When the Dalai Lama met the Chinese government official

The BBC has been given exclusive footage of a former Chinese government official meeting the Dalai Lama.

Formal talks between representatives of the two sides have not been held since 2010.

But the video, dated two years later, provides a very rare glimpse of a Communist Party member making a direct overture to the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, a man officially viewed as a dangerous separatist.

John Sudworth reports.