SANYA, China, April 12 (UPI) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday the ongoing conflict in Tibet is solely an internal problem for China and not an ethical problem.
Hu said during a visit with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that the dispute between China and Tibet has nothing to do with human rights or religion, but rather national reunification, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported.
"Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem. It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland," Hu said.
Hu said negotiations to end the conflict lay with the Dalai Lama, who he accused of being instrumental in the growing social crisis.
"The barrier to contacts and talks does not lie on our side, but on the side of the Dalai Lama," Hu said
"As long as the Dalai side stops activities splitting the motherland, stops activities scheming and instigating violence, and stops activities sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games, we are ready to continue contacts and talks with him at any time," he added.
