Dalai and his followers are welcome to return, either to visit or to settle down in China. They are guaranteed the freedom to come back and to leave again, a Chinese official reiterated recently.
Yin Fatang, first secretary of the Party committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, made this statement on April 2 at a meeting on the region's united front work.
The reunification of the motherland and the great unity of all the nationalities in the country is the trend of history, he asserted. It is a common wish for people to return to their native homes.
Yin Fatang repeated the oftquoted Party policy towards Dalai and other Tibetan compatriots residing abroad. "Let bygones be bygones. We should forget the past and look forward," he said.
Our country has now entered a new period of sustained political stability and economic development and all the nationalities can further strengthen their unity and mutual help, he said. Dalai and his followers should have confidence in our policies, he added, and it is hoped that they will make contributions to the great unity of the motherland and of all the nationalities as well as to the nation's modernization drive. If they still have doubts, they can wait and watch for a few more years, he said.
Yin Fatang said that the families of the Tibetan compatriots abroad now living in Tibet are treated equally with other Tibetan people in accordance with the current policies of the Party and government. Where possible, the government will adopt appropriate measures to help them solve their particular problems.
(This article appears on page 7, No. 15, 1982) |