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.