Yokohama, Japan -- The use of
“secrecy, censorship and bullying” to silence dissenting voices in China
must end under the country’s incoming leader, the Dalai Lama said on
Monday.
The
Dalai Lama waves to devotees as he arrives to give a religious lecture
in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Sunday, Nov 2012. The Tibetan spiritual
leader arrived in Japan Saturday for a 12-day visit to deliver speeches
and to take part in a symposium.
|
President-in-waiting Xi Jinping will
have “no alternative” but to accept political change over the coming
years, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters in Yokohama,
near Tokyo.
“Now Hu Jintao era passed. Now Xi
Jinping (is) becoming the president. I think there is no alternative
except there is some political change,” the Dalai Lama said on the third
day of a 12-day stay in Japan.
“Hu Jintao started to build harmonious
society, stable society. So for stable society, I think gap (between
the) rich and (the) poor must be reduced.
“Also you need an independent judiciary system, free press, rule of law. These are very, very important.
“So the goal, harmony, wonderful.
Stability, wonderful. But use of secrecy, censorship and bullying… there
is something wrong in their system,” said the saffron-robed monk.
“I think to create a genuine harmony… you need openness.”
China denounces the Dalai Lama as a “splittist” seeking an independent Tibet, accusations he has repeatedly denied.
At a closed-doors congress beginning
Thursday, Beijing’s power players will anoint a new chief for the next
10 years. His regime will have to address growing anger over graft as
well as challenges from a vocal band of dissidents and rights activists.
Vice president Xi is widely expected to
be promoted to Communist Party general-secretary this week and then
state president next year, succeeding Hu in a 10-yearly leadership
change.
The Dalai Lama has a large following in
Japan and he is a frequent visitor to the country, many of whose 127
million people practise some elements of Buddhism.
The 77-year-old Nobel Laureate said he
believes democracy is the best system that China could adopt to solve
the problems it faces, including a debilitating territorial dispute with
Japan.
He said an over-emphasis on nationalism was at the root of difficulties.
Education materials are “extreme, almost
like (saying) Chinese culture is (the) best, China (as a) nation is the
best”, he said, adding “too much emotion (is) involved, that (is) not
realistic.”
The Dalai Lama said a “lack of information” meant many Chinese people associate Japanese people only with wartime atrocities.
He said this led to the kind of
anti-Japan outbursts that rocked China after Tokyo’s nationalisation of a
disputed East China Sea island chain in September, when shops were
looted and businesses burned.
“Basically I think China needs Japan and
Japan needs China,” he said, when asked how Beijing and Tokyo could
move past the dispute.
“I think you should think more
holistic. Small disagreements should not create (conflict). You should
think more broadly,” he said.
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