BEIJING — In the eight months since President Clinton's foreign policy team elevated religious freedom and human rights in Tibet to a priority issue in Washington's prickly relationship with China, visible progress has been virtually zero.
Prospects for any kind of breakthrough during Clinton's nine-day trip to China were considered so bleak that the State Department's recently created post of Tibet policy coordinator, occupied by Gregory Craig, was not even a part of the 200-strong American delegation for the trip. And the 14-page document titled "Achievements of the U.S.-China Summit" issued Saturday after Clinton's meeting with Chinese President Jiang Zemin does not mention the word "Tibet."
Then came the extraordinary news conference between the two leaders, and suddenly, amid the unscripted public exchanges on the most sensitive of issues that divide the two countries, Tibet burst into the spotlight.
Responding to Clinton's opening statement that included a call for China to open a dialogue with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in return for the Dalai Lama's pledge to accept that Tibet is part of China, Jiang declared a conditioned readiness to do just that.
"Actually, as long as the Dalai Lama can publicly make the statement and a commitment that Tibet is an inalienable part of China, and he must also recognize Taiwan as a province of China, then the door to dialogue and negotiation is open," Jiang said.
While Jiang repeated his routine denunciation of followers of the Dalai Lama during the news conference, he conspicuously omitted the personal attacks on the Dalai Lama himself that almost always accompany Chinese statements on Tibet.
Clinton, who knows both leaders well, concluded the news conference by describing the Dalai Lama as "an honest man" and suggesting that if Jiang met the Tibetan leader, "they would like each other very much."
U.S. officials, clearly caught off balance by the spontaneous exchanges, were reluctant to assess their possible longer-term impact.
The Dalai Lama has already come close to declaring Tibet a part of China, disavowing any immediate aspiration for independence. And while Jiang's call for him to recognize Taiwan as a Chinese province is a new demand, U.S. officials did not see the condition as insurmountable.
"It's puzzling, but I don't think it's a showstopper," a White House official said. Followers of the Dalai Lama had a similar initial reaction.
