Kuang Weilin, deputy consul-general of the Chinese Consulate in New York, on Thursday slammed the Dalai clique for masterminding the violence in China and violent attacks on Chinese missions abroad.

Briefing reporters in New York, Kuang showed a documentary on the Lhasa riots, video footage of violent attacks by Tibetan separatists on the Chinese consulate in New York and pictures of damage done to the consulate building.

Kuang pointed out that the violence in China and violent attacks on some 20 Chinese missions abroad were premeditated, organized and masterminded by the Dalai clique bent on "Tibetan independence."

"Why did these mobsters act in unison with one another both inside and outside China? Why did the violence quickly spread to other regions? Why were about 20 Chinese embassies and consulates harassed, or attacked, almost at the same time? Why did the mobsters, both inside and outside China, use the same tactics, shout the same slogans, and display the same degree of violence?" he asked.

Kuang dismissed the Dalai Lama's so-called "high degree of autonomy."

"We attach more importance to what he does," Kuang said. "He said a lot of things about giving up the independence of Tibet... but what he does is just the opposite."

The Dalai Lama's "high degree of autonomy" means to negate the present system of regional, ethnic autonomy; means that the Chinese troops leave the area; and he seeks to establish a greater Tibetan area, which comprises about one quarter of China's total area, Kuang said.

"He has not given up his dream of independence," Kuang stressed. "What he says does not square with what he does."

Kuang said the Dalai clique chose this year, when China hosts the Olympics, to take provocative actions and blow up the incidents so as to attract the attention of the world, to put pressure on the Chinese government, to push forward the internationalization of the Tibet issue, to undermine China's stable and harmonious social and political situation, and to tarnish China's image.

"Their ultimate political goal is to separate Tibet from China, " the diplomat said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 4, 2008)