Ready to resume dialogue with China: Tibetan PM-in-exile

Dharamsala, India, Mar 10 (PTI) The Tibetan government-in-exile today said it is ready to resume dialogue with China and the country should accept its middle way policy, which seeks autonomy for Tibet. "We are ready to send envoys to resume the dialogue process (with China) .... I call on Beijing to accept our middle way policy, which seeks genuine autonomy for Tibetans (like Hong Kong and Macao) within the framework of the Chinese Constitution," Tibetan PM-in-exile Lobsang Sangay said on the 53rd anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day in Dharamsala in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh where the Tibetan government in exile is based. He said if the Chinese government's claims that Tibetans enjoy freedom and equality are true, then it should allow democratic, transparent, free and fair elections in Tibet. "In the 53 years of Chinese occupation, no Tibetan has ever held the party secretary post of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region," Sangay said. When China invaded Tibet in 1949, it promised to usher in a "socialist paradise" but in reality Tibetans are treated as second-class citizens, he said. "When Tibetans gather peacefully and demand basic rights as outlined in the Chinese Constitution, they are arrested, fired upon and killed," the PM-in-exile said. PTI