Hu Jintao attacks Dalai Lama for sabotaging stability in Tibet

In a rare personal attack on the Dalai Lama, Chinese president Hu Jintao has accused him of engaging in "Tibet independence" activities and "sabotaging" social stability in the strategic Himalayan region.
    
Criticising the 74-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, Hu, also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), said the government would take substantial measures to ensure "normal order" of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet.
     
Hu acknowledged that Tibet faced a "special contradiction" between people of all ethnic groups and the separatist forces led by the Dalai clique.
    
"These contradictions had made leapfrog development and lasting stability major themes of the work of Tibet," Hu said.
     
The awareness of being part of the Chinese nation and being law-abiding citizens must be constantly enhanced among cadre and the masses in Tibet, the official Xinhua news agency citied Hu as saying at a meeting of senior Chinese leaders here earlier in the week.
     
Hu also asked the Tibetan government to prevent and strike "penetration and sabotage" by "Tibet independence" separatists to safeguard social stability, socialist legal system, national unity, and ethnic solidarity.
     
The meeting was the first of its kind since the deadly riots in Tibet's capital Lhasa in March 2008, the largest uprising against Chinese rule since 1986. Beijing, which blames the Dalai Lama for the riots, says at least 22 people were killed.      

At the meeting, Hu said the government has made plans to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability in Tibet to ensure that China's development as a whole.
     
"Leapfrog development of Tibet actually means the combination of economic growth, well-off life, a healthy eco-environment, and social stability and progress," he said.
     
He highlighted Tibet's significance in ensuring China's national security, and efforts in building the region into a strategic reserve of natural resources, an agricultural base, a land with unique culture and a world-class tourism spot.
     
The CPC Central Committee's policies towards Tibet in the new era were "totally correct, suiting to national condition, Tibet's actual conditions and the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, the meeting, held for the first time since 2001, said.
      
During the meeting, senior leaders also discussed plans to develop Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai.
      
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao said his government would preserve the consistency and stability of favourable policies towards Tibet and further improve policy support and financial investment in the region.
      
Tibet's GDP is expected to reach 43.7 billion yuan (US$ 6.4 billion) in 2009, an annual growth of 12.3% over the past nine years, Xinhua said.
      
Beijing, which sent troops to occupy Tibet in 1957 insists it has been part of Chinese territory for centuries, has stepped up its drive to develop the remote Himalayan region's economy since the 2008 violence there.