Will President Obama Meet With His Holiness the Dalai Lama?
by Danny Fisher
Image via Phayul.
The Associated Press asks, “Will President Obama meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama?”
- Obama must make a delicate calculation as he considers a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet’s Buddhists, seen by his supporters as a symbol of peace but vilified by China as a “wolf in monk’s robes” who seeks to split Tibet from the rest of China.
Whatever Obama decides about the visit will spark anger.
Meeting with the Dalai Lama, as every president since George H.W. Bush has done, would infuriate China, whose help the United States sees as crucial to global economic recovery efforts and dealing with nuclear standoffs in North Korea and Iran.
Activists would seize on a White House visit for the Nobel Peace laureate as a powerful message to Tibetans and others struggling for human rights around the world.
That the Chinese government managed, or scripted, Barak Obama while not budging on the issues says something about the Chinese character that few outside of China realize. I’ve just posted on this at http://euandus3.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/china-stage-managing-barak-obama/, drawing on my visit to China.