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Experts: Dalai Lama's 'Greater Tibet' neither historical fact nor fits in reality

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-15 09:32

At a meeting at Simla (Now Shimla) in then British India between 1913 and 1914, British officials reached a deal with Tibet's regional government representatives: the British side would force China's central government to agree Tibet's "independence" and give about 1 million square kilometers of land in neighboring provinces to Tibet. In return, Tibet would give 90,000 square kilometers of border land to British India, according to Sun.

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The deal failed because the central government representative refused to sign the agreement at the meeting, he added.

The 14th Dalai Lama, labelled by some as "one of our few true moral authorities", has stuck to the same scheme for decades.

"I think, the Dalai Lama and 'Tibetan government-in-exile' inherited the same concept," Sun said. "This concept also helped them unite and ease conflicts among different interest groups of Tibetans in exile as they came from different parts of the plateau."

At the March 7 press conference, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the difference between China and the Dalai Lama has nothing to do with religion, human rights, ethnic relations and culture.

"It is an issue of whether to defend China's unity against attempts to separate Tibet from China," he said.

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