(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-01 07:09

A Tibetologist on Sunday criticized the "middle way" approach repeatedly advocated by the Dalai Lama since the 1980s, saying what the Dalai clique really wants remains "Tibet independence".

"Greater Tibet" and "high-level autonomy" are the core claims of the middle way, but they are neither reasonable nor acceptable, Zhu Xiaoming, of the Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Center, said.

By Greater Tibet, the Dalai clique wants not only the present Tibet autonomous region, but also the entire region of the adjacent Qinghai province, and parts of Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan provinces and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. These have a combined area of about 2.4 million sq km, roughly a quarter of China's total territory.

"The so-called Greater Tibet has no historical foundation, no matter what perspective you look at it from, be it administrative, religious or ethnic," Zhu said. There has never been a Greater Tibet region governed by the local government of Tibet or the Dalai Lama, even before 1959, he said.

"The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is actually a multi-ethnic region. Apart from Tibetans, there have been more than 10 other groups living on the plateau for generations, including Han, Hui, Mongolian, Tu, Monba and Lhoba."

By preaching about Greater Tibet, the Dalai clique wants to draw together followers from regions other than Tibet to win support and sympathy from around the world to pave the way for secession, Zhu said.

But many people in the world do not know that various other ethnic groups live on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, he said.

"The real purpose of the Dalai clique giving up talking about 'Tibet independence' and advocating a Greater Tibet is to shift their secessionist activities from abroad to home and regain their power in religion and politics in Tibet," Zhu said.

By high-level autonomy, what the Dalai clique really wants is to deny China's system of people's congresses and system of regional ethnic autonomy, and restore theocracy in Tibet, featuring the dictatorship by monks and nobles, he said.

In that form of society, more than 90 percent of farmland, pasture, livestock and tools is controlled by officials, nobles and senior monks, while the people, the serfs, have nothing, he said.

"The feudal serfdom regime headed by the Dalai Lama has been replaced by a democratic government. The destiny and future of Tibet is no longer decided by the Dalai clique, but by all Chinese people including Tibetans."