Obama ignores Beijing threat, hosts Dalai

[Choppers]

Obama ignores Beijing threat, hosts Dalai
REUTERS, Feb 19, 2010, 12.40am IST

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House on Thursday, brushing aside China’s warning that the meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader could further damage strained Sino-US ties.

Obama’s first presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama was sure to draw angry complaints from Beijing, which is at odds with Washington over trade, currencies, US arms sales to Taiwan and Chinese internet censorship.

By going ahead with the meeting over Chinese objections, Obama may be trying to show his resolve against an increasingly assertive Beijing after facing criticism at home for being too soft with China’s leaders on his November trip “Chinese officials have known about this and their reaction is their reaction,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said dismissively.

Gibbs said the US and China — the world’s largest and third-biggest economies — have a “mature relationship” capable of withstanding disagreements. But mindful of Chinese sensitivities, the White House has sought to strike a balance in the Dalai Lama’s visit. Obama had delayed meeting the Dalai Lama until after seeing Chinese leaders last year.

During Thursday’s visit, Obama — like his White House predecessors — denied the Dalai Lama the symbolism of meeting in the Oval Office. Instead they met in the lesser-known Map Room. Such distinctions signaled that the monk was not being received as a political leader. The Dalai Lama entered the White House out of sight of scribes, and the talks were closed to media coverage.

Obama ignores Beijing threat, hosts Dalai - US - World - The Times of India

 

[Choppers]

Obama meets Dalai Lama despite Chinese warning

Fri, Feb 19 01:40 AM

President Barack Obama hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House on Thursday, brushing aside China's warning that the talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could further damage strained Sino-U.S. ties.

Raising issues sure to stoke China's ire, Obama used his first presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama to press Beijing, under international criticism for its Tibet policies, to preserve Tibet's identity and respect human rights there.

Obama sat down with the Dalai Lama, who is reviled by the Chinese government as a dangerous separatist but admired by many people around the world as a man of peace, in the face of wider tensions over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, China's currency practices and Internet censorship.

"The president commended the Dalai Lama's ... commitment to nonviolence and his pursuit of dialogue with the Chinese government," the White House said in a statement after the hourlong meeting.

Obama encouraged China and the Dalai Lama's envoys to keep up efforts to resolve their differences through negotiations, despite recent talks having yielded little progress.

The White House said Obama and the Dalai Lama also "agreed on the importance of a positive and cooperative relationship between the United States and China."

While defying Chinese demands to scrap the talks, the White House took pains to keep the encounter low-key, barring media coverage of the meeting, an apparent bid to placate Beijing.

Afterwards, the Dalai Lama, wearing sandals and burgundy robes, spoke to reporters on the White House driveway, praising Obama for "always showing his genuine concern" for Tibet.

With the two giant economies so deeply intertwined, tensions are considered unlikely to escalate into outright confrontation. The White House expects only limited fallout.

But the Dalai Lama's visit could complicate Obama's efforts to secure China's help on key issues such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran, resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff and forging a new global accord on climate change.

By going ahead with the meeting over Chinese objections, Obama may be trying to show his resolve against an increasingly assertive Beijing after facing criticism at home for being too soft with China's leaders on his trip there in November.

On the eve of the Dalai Lama's visit, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted the United States and China -- the world's largest and third-biggest economies -- have a "mature relationship" capable of withstanding disagreements.

FOCUS ON TIBET

Honouring the Dalai Lama could still help Obama burnish his administration's credentials among human rights activists, who have accused him of focusing on global issues with Beijing at the expense of promoting Chinese democratic reforms.

But Obama's focus on Tibet's plight also seemed likely to exacerbate Sino-U.S. strains. China, which cracked down harshly on unrest in Tibet in 2008, has accused Washington of meddling in its internal affairs.

"The president stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People's Republic of China," the White House said.

The Dalai Lama has said he wants a high level of genuine autonomy for his homeland, which he fled in 1959. Beijing has accused him of fomenting unrest. The United States says it accepts Tibet is part of China but wants Beijing to address difference over the region's future.

Mindful of Chinese sensitivities, the White House sought to strike a balance in the Dalai Lama's visit. It came with China still fuming over a U.S. plan to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

Obama had delayed meeting the Dalai Lama until after first seeing Chinese leaders during his Asia trip last year.

During Thursday's visit, Obama -- like his White House predecessors -- denied the Dalai Lama the symbolism of meeting in the Oval Office. Instead they met in the lesser-known Map Room. Such distinctions signalled to Beijing that the Tibetan monk was not being received as a political leader.

The White House planned to release a photograph later.

Ahead of the talks, Tibetans living near the Dalai Lama's birthplace in northwest China welcomed the White House meeting with a defiant show of fireworks.

CHINA'S WARNING

Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the United Front Work Department of China's ruling Communist Party, warned earlier this month that an Obama meeting with the Dalai Lama "would damage trust and cooperation between our two countries."

Adding to tensions, Obama vowed recently to address currency issues with Beijing and to "get much tougher" with it on trade. Washington complains that China keeps its currency undervalued, hurting the competitiveness of American goods.

While China has said it might impose sanctions against U.S. companies and curtail military-to-military contacts over the Taiwan arms sale, Washington expects the response to the Dalai Lama visit to be less threatening.

Still, China has become bolder, spurred not only by its economic clout but a sense in Beijing that the global economic crisis exposed the weakness of U.S.-style capitalism.

China trimmed its stockpile of U.S. Treasuries to $755.4 billion in November, U.S. government data shows, an indication Beijing may at least be willing to act on its concerns about Washington's economic stewardship. But China remains the second-biggest creditor to the United States, only slightly behind Japan.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Steve Holland and Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Beech)



http://in.news.yahoo.com/137/20100218/736/tnl-obama-meets-dalai-lama-despite-chine.html

 

[Sino-PakFriendship]

Who care!

DLLM has right to go to USA.

China should not overreact!

China shows more angry then China-bashers are happier!

 

[lockh33d]

What most people don't see is that tensions between USA and China are only on the surface-level. Neither of the two has the guts to wage war or offend the other. There's a difference between telling someone to shut up and punching that person in the guts. What I'm trying to say is that we should look at these tensions with a grain of salt.

 

[attitude]

china is showing teeth to usa and its not good for superpower

 

[lockh33d]

china is showing teeth to usa and its not good for superpower

It's like having a gun pointed at you. Would you listen to the perpetrator or would you rather get shot? China can threaten, but that's about it. Anything more and financial relations between the two can exacerbate. That's neither good for the USA nor China. For US, unemployment rates will surge and we lose a source of money where we can loan from and for China, it loses its biggest partner and its economy will see a massive plunge too.