China agrees to meet Dalai Lama envoy

China agreed today to meet an envoy of the Dalai Lama following growing calls for talks in the wake of Tibetans’ anti-government protests, which threaten to tarnish this summer’s Beijing Olympic Games.

Yet the government’s announcement stopped well short of promising to restart actual negotiations on what the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has characterised as Chinese cultural and religious repression in the Himalayan region.

The statement repeated preconditions for negotiations, including that the Dalai Lama recognises Tibet as a part of China – a situation that could halt any immediate breakthroughs.

Samdhong Rimpoche, prime minister of the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile, said: “The Dalai Lama is always open to have a dialogue.

“But the present circumstances in Tibet do not appear to be an appropriate platform for a meaningful dialogue.”

Tibetan protests that sparked deadly rioting in the capital, Lhasa, have galvanised critics of Beijing’s communist regime and threatened to overshadow the Olympics, an object of massive national pride for China.

Impassioned demonstrations have followed the Olympic torch as it has travelled the world this month.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested he might miss the Olympics’ opening ceremony unless Beijing engages the Dalai Lama.

Such pressure suggests China’s agreement to meet an envoy might be an attempt to placate foreign critics ahead of the games through a form of “damage control,” said Michael Davis, a law professor and China expert at Hong Kong’s City University.

Similar offers from Beijing have yielded little in the past, leaving the Tibetan exile community exhausted and sceptical, Mr Davis said.

China’s announcement gave few details, saying only that the “relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days.”

“It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, says he seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet – not independence.

Still, the statement seemed to be a slight softening of Beijing’s relentless accusations that the Dalai Lama and his followers orchestrated last month’s violence.

In recent weeks the government has branded the Dalai Lama a “wolf in monk’s robes” and his followers the “scum of Buddhism,” helping whip up nationalistic outrage that has included attacks on Tibet supporters in other countries by groups of Chinese mobilised to cheer the Olympic torch relay.

Earlier this month, Beijing accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of planning suicide attacks.

The Chinese government has faced a chorus of calls to open a dialogue with him from world leaders including US President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he raised the issue yesterday with China’s premier.

Barroso said the announcement today was encouraging.

“I believe there’s real room for a dialogue,” he told reporters at the EU office in Beijing.

US Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said the statement was heartening.