Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times, James Blitz, the FT’s diplomatic editor, and Lifen Zhang, editor of FTChinese.com, interviewed the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, in Nottingham on May 24, 2008. The following is an edited transcript of the interview.

Financial Times: Your Holiness, since the violence in Tibet last March, we have seen a terrible earthquake in China, and many people believe now that there has been a change in atmosphere. China has moved from being villain to victim, and there’s a sense that perhaps some of the steam has gone out of your campaign for greater Tibetan autonomy. Is that what you think?