Of course, if a foreign official, reporter or scholar wants to go to Tibet as an individual to increase his or her understanding of the Tibetan people and their culture, we will welcome them. The Tibetan people have never closed their door to the outside world. Last year 6.85 million domestic and foreign tourists visited Tibet, 228,000 of whom were foreigners. This year, the number of tourists visiting Tibet could be as high as 7.50 million, and the number of foreign tourists will be certainly greater than last year.

Question: If we go to Tibet, can we go anywhere we want and interview anyone we want without interference?

Zhu Weiqun: It seems like you’ve never gone to Tibet. Anywhere you go, you can interview whoever you want without interference. But to be honest, Tibet is a border region, and there are border areas and military instillations, and you must observe regulations concerning them, but this accords with international practice.

Question: You would like to see the actions of these members of the European Parliament curtailed. What steps do you think could be taken to do so?

Zhu Weiqun: What steps you should take is a matter of your internal affairs. I won’t force my opinion on you. “Never try to force what you dislike onto others.” I can only suggest that the European Union could admonish those people who make careless or baseless comments. You can exhort them, can’t you, to get a better understanding of the true situation in Tibet and to speak more prudently and not be careless, and especially not to irresponsibly damage the interests of a country of 1.3 billion people with fast-growing economy. There are grave consequences for making the Chinese people unhappy. Of course, if some people are not willing to heed your admonishment, and continue to censure us groundlessly and attack us, in reality that is not all that unusual. I think it doesn’t matter whether an individual or a country constantly voices opposition to you, perhaps the best thing to do is to become more vigilant and build up your resistance.

Question: You are responsible for contacts with the Dalai Lama. Please fill us in on recent developments and your government’s judgment of the future situation.

Zhu Weiqun: Our latest round of contacts and discussions with the Dalai Lama’s personal representative began in 2002, and until now we have met ten times. Until now, these meetings have not achieved the progress that good-hearted people hope for. There are two reasons for this. The first major difference is who is going to talk to whom. The new head of the “government-in-exile” declares that the “government-in-exile” will talk only with the Chinese government. We know that the so-called government-in-exile is just the continuation of a rebel group that doesn’t have any legal standing, so we will not have any contact with it, much less hold talks with it. Our conception of talks is for the Chinese government to send someone to talk with a personal representative of the Dalai Lama. An extremely important reason why there is no way for talks to resume now is that the new head of the “government-in-exile” insists on having a hand in them. The second difference is what we can talk about and what we can’t talk about. Our attitude is perfectly clear. The Dalai Lama must first satisfy the basic demands of the central government – admit that Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times, stop all separatist activities, and acknowledge that Taiwan is a part of China – then we can discuss his personal future. The Dalai Lama proposes discussing the issue of “political independence” for Tibet and the issue of a “high degree of autonomy for Greater Tibet.” His core demand is that we turn over governance of the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau covering 25 million square kilometers to the Dalai Lama clique. There is zero chance of that ever happening. Because the central government refuses to his demand to split China, the Dalai Lama declared in 1993 and again in 2008 that he would break off talks with the central government. However, the central government has always maintained a generous attitude and has never said it would never hold talks with him. We have always left an opening for further contacts and talks. Recently, the Dalai Lama has repeatedly claimed that it is not necessary to discuss his personal situation, that he wants to discuss the issues of the “future of the six million Tibetans” and the “position of Tibet.” We say that the issues of the future of the Tibetan people and the position of Tibet were settled with the establishment of New China, and the past cannot be overturned. This rigid unreasonable attitude of the Dalai Lama is another important reason why there is no way for talks to progress or even to be held.