The top legislator of the Tibet autonomous region said on Sunday that authorities have not changed their policy toward the 14th Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed riot in 1959.

"There's no change in our thinking on the Dalai Lama problem, and we can't make any change on that thinking," Padma Choling, chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet autonomous region, told reporters after a panel discussion.

He added that relations between the Han and Tibetan peoples are close, and the Dalai Lama is the one who manipulated and sabotaged ties with recent incidents, including the self-immolation of monks.