PREMIER WEN AND PM BROWN TALK ABOUT DALAI LAMA;

S E C R E T BEIJING 001046

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/20/2038
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM CH UK
SUBJECT: PREMIER WEN AND PM BROWN TALK ABOUT DALAI LAMA;
WEN DID NOT COMMIT TO MEETING


Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Dan Piccuta. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).


1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: UK PM Gordon Brown called Chinese Premier
Wen Jiabao March 19 to inform the Chinese Government that
Brown will meet the Dalai Lama in May, urge Chinese restraint
in responding to protests and call for an end to the violence
in Tibet. Brown also noted that the Dalai Lama had "met
China's preconditions" for a direct meeting between the Dalai
Lama and Chinese authorities, citing the Dalai Lama's
statements against violence and independence for Tibet.
According to a source who was on the call, Premier Wen had
hedged in his reply and did not commit to a meeting, saying
it would be necessary to look at the Dalai Lama's "actions"
as well as his "words." At the regular Thursday MFA Press
Conference March 20, the MFA spokesman went further, making
clear that the preconditions for such a meeting have not yet
been satisfied. END SUMMARY.


2. (S/NF) The DCM spoke with UK Charge D'Affaires, a.i.
Barbara Woodward, who was in on the Brown-Wen March 19 phone
call and had then sat next to the Premier the same night at a
dinner with former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Woodward said
PM Brown is "doing his best to pocket what is already on the
table." (Comment: She is probably referring to matching
various statements the Dalai Lama has made with demands
Beijing has made separately to cement the impression that the
two sides are not far apart.)


3. (S/NF) Woodward noted that the Dalai Lama sent a letter to
PM Brown, in which he wrote that he is willing to talk to
China, does not want to see a boycott of the Olympics and is
not seeking independence for Tibet. PM Brown said that these
statements mean that the Dalai Lama has already met the
conditions for dialogue set by China, offering to facilitate
that dialogue. Premier Wen did not say he is willing to meet
the Dalai Lama during the conversation with PM Brown,
Woodward stressed. Wen said "We have to look at what (the
Dalai Lama) does, as well as what he says." Later, in a
private meeting with former PM Blair after the dinner, the
Premier and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi "came on very
strong," using the "Dalai clique" and other similarly
pejorative language, consistent with public Chinese
statements in recent days.


4. (S/NF) MFA Spokesman Qin Gang used a nearly identical
phrase in his response to questions on the same subject at
the regularly scheduled MFA press conference March 20, but he
went further in dampening expectations for a Wen-Dalai Lama
meeting. Responding to Western reporters' questions
regarding the Dalai Lama's having already fulfilled the
preconditions for a meeting, Qin said that the current
problems in Tibet such as "beating, smashing, looting and
burning" were in fact masterminded by the "Dalai clique."
"He is not as he himself says he is. There must be a
thorough review of his deeds. His actions prove that he has
never stopped his words and deeds to split the motherland,"
Qin said.


5. (C) A UK Embassy PolOff told us separately March 20 that
Brown told Wen that meeting now with the Dalai Lama, with no
additional preconditions, would help create the best long-run
solution for all parties, including the Tibetan people, and
would help deflect international criticism in the run-up to
the Olympics. The British Embassy official said that Wen's
response was wholly along "standard lines" on Tibet,
including a third, long-standing condition for talks with the
Dalai Lama: that the Dalai Lama explicitly recognize Taiwan
as a part of China. The UK diplomat did not see Wen's
response as evidence of a possible upcoming meeting with the
Dalai Lama.


6. (C) Coment: Regardless of whether PM Brown was putting
words in the Premier's mouth, by phrasingthe statement the
way he did, he may be attemting to provide political cover
to the UK and other European states who are deciding whether
to meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to Europe in May.
The aim may be to make it more difficult for China to inflict
"consequences" on countries whose leaders meet the Dalai
Lama, the way China did to Germany and Canada recently, given
that the Dalai Lama, according to PM Brown at least, has
already met China's preconditions. The news conference today
was a case in point. The spokesman's efforts to condemn the
UK decision to meet the Dalai Lama were diluted in part by
the need to defend China's decision not to.
RANDT