A British member of the European Parliament (EP) on Thursday spoke against the EP's adoption of a resolution on Tibet.
"I'm very disappointed with the adoption of the resolution," Nirj Deva, also chairman of the EU-China Friendship Group in the European Parliament, told Xinhua.
"I'm supporting the entire British government's view that recognizes Tibet as an integral part of China," Deva said.
Deva pointed out that "the question is that there is very few people here realize that the Chinese government has done a great deal to improve the lives of ordinary Tibetans."
Many members of the European Parliament knew little about the history and the current situation of Tibet, Deva said.
"Tibet many years ago was a feudal serfdom with people being owned by other people and the Chinese central government liberated the Tibetan people from feudalism," the British MEP said.
Deva urged those members to look at the real development in Tibet, and criticized them for still being caught by the fantasy of a "Shangri-la" in Tibet advocated by the exiled Dalai Lama.
Pushed by a handful of anti-China lawmakers, the European Parliament on Thursday adopted a resolution on Tibet. The document, which confuses right and wrong, is aimed at backing the Dalai Lama and putting pressure on the Chinese government.
The resolution disregards the reality in Tibet by urging the Chinese government to "open a constructive dialogue aimed at reaching an overall political agreement."
It also calls on China to consider "the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People" proposed by the Dalai Lama and attempts to internationalize the issue concerning Tibet, which is an autonomous region of China.
Over the past few years, the Chinese central government has carried out a number of contacts and dialogues with patience and sincerity with the Dalai Lama's representatives.
However, as the Dalai Lama and his followers have never stopped their activities to split Tibet from China, no substantial progress was made through the dialogues.
Dalai's Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People, under the veil of claiming autonomy, actually seeks political independence for Tibet and runs against China's Constitution, Sitar, deputy chief of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said during his visit to the United States in December.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of feudal serfdom in Tibet.
Fifty years ago, the central government of China foiled an armed rebellion by the Dalai Lama and his supporters who tried to block reform in Tibet and split the region from China.
On March 28, 1959, a new local Tibetan government was formed, freeing millions of Tibetan serfs and slaves, who accounted for more than 90 percent of the population at that time.
However, with the backing of certain anti-China elements in the West, the Dalai Lama and his followers have continued to pursue either disguised or undisguised activities in an attempt to separate Tibet from China and restore feudal serfdom in the region.
On March 14, 2008, followers of the Dalai Lama staged riots in Lhasa to put pressure on the central government. The violence resulted in the deaths of 18 civilians and huge property losses.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2009)