The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Salmond’s Dalai denial
FIRST MINISTER Alex Salmond personally assured China his Government was not involved in a recent visit by the Dalai Lama, it has emerged.
Mr Salmond’s decision not to meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader in June fuelled suspicion he avoided the meeting in order to protect Scotland’s interests in China.
The First Minister refused to reveal whether the Dalai Lama was discussed during a meeting with China’s UK ambassador Liu Xiaoming earlier that month.
A minute of the meeting at Bute House on June 6 has now emerged, which shows the Chinese ambassador did raise the subject of the Dalai Lama’s visit with the First Minister.
The minute states: “The First Minister clarified it is a private visit at the invitation of the Conference of Edinburgh’s Religious Leaders and the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, amongst others.
“The Scottish Government involved in the visit.”
Speaking on the day the Dalai Lama was in Edinburgh on June 22 Mr Salmond refused to say if he had discussed the visit with Chinese officials.
“Let me repeat, we never discuss diplomatic discussions. There is no precedent ever for doing and I’m not going to start one now,” Mr Salmond said.
When asked whether a meeting with the Dalai Lama would threaten Chinese investment, he said: “We do what is appropriate for the benefit of the Scottish people.”
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, who obtained the Bute House
is
not minute, said: “This is hard evidence the First Minister rolled over when the Chinese consul general put the pressure on over the Dalai Lama’s visit.
“Instead of standing firm and challenging the Chinese on human rights, he played down the visit. The First Minister has put his interests above the issue of human rights.”
Labour MSP Jenny Marra said: “As if further evidence was needed, this shows Alex Salmond did everything the Chinese wanted him to do to distance himself from the Dalai Lama.
A spokesman for the First Minister said: “These attacks by opposition members are baseless and contrived.
“The material entirely validates the basic point the Dalai Lama was in Scotland on a pastoral visit as a religious leader.
“Therefore, there was no request to meet with the First Minister, just as no UK Government minister met with him during the visit.
“On the separate matter of human rights in China, it is a matter of public record the First Minister and other ministers make representations on human rights, not just inTibet, but human rights elsewhere in China.”