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On December 1, China Daily, a Chinese government-aligned mouthpiece,
reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei criticized our
Supreme Court of Appeals' ruling that declared that our government acted
unlawfully in failing to give the Dalai Lama an entry visa last year.

If correctly reported, this statement proves how little the Chinese
government understands or appreciates constitutionalism, democracy and
national sovereignty.  It is unheard of that a foreign government would
criticize a judicial decision of another government.  Our own government
respects the independence of our judiciary and must demand that any foreign
government does the same.  If the report is correct, we call on our Minister
of Foreign Affairs to lodge a formal complaint with the Chinese government
for this action of aggression on our constitution and our sovereignty.

The article continues by quoting Yang Lihua, a researcher on African studies
at the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stating that
"the core of the problem is that some civil organizations and people in
South Africa have not known enough about . the unprecedented development
that has taken place in the Tibet . If they had been to Tibet, I believe
their stance toward the Dalai Lama would have totally changed".

Many members of parliaments from all over the democratic world and I have
repeatedly demanded from the Chinese government the opportunity of visiting
Tibet for a fact-finding mission and to move around Tibet with the same
freedom we move around any democratic country in the world.  We want to see
and understand for ourselves why about fifty people have burned themselves
alive to protest and highlight internationally the human rights violations
that are reported to take place there in a systematic way.  We want to visit
the jails that are reported to host and torture people on account of their
race, religion and opinion.

On the strength of the aforesaid reported statement of Yang Lihua, I will be
writing to the Chinese Ambassador in South Africa to request that he
organizes a trip to Tibet for me and my ten colleagues from the
International Parliamentarians' Action Group on Tibet with our staff so as
to be able to visit Tibet and move freely in that region.  If the Chinese
government does not rise to this challenge and does not grant us such
opportunity to see for ourselves, people like Yang Lihua and various Chinese
government spokesmen and officials would be better served by keeping silent.