BEIJING/NEW DELHI — China hopes the Dalai Lama can “return to the right path,” and is open to discussions about his future as long as certain conditions are met, Beijing said on Monday, a proposal rejected by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in India. 

The exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism, who turns 90 in July, fled Tibet in 1959 for India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule but has expressed a desire to return before he dies. 

China is open to talks about the future of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate as long as he abandons his position of splitting the “motherland,” a foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, told a regular press conference. 

Guo was responding to a request for comment on the death of the spiritual leader’s elder brother Gyalo Thondup, who had previously acted as his unofficial envoy in talks with Chinese officials. 

Gyalo Thondup died on Saturday, aged 97, in his home in the Indian town of Kalimpong. 

The Dalai Lama needs to openly recognize that Tibet and Taiwan are inalienable parts of China, whose sole legal government is that of the People’s Republic of China, Guo said, using the country’s official name. 

But the deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Dolma Tsering Teykhang, rejected the preconditions. 

“It is not feasible for His Holiness to tell lies, that’s not going to happen,” she said from the Indian Himalayan town of Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama also lives. 

“If they dictate that His Holiness should speak about Tibet being an inalienable part, that is a distortion of history. By distorting history, you cannot have a peaceful and amicable solution.” 

The Dalai Lama stepped down in 2011 as the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which Beijing does not recognize. Official talks with his representatives have stalled since, but Teykhang said back-channel discussions were ongoing, declining to give details. 

As the Dalai Lama ages, the question of his successor has also become increasingly urgent. China insists it will choose his successor. 

But the Dalai Lama says he will clarify questions about the succession, such as if and where he will be reincarnated, in line with Tibetan Buddhist belief, around the time of his 90th birthday in July. 

In a short meeting with Reuters in December, he said that he could live 110 years. 

Teykhang, who was born in Tibet, said she was hopeful the Dalai Lama would be able to return home, led by efforts from people within China. 

“I’m very hopeful that His Holiness will visit Tibet, and he will go to his Potala Palace,” she said. “Very hopeful.” 
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JAKARTA — Indonesia launched an annual free health screening on Monday, a $183 million initiative to prevent early deaths that the country’s health ministry said was its biggest ever undertaking.

Under the program, all Indonesians will eventually be entitled to a free screening on their birthday, the ministry said. The screening, which is not mandatory, includes blood pressure, tests to determine the risk of heart problems or stroke, and eye tests, the ministry said.

The program is initially targeting children under 6 and adults aged 18 and over, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told Reuters last week.

The leading causes of death in the world’s fourth most populous nation include stroke, heart disease, and tuberculosis, data from the World Health Organization shows.

Budi said the $184 million allocation for the program was about $62 million less than originally planned after President Prabowo Subianto ordered budget cuts to help fund election promises, including giving free meals to school children.

At a health center in Jakarta on Monday, about 30 people had signed up for the screening on the first day.

Teacher Ramika Dewi Saragih said she underwent checks on her breasts, cervix, eyes, and more and was not apprehensive. “I was really looking forward to this,” the 33-year-old said, adding that more people should take up the opportunity.

A health ministry spokesperson said the target for the checks this year was 100 million people.

Budi said the program was intended to promote preventive care as Indonesians tended to check for illnesses only when they already had them.

“Our culture is checking when we’re already sick … that cuts closest to the grave,” he said.

He said the program was the biggest the ministry had ever undertaken, surpassing COVID-19 vaccinations.

Budi added the screening, which is to be rolled out at more than 20,000 health centers and clinics, also includes mental health tests to determine signs of depression or anxiety.

Researchers at the University of Indonesia’s Economic and Social Research Institute warned the program could risk burdening the country’s already-strained local health centers, citing uneven distribution of drugs or doctors.
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Beijing — Emergency teams in China’s southwestern Sichuan province raced against time Sunday to locate 28 people after a landslide triggered by rains killed one person and buried homes. 

Nearly 1,000 personnel were deployed following the landslide in the village of Jinping in Junlian county on Saturday. Some officers navigated through the remains of collapsed buildings, using drones and life-detection radars to locate any signs of life with the help of locals who were familiar with the area, state broadcaster CCTV said. 

Two injured people were rescued and about 360 others evacuated after 10 houses and a manufacturing building were buried, CCTV reported. 

At a news conference Sunday, authorities said preliminary assessments attributed the disaster to heavy rainfall and local geological conditions. They said these factors transformed a landslide into a debris flow about 1.2 kilometers (more than half a mile) long, with a total volume exceeding 100,000 cubic meters (3.5 million cubic feet). 

The rescue operation was hampered by continuous rainfall and more landslides. According to preliminary estimates, the collapsed area was about 16 football pitches in size and many houses were carried far by the debris flow. 

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong was at the site to guide the operation and visited the affected residents, according to official news agency Xinhua. 

Liu also noted the surrounding slopes still pose collapse risks, calling for scientific assessment to ensure the safety of the operation and prevent another disaster, Xinhua said. 

China has allocated about $11 million to support disaster relief and recovery efforts. 

Landslides, often caused by rain or unsafe construction work, are not uncommon in China. Last year, a landslide in a remote, mountainous part of China’s southwestern province of Yunnan killed dozens of people.
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JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Economists are raising concerns about the viability of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s program launched this year to combat child nutrition.

According to an Indonesian Ministry of Health Nutritional Status Study report, 21.6% of children ages 3 and 4 experienced stunting caused by malnutrition in 2022.

The first stage of the Free Nutritious Meal Program, extending through March, is intended to provide around 20 million Indonesian school children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers meals to improve their health and prevent stunting.

The effort was initially projected to cost $28 billion over five years. However, Coordinating Minister for Food Zulkifli Hasan said on Jan. 9 during a meeting on food security that the $4.4 billion budgeted for this year will run out in June and that $8.5 billion more will be requested to fund the program through December.

China, Japan, the United States and India have expressed support for the program, although it is unclear how much money will be provided or what form that support will take. Japan and India have said their help will be in the form of training.

Officials plan to implement the program in stages, eventually reaching 83 million people — more than a quarter of Indonesia’s 280 million population — by 2029, Muhammad Qodari, deputy chief of the presidential staff told reporters on Feb. 3.

The program is part of a long-term strategy to develop the nation’s youth to achieve a “Golden Indonesia” generation, referring to a plan to make Indonesia a sovereign, advanced and prosperous nation by its 2045 centennial.

The program’s cost could make Prabowo politically vulnerable, according to Dinna Prapto Raharja, a professor of international relations at Jakarta’s Bina Nusantara University and a senior policy adviser at Jakarta consulting firm Synergy Policies.

“In order to finance this program, Prabowo has taken steps to implement major cutbacks in his government budget with some ministries seeing 50% cuts,” Dinna said.

“Now he is forced to seek financial assistance from overseas sources.” she told VOA on Jan. 31.

The Finance Ministry said the spending cuts would amount to $18.7 billion, 8% of this fiscal year’s approved spending.

While other nations said they would support the program, officials from the National Nutrition Agency — which manages the program — said internal talks about the level of foreign aid, type of assistance and technical aspects of its implementation have not begun.

Support from China, Japan, US and India

In November, China committed to supporting free nutritious meals but did not pledge a specific amount.

The Chinese Embassy in Jakarta did not respond to VOA requests for further information on the value and form of the assistance. It remains unclear whether China’s financial assistance will be in the form of a loan or grant.

The United States is providing training to Indonesian dairy farmers to support the program, which has increased the demand for locally produced milk. Indonesia, so far, can provide milk only two to three times a week to school children, according to Deddy Fachrudin Kurniawan, CEO of Dairy Pro Indonesia and project leader of U.S. Dairy Export Council training.

Deddy told VOA on Jan. 8 that Indonesia has had to import 84% of its milk in the past, and that demand will double because of the food program.

In January, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced Japan will support the meal program by helping the Indonesian government increase its ability to combat childhood malnutrition.

Ishiba offered Japan’s support by training Indonesian cooks and sending Japanese chefs to assist. Prabowo added that Japan will also assist in improving the fishery and agriculture sectors, based on Japan’s experience.

More recently, India reaffirmed support for the program through the sharing of knowledge of the government’s Food Corporation of India and other institutions with Indonesian officials.

“India shares its experiences in the fields of health and food security, including the [free] lunch scheme and public [service] distribution system to the Indonesia government,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on his YouTube channel on Jan. 25.

Other support and reaction

Other countries have said they support the program. France and Brazil expressed their support on the sidelines of the recent G20 Leaders Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Prabowo instructed his team to arrange a visit of an Indonesian delegation to Brazil to take notes from the South American country’s similar program. France, which has a similar school feeding program, intends to share its expertise and help Indonesia modernize its agricultural sector.

Teuku Rezasyah, an associate professor of international relations at Bandung’s Universitas Padjajaran, noted that India exported 20,000 metric tons of water buffalo meat to Indonesia last year while Brazil exported 100,000 metric tons of beef to Indonesia.

British Deputy Prime Minister Angela Reynar showed similar interest during her meeting with Prabowo in London in November. However, it remains unclear what type of support the U.K will offer.

Mohammad Faisal, executive director of the Center of Reform on Economics, told VOA in Jakarta on Jan. 31 that countries offering support will have their own interests in mind, as well.

“I believe there’s no free lunch,” Faisal said. “The donations may be partly altruistic, but not entirely. Donor countries consider it as strengthening bilateral ties, but they may also expect to reap the benefits in the future, such as enjoying ease of investing in Indonesia through incentives and getting better penetration of export markets as a reward.”

Rezasyah agreed.

“Donor countries are probably hoping Indonesia will import more products from their countries to support this multibillion-dollar supplemental food program,” he said. “On the other hand, they see Indonesia becoming a middle power that could contribute to finding solutions to global affairs.”
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