China's communists sack Tibet policymaker

By Emma Graham-Harrison and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - A key Communist Party policymaker for Tibet has been removed from her post, sources said, as exiles gather to discuss their future and a top Chinese negotiator warned there is no room for more concessions to the Dalai Lama.

Bi Hua, a Han Chinese, was asked to step down recently as director of the No. 7 bureau of the Party's United Front Work Department, two independent sources with knowledge of the case said, requesting anonymity for fear of repercussions.

It was not clear if illness, an overly gentle line on Tibet or some other issue prompted Bi's removal from the helm of the No. 7 bureau, which oversees Tibetan affairs.

"The Party has placed her on probation...but she is convinced she has not done anything wrong," one source told Reuters.

The department could not immediately be reached for comment.

The change came as Tibetan exiles gathered for a special meeting to discuss their future, a gathering that could possibly challenge the Dalai Lama's moderate line toward Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Communist rule, wants genuine autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

But China reviles him as a separatist, and officials often accuse him of secretly harboring pro-independence sentiments that he has publicly rejected.

"Even though the Dalai changes his strategy to match the circumstances, his underlying values of wanting something for nothing have not changed," Zhu Weiqun, vice minister who handles relations with non-Communists, ethnic minorities and religious leaders, was quoted as saying by the People Daily on Wednesday.

A recent visit to China by personal envoys of the Dalai Lama yielded no progress and Chinese officials have recently shown little taste for flexibility.

Beijing's hard line has created increasing frustration among some in the Tibetan diaspora who fear the 73-year-old Dalai Lama has not been aggressive enough.

(Editing by David Fox)