TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Dalai Lama wrapped up a 10-day visit to Taiwan on Monday, a trip that did not immediately raise tensions with the island’s prickly communist neighbor, China.
The Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters at the airport that it was his “moral responsibility” to visit his Buddhist followers on Taiwan and that his trip was “very happy, very good.”
China distrusts the Dalai Lama because since he fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, he has opposed the way Beijing governs the Himalayan territory.
Although the Dalai Lama says he supports greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence, Chinese leaders continue to accuse him of wanting to separate the region from China. China’s state-run media said his Taiwan trip was part of a scheme to collude with Taiwanese independence supporters and raise money for his “separatist” campaign.
During his trip, the Dalai Lama avoided commenting on the Taiwanese independence issue at public appearances. He stressed that Taiwan’s future should be decided by the Taiwanese people.
China did not ratchet up its rhetoric against the Dalai Lama during the past week, possibly because Beijing was tied up with the standoff with the United States over China’s interception of a U.S. spy plane.
This island about 100 miles off China’s southeastern coast has refused to be ruled by Beijing since the Communist Party took over the mainland in 1949. China has said Taiwan must choose between eventual unification or war.
The Dalai Lama spent most of his trip giving Buddhist lectures at a stadium outside the capital, Taipei. He also visited the island’s leaders and its former president, Lee Teng-hui, whom the Dalai Lama said he admired the most. The Tibetan master met with Lee during his first visit to the island in 1997.
