The tough words from Xiao Bai, deputy mayor of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, signaled recent tentative behind-the-scenes contacts between envoys of Tibet's exiled god-king and China may have broken down.
Beijing, which imposed Communist rule on Tibet after its troops entered in 1950 and saw the Dalai Lama flee in an abortive uprising in 1959, established direct contacts with him in 1979 but officials were stunned at the emotional welcome given to the envoys by Tibetans.
The dialogue was suspended in 1993 but had quietly revived in the last 18 months amid signs China might have decided to allow a subtle, if significant, shift in policy toward the Dalai Lama. His brother is even believed to have visited Beijing.
Deputy Mayor Xiao -- an ethnic Han Chinese -- was adamant.
"The Chinese government's attitude to the Dalai Lama is consistent and clear," he told a news conference.
"We can talk to the Dalai Lama as long as he truly gives up the principle of Tibetan independence and gives up his splittist activities and openly announces that Tibet is an integral part of China and that Taiwan is a province of China," Xiao said using the term China prefers to refer to separatists.
The Dalai Lama has long said he wants greater autonomy, and not independence for Tibet but has refused to meet Beijing's condition on Taiwan.
"We only have communication with the personal representatives of the Dalai Lama," Xiao said, lambasting the government-in-exile that the 69-year-old Dalai Lama heads from Dharamsala in India.
"We welcome him back -- so long as he gives up Tibet's independence," the deputy mayor said.
China fears the Dalai Lama's return could trigger a renewal of the violent anti-Chinese riots that rocked the region in the late 1980s and prompted Beijing to impose martial law in 1989.
BANNED PHOTOS, LIMITED MONKS
So nervous are authorities in the deeply Buddhist region that the Dalai Lama's photograph is banned.
The deputy mayor saw little chance his picture would be permitted any time soon, even though many ordinary Tibetans plead with foreign visitors for a copy and venerate tiny photographs placed on the corners of temple altars in more remote regions.
"As to whether his picture is allowed to be shown, if he does not give up his splittist activities ... his picture will not be allowed in public," Xiao said.
Beijing became particularly enraged with the Nobel Peace laureate in 1995 when the Dalai Lama named a Tibetan boy as the reincarnation of Tibet's second holiest Living Buddha -- the Panchen Lama. Beijing held a lottery to choose a different boy and the Dalai Lama's choice has never been seen in public.
Xiao said Gyaltsen Norbu, the boy named by the Dalai Lama, was no "soul child" or Living Buddha, but an ordinary schoolboy.
"He is in good health and living a normal happy live," Xiao said. "He's a senior in high school and his grades are quite good, but to avoid disrupting his and his family's life we have allowed no outside groups to meet him."
Officials acknowledged the Dalai Lama continued to exert a powerful influence over "the roof of the world" from exile.
They cited this as a reason to limit the number of monks allowed to live in the main monasteries around Lhasa.
"The Dalai Lama has a certain amount of influence in Tibet, especially in the three monasteries," said Zhao Baoyun, deputy director of the Lhasa Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, referring to Sera, Drepung and Ganden near Lhasa.
In Ganden, only 500 monks were allowed, in Sera the limit was 600 and in sprawling Drepung, which at its height was home to as many as 10,000 monks -- the biggest in the world -- no more than 700 monks were permitted, he said.
Monks must undergo patriotic education to counter the Dalai Lama's influence, he said, adding that good results had been achieved since the policy was introduced eight years ago.
"We think the monks and nuns have realized that in Tibet they can enjoy full freedom of religion and we have been able to maintain security," he said.
Those monks who broke state regulations were dealt with by the police, while those who broke monastery rules were disciplined and expelled, he said.
China has jailed dozens of monks and nuns, including several senior abbots and Tibetans living in exile accuse China of committing cultural genocide and of widespread human rights abuses, especially against monks and nuns.
