Dalai Lama Supports Beijing Olympics

With the current waves of discord creating greater rifts between China and Tibet, it is quite surprising that the Dalai Lama had announced his support for Beijing's hosting of the Olympics. However, despite this, he also believes that his people, the Tibetans, had a right to demonstrate and give voice to their opinions during the torch relay, so as long as they do not resort to violence, unlike what China had most recently done.


The Dalai Lama had made a stopover in Japan on his way to the United States, and during that time, he asserted that it isn't right to silence demonstrators against Chinese rule in Tibet. However, being a diplomatic leader he also went for a conciliatory tone towards Beijing, and showing his distance from the calls in the West for a boycott of the Olympic opening ceremony in August.


The Dalai Lama clarified, in the news conference held in Tokyo International Airport in Narita, that the Tibetans were not anti-Chinese with regards to the Olympics, as they have supported the Olympic Games since the very beginning. However, Tibetans who will not simply shut up and take China's treatment of them have a right to state their claims as well.


The Dalai Lama also appears to fault Beijing for suppressing the anti-government unrest in Tibet last month, and condemning the Chinese's use of violence, saying it was a sadly outdated method that didn't do anything to solve the underlying problems. The last unrest had been the most serious one in the past decades, and the Chinese crackdown had garnered sympathy protests all around the world, calling for Tibet's freedom. This has resulted to various anti-Chinese actions, including demostrations that disrupted Olympic torch journeys, and these protests have struck a blow in China's national ego.


The Chinese government had blamed the Dalai Lama for these protests, and called him the mastermind, when he was nothing of the sort. The Dalai Lama resents this and states how disappointed he is for being demonized by the Chinese government for things he never did.