynote address at the 'Finding Common Ground' conference, to be held in Geneva as a part of a grassroots Sino-Tibetan dialogue. The demonstrations in 2008 have generated an unprecedented interest in Tibet among Chinese people, and strengthened the longstanding call by the Dalai Lama for the necessity of a 'people-to-people' rapprochement, based on a broad and genuine Sino-Tibetan dialogue (1). Two recent initiatives by the Tibetan Writers Association suggest, however, that in practice such dialogue processes have two serious handicaps. Firstly, the Chinese participants tend to be 'dissidents' and consequently are hardly representative of the Chinese public whom the moves attempt to reach. Secondly, such endeavours have been plagued, on the Tibetan side, by disputes over ownership and control over procedure, as well as by individuals who question the integrity of prominent Chinese participants, even publicly attacking personalities like Wang Lixiong, the husband of Beijing based Tibetan writer Woeser.

The Swiss event, which is scheduled for 06 to 08 August 2009, is being convened by the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR), a prominent pacifist and interfaith group based in the Netherlands, in cooperation with the Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association (GSTF). It will gather together more than 100 participants, around 80% of whom are Chinese and the rest Tibetans. According to the organisers, the large majority of the Chinese participants live in exile or they come from Chinese communities outside the PRC, like Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Western countries.

Between 11 and 17 June 2009, the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Writers Association (TWA) hosted a group of six people, who described themselves as "independent writers". The group was reportedly on a "fact-finding mission" aimed at getting to know the exile establishment. The members of the delegation were: Li Jianglin; Zhu Xuyuan; and Eliza Han, who come from the US, and: Li Jian Hua; Zhao Qigiang; and Yue Jian Yi, who come from China. Li Jian Hua, however, is currently based in the US. They met with various prominent members of the exile government, and had an audience with the Dalai Lama.

The head of the group, Li Jianglin, works as a librarian in the US and is also a freelance writer and the deputy secretary-general of the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC). She has published articles and a book on the Tibetan exile community in India, and has helped organise different Sino-Tibetan events. In 2008, she initiated a project bringing Chinese intellectuals to Dharamsala to have face-to-face meetings with exiled Tibetans.

The group had no interaction with and, in fact, maintained something of a distance from the other guest of the TWA, Wang Lixiong, who reached Dharamsala on 14 June 2009 for a two-month visit. The purpose of Wang's visit, he himself stated, was to spend time to get to know Tibetans, discuss ideas and explore ways to resolve the China-Tibet issue. He also had an audience with the Dalai Lama. Although Wang Lixiong's presence in Dharamsala was not confidential as such, his visit was planned to be low-key, and he initially refused to talk with the press and local NGOs. However, his being there was soon discussed in Tibetan blogs and on various Tibetan languages websites. As any further attempts at discretion seemed pointless, a public event was organised on 23 June in the auditorium of the Department of Information and international Relations (DIIR) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).

The event was overshadowed by an incident in which a Tibetan, who had arrived in India a decade ago and now heads the local branch of a welfare association, threw a paper cup at Wang, called him a Chinese spy, and demanded that he be chased from Dharamsala. Wang was also alleged to be a "secret adviser", who would report back to Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Tibetan man later apologised and explained that his anger was actually directed at the director of the TWA, who had allegedly issued the invitation without discussing this with other members of the TWA in advance. This in turn led to members of the TWA announcing their resignation in protest at the director's behaviour.

However, it appears that some of the positions Wang is known to hold have been a source of contention in the first place. When asked about Tibetan independence, Wang pointed to 'self determination' as the right approach and extolled the middle way policy favoured by the Dalai Lama as this, he said, would bring freedom without "bloodshed under which Tibetans would likely suffer more than Chinese". He also identified Chinese nationalism as a danger for China, and stated that China and Tibet have a lot to offer each other. He also made clear that he did not believe in overthrowing the present Chinese government, but preferred to work patiently towards progressive change.

Wang said he was surprised and discouraged by the protest. He asked for an explanation and the basis anyone had for their suspicions of him. He said that, although he had already faced accusations of being a spy, the rumour about being an advisor to Hu Jintao was new to him. He argued that should he ever be invited to be a political advisor to Hu Jintao, he would gladly accept in order to advise Hu to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict. But "unfortunately", he doubted that he would ever get that opportunity. An online discussion in the Tibet Times ensued, revolving around the question whether the Dalai Lama would have publicly endorsed Wang Lixiong or not.

Attacks on Chinese who have professed sympathy for Tibet and Tibetans are not new. Kung fu star Jet Li, like a number of other Chinese celebrities, has visited Dharamsala. In 2005, he had an audience with the Dalai Lama, who he declared to be a spiritual master. He was later heavily criticised for distancing himself from the issue of Tibetan independence in an interview he gave in Hong Kong later in 2007. A video on the website of the New York-based support group, Student for a Free Tibet (SFT), featured a newsreader on the group's online TV station, SFTV, reporting about the interview and then calling Li a "jackal" and a "punk". The video appears to have since been deleted from the website (2). In 1996, during one of the first ever Sino-Tibetan dialogues, held in Bonn, Germany, a forerunner of the forthcoming 'Finding Common Ground' in Geneva, a Tibetan verbally attacked and then physically assaulted the sister of Chinese dissident Wei Jinsheng.

Meanwhile, there are many hints that the 2008 demonstrations in Tibet have provoked debates within Chinese communities, in particular among young intellectuals, who question the integrity of the Chinese government's stance on Tibet. In Autumn 2008, for example, the head of a major European university library contacted TibetInfoNet to seek an explanation for why Chinese students are increasingly borrowing books by the Dalai Lama.

Notes:
1: The website for the conference can be found at www.tibet-china-conference.org/content/press.htm.
2: It is still available on You Tube under www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MFvf9ps-Rc