WASHINGTON: Westerners have turned a "deaf ear" to the reality of Tibet, which is a legacy of the "Cold War mentality", China's top Tibetologist said on Tuesday.
Hao Shiyuan, director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who is leading a group of Chinese Tibetologists on a visit to the US capital, said: "Whenever the topic of Tibet's history is discussed, Westerners get an attack of amnesia."
Hao's group is the second Chinese delegation to the US with Tibet as its agenda in a week.
A Tibetan delegation of China's National People's Congress (NPC) was in town last week to help "the outer world better understand the situation" in Tibet.
Hao's delegation met with White House officials, congressmen, scholars and journalists during the visit to Washington.
"Talks between the Tibetologists from China's research institutes and universities and Americans are helpful," Hao said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband issued a ministerial statement on Oct 29 in which he announced a change in the British government's position on the status of Tibet. After 94 years, the British government for the first time stated: "Tibet is a part of the People's Republic of China."
"The truth, though late, indicates that sooner or later it emerges," said Hao.