Harry Jenkins (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank the member for Mallee for his assistance. This is an issue that I do have some concerns about. As I have said, I would hope that our many friends in China understand that we approach this problem from wanting to see a proper solution within the constitution of the People's Republic of China that adequately means that an autonomous state of Tibet that meets the aspirations of the Tibetan people can be achieved. In talking about meeting the aspirations of the Tibetan people, we cannot not mention the numerous self-immolations that have occurred over recent months. This is an extraordinarily testing phenomenon. The fact that young Tibetans have been so moved to indicate their concern about the way that they have been treated that they have suicided in such a ghastly way should be recognised. This should not merely be described as the act of a terrorist. The only person that is involved is the actual person that self-immolates. This is not an act of a terrorist. This is an expression of protest, and I regret, and it should be emphasised, that all of these people are of an age that they have only lived under the Chinese rule in Tibet. They have only known the conditions that have been given to them by the PRC. It is their reaction to those conditions—we cannot avoid that. It is not something that anybody wishes to encourage. It is not something that the leadership of the central Tibetan administration encourages. It is a phenomenon that is occurring and we cannot ignore it.

It is in that sense that I would hope that the incoming leadership in the People's Republic of China would look within their heart and say, as one of the acts of their leadership and their control, 'We must sit down to talk these issues through.' One of the great challenges for a nation of the size of the People's Republic of China—and we see this with some of our other neighbours—is that it is so big that, even when the central government might be very positive for change and might have the right ideas for change, they have to be able to get that right out to the extremes and into the provinces. I hope that they are able to establish a renewed effort to continue into dialogue with people—like Lobsang Sangay—who have made a great sacrifice. He left the world of academia—in Boston at Harvard—to go to Dharamsala to devote his time as the leader of the Tibetans in exile and enable the representatives of that administration, including himself as the continuing spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, to sit down, to look at the proposals that have been put to China by the Tibetans. This is under the umbrella of the description of the middle way, and you can see that this is not a threat to the territorial integrity of the People's Republic of China. It actually has the potential of emphasising the diversity of China. When you go to China, they are proud to indicate the numerous ethnicities that make up the Chinese population. This has the potential to ensure that China can showcase that diversity and say to the rest of the world, 'We understand that in the past there has been a perception about the way that we have treated the Tibetan people. In a new China, what we are doing is coming to grips with that as a problem. We celebrate the diversity that the Tibetan people can give to us, and we showcase it to the world.' I hope, as I have said, that the new leadership does re-enter into dialogue with people like the Kalon Tripa or the representative of the Central Tibetan Administration in a way that sees a sustainable, autonomic Tibet as part of the People's Republic.

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