On December 16, 1984, six days after the return from Peking of a second negotiating team, the Dalai Lama stated that he would not visit Tibet in 1985. The latest round of talks, which had lasted for a month, served once more only to highlight the differences between Tibet and China. During the course of the discussions, Chinese newspapers publicized five conditions for the Dalai Lamai’s return. Among them were stipulations that he live in Peking, not Tibet, and that he and his representatives should not “beat around the bush … quibbling over the deeds of 1959.” The terms were capped by a final point stating that if the Dalai Lama chose to “come back” he could give “a brief statement to the press” in which it would be “up to him to decide what he would like to say.”
While the Tibetan diaspora reacted with outrage to the Chinese points, the Dalai Lama’s own statement was mild. It noted that once again China had either failed to grasp or deliberately distorted the critical issue of Tibet’s fate by addressing only that of his own status. “The question of my return does not arise at all,” it said, “as long as the Tibetan people are not fully satisfied.” The Dalai Lama concluded, in the latest step in the developing relationship, by stating that, although a 1985 visit was no longer possible, in the future he still hoped “to make a short visit to Tibet.”
—John F. Avedon 1985