China outraged as Bush meets the Dalai Lama

[Spencer Collins]

China outraged as Bush meets the Dalai Lama

Jenny Booth and agencies

China today accused America of undermining bilateral relations by offering an official welcome to the Dalai Lama.

President Bush was today due to hold talks at the White House with the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, and tomorrow the US Congress will award him one of its highest civilian honours.

“This action will seriously damage China-US relations,” Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a press briefing. “We express strong dissatisfaction and our firm opposition. "

He added that China hoped the United States would “correct its mistakes and cancel relevant arrangements and stop interfering in the internal affairs of China by any means”.

Today's talks will be the third private encounter between the US President and the 72-year-old religious figure since Mr Bush took office in January 2001.

Tomorrow, however, Mr Bush is due to attend the public ceremony to award the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate the Congressional Gold Medal - the first time a sitting US president will appear in public with him.

China has pulled out of a planned international strategy session on Iran tomorrow, prompting speculation that this is a diplomatic protest at the awards ceremony.

“I think they (the Chinese) had indigestion ... over the presence of certain spiritual leaders and an event in Congress,” said a US State Department official. “It is extraneous to Iranian issues."

Mr Liu would not confirm that this was a deliberate protest, saying only that there were “technical reasons" why China would not be attending the Iran meeting.

The six-nation diplomatic meeting is now expected to take place next week.

The spiritual leader's arrival in Washington yesterday was greeted by a crowd of Tibetans clad in traditional dress, offering blessings, songs and dances.

The Dalai Lama has been based in India since fleeing his Himalayan homeland in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He lives in the northern hill town of Dharamsala, which is also the seat of his government-in-exile.

He remains immensely popular among Tibetans, despite efforts by Beijing to cast him as a mischief-maker seeking to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy, not independence, for the region, which the mainland claims has been its territory for centuries. He is waging a non-violent campaign for greater rights for Tibet's six million people.



More?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle2669194.ece

Some see the Dalai Lama as a threat,China will have to eventually grant some measure of autonomy.

[saltwn]

While this may not be the wisest strategy as far as foreign policy is concerned, it just shows how annaly retentive the Chinese leaders are. The DL is a very wise and peaceful individual. He promotes love. The Chinese leaders can't stand that in Buddhism. They can't stand it in Christianity.
They claim there is freedom for Christianity (trying to court the west) and that is a bald face lie. There is no freedom of any religion there. In Beijing you will find bibles or sale along with Mao books, but Revelation is removed as are a few other important books.
Even China's communism is a lie. It is a dictatorship. They have the police (at public expense) block off entire roads so the upper echelon party members can pick their kids up at day care. While the common man walks everywhere.

Good for Bush (I still question his timing); good for the Dalai Lama.

[cnredd]

Finally....

A story this week about a Peace Prize recipient who deserves it...

[Idealogically Promiscuous]

Originally Posted by cnredd

Finally....

A story this week about a Peace Prize recipient who deserves it...

I know that's right!!!!

[team_barlo]

Shrub has done exactly TWO things right in his presidency. The first was the "Do Not Call" list. The second was affording respect to the Dalai Lama.

However, I'll bet he only did that just to piss off China and didn't learn a damn thing from his holiness.

Just my take on it