China says it will win West over to its view on Tibet, Xinjiang | Reuters
China has "time on its side" to win over Western opinion to its point of view on the restive regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, a senior official wrote on Wednesday, vowing with unusually strong language to ignore foreign pressure on human rights.
Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the top advisory body to parliament, acknowledged this would be a difficult task but said dissenting voices were beginning to be heard in the West.
"As China becomes more involved in international affairs, and as Tibet and Xinjiang further open to the world, more and more Westerners will have an understanding of Tibet and Xinjiang that better accords with reality," Zhu wrote in a lengthy article on the government-run website Tibet.cn.
Zhu said the West would finally "see the real face of the Dalai clique and 'East Turkestan'," referring to exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the militant forces China says operate in Xinjiang.
Zhu said such views in the West was still "weak and isolated" but they represented "the trend of history". Zhu was heavily involved in the past in Beijing's failed efforts to talk to the Dalai Lama's representatives.
"Without a doubt this will all need long-term, difficult and careful work, as well as much patience, but time is on China's side," he wrote.
China says it has poured money into both the strategically located regions as part of its efforts to bring development to what it says were backward and remote areas and that it respects the rights of people there.
"What should be developed should be developed, and when stability should be maintained it will be maintained -- (we) must totally disregard whatever the West says," he wrote.
Zhu also criticized foreign leaders who meet the Dalai Lama, many of whom have later found themselves frozen out diplomatically by Beijing.
Those who do so should "pay a price", Zhu said.
"We can only push the West to change its way of thinking if we let them understand that China's power cannot be avoided ... and that the West's interests lie in development and maintaining ties with China, not the opposite," he said.
チベット・ウイグル問題は「時が解決」、中国高官が西側に強硬姿勢 | Reuters
中国の国政助言機関である全国政治協商会議・民族宗教委員会の朱維群主任は１９日、政府が運営するウェブサイトで、自国の影響力が国際的に高まるにつれ、チベットやウイグル問題において自国の主張が欧米諸国でも聞き入れられるようになるとの見方を示した。
これらの問題をめぐっては、チベット族やウイグル族の人権が侵害されているとして他国から批判が上がっている。特にチベット問題は西側諸国で批判の声が大きく、多くの著名人が反対活動に携わったりしている。
朱氏はサイト「Ｔｉｂｅｔ．ｃｎ」で、「中国による国際問題への関与が拡大するにつれ、また、チベット自治区と新疆ウイグル自治区が世界により開かれるようになるにつれ、西側諸国でも現実に合った理解をする人たちが増えるだろう」と強調。時間と労力と忍耐が必要とした上で、「時は中国の味方」であるとした。
朱氏は中国がこうした問題で政策を変更することはないことを示唆し、「西側が何を言おうと完全に無視しなくてはならない」と強硬な姿勢を示した。また、「中国を避けることはできず、西側の利益は中国との関係を維持・発展させるなかにあるということを理解させることができてこそ、考え方を変えさせることができる」と強調した。
