http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6262938/Barack-Obama-cancels-meeting-with-Dalai-Lama-to-keep-China-happy.html

Quote :

"Barack Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama 'to keep China happy' President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favour with the Chinese. The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader. It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991. The Buddhist monk arrived in Washington on Monday for a week of meetings with Congressional leaders, celebrity supporters and interest groups, but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month. Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of "appeasement" toward China as its economic weight grows. "Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests," he said. Mr Obama's decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a "splittist", despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee. Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: "Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing. "This idea that if you are nice to the Chinese Communist Party up front you can cash in later is just wrong. If you lower the bar on human rights they will just move it lower and lower." Over several months of discussions the Tibetans resisted entreaties to delay the meeting, arguing that a refusal would make smaller countries more vulnerable to pressure from China not to meet the Dalai Lama. But they were told by US officials they wanted to work with China on critical issues, including nuclear weapons proliferation in North Korea and Iran, according to The Washington Post. Mr Obama then sent a delegation to the Dalai Lama's home in exile in India last month that confirmed the meeting would be deferred. Mr Obama has changed his position on Tibet since his election campaign. In April 2008, he was joined by Hillary Clinton, then his rival for the Democratic nomination and now his Secretary of State, in calling on George W Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony in protest at the bloody repression of a popular uprising in Tibet. "If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security, and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the President should boycott the opening ceremonies," they said. Mrs Clinton has been at the forefront of a new approach, called "strategic reassurance", which seeks a more amicable partnership with the emerging power. On her first trip to China in February she said public pressure on China over human rights was ill-advised as she "knew what the Chinese were going to say". Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, the Washington-based special envoy to the Dalai Lama, issued a brief statement, saying: "We came to this arrangement because we believe that it is in our long-term interests." A White House official said the administration and the Tibetans had "agreed the timing would be best after the visit". "Both sides attach importance to a strong US-China relationship," the official said. "There are benefits in that to our goals for Tibet, as we have been working to resume discussions between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s representatives.” The Tibetan leader's ten meetings with US presidents have played an important role in maintaining his international profile, even though they have never been filmed or followed by a press conference. The exception was 2007, when George W Bush conferred the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's highest civilian award, on the Dalai Lama in front of the cameras. Frank Wolf, a Republican congressman and outspoken critic of China's human rights record, said: "What would a Buddhist monk or Buddhist nun in Drapchi prison think when he heard that President Obama, the president of the United States, is not going to meet with the Dalai Lama? "It's against the law to even have a picture of the Dalai Lama. I can almost hear the words of the Chinese guards saying to them that nobody cares about you in the United States." Ms Richardson said treating human rights as separate from other issues guaranteed failure "across the board". "If there is no explicit agreement to stop locking up environmental activists and whistle blowers then any environmental agreement will be weakened. "If the press in China is muzzled it won't investigate industrial safety and you will have more toxic toys coming to the United States," she said."

Well, so much for that idea. I wonder how many hollywood celebrities he just pissed off by not seeing the DL?

[Edited on October 6, 2009 at 4:07 AM. Reason : wow....telegraph has no great "print format" function]

10/6/2009 4:05:33 AM

I don't like the Dalai Lama just as I dislike all fundamentalist heads of state.

That does not mean I like the Chinese, they oppress more than just their own people with their efforts at censorship, but I dislike Australia for the same reason and I would not suggest meeting with aborigine rebels because of it.

10/6/2009 8:48:12 AM

So that's what was going on at the hotel across the street.... There were a ton of demonstrations outside of the hotel yesterday, guess the Dalai Lama was there.


(yes that's all that I have to contribute to the thread)

[Edited on October 6, 2009 at 9:24 AM. Reason : .]

10/6/2009 9:23:50 AM

^^What the hell are you babbling about? Did you really just compare the Dalai Lama, a "head of state" by your own words, to aborigine rebels? Really, you're compariing Australia's "oppression" of native peoples (who have an unmolested culture and government representation) to China's?

And what is it that makes the Dalai Lama disdainfully fundamentalist? Wanting freedom of religion and autonomy for a soverign state invaded by China? He doesn't even advocate independence. Or perhaps you just categorically dislike anyone with Marxist leanings?

10/6/2009 9:29:49 AM

Just an interesting observation. Barack and Michelle had dinner at the Bluck Duck Tavern in DC last night for their anniversary.

Just so happens that the Blue Duck Tavern is attached to the hotel where the Dalai Lama is staying....

Just sayin.....

10/6/2009 12:43:01 PM

He's too busy backing the anti-semitic disposed leader of Honduras at the moment. He'll make time for peaceful leaders...next year?

10/6/2009 12:47:06 PM

good observation, Luna

could have been a DL meeting of the two...

you know...I saw some pictures of the First Lady coming out of the restaurant and she looked PISSED

well....more pissed than normal

10/6/2009 10:18:13 PM

Yea, I'm just happy I didn't get stuck in the security detail outside the place. There were a lot of hill staffers around his hotel today. Lots of secret service still too. Not sure who was meeting there with him.

10/6/2009 10:41:41 PM

Quote :

"but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month."

understandable. he has a shit ton to talk to China about, and doesn't need the Chinese sentiments on the autonomy of Tibet to get in the way of any of it - not right now. he can catch up with the Dalai Lama later - i'm sure he'll understand.

10/7/2009 11:14:12 AM

^^^ Her husband gets her dinner with the dali lama for their anniversary, and she gets pissed? what a bitch...

[Edited on October 7, 2009 at 11:16 AM. Reason : ]

10/7/2009 11:16:02 AM

Lumex, your knowledge of Australian history seems rather limited.

That said, I am a descendant of the enlightenment, I have disdain for anyone that claims religion grants them the right to rule. That he currently has no country to rule is no defense. I am in favor of independence of all people, Tibet included, but I would hope that when they achieve independence their first order of business is stripping the Dalai Lama of all rights and authority and enshrining equality for all.

10/7/2009 2:57:27 PM

like it matters, Tibet will never be free.

10/7/2009 3:10:42 PM

I dunno. China is a big place. While it would not be soon, China might voluntarily break up politically in the distant future. Rich people quickly stop resenting the independence of their neighbors.

10/7/2009 3:22:35 PM

Quote :

"Lumex, your knowledge of Australian history seems rather limited"

maybe, so?

Quote :

"That said, I am a descendant of the enlightenment, I have disdain for anyone that claims religion grants them the right to rule. That he currently has no country to rule is no defense. I am in favor of independence of all people, Tibet included, but I would hope that when they achieve independence their first order of business is stripping the Dalai Lama of all rights and authority and enshrining equality for all."

You clearly have no understanding of Tibetan culture. Tenzin Gyatso doesn't seek power, nor do Tibetans wish to remove the Dalai Lama as the head of their goverment in exile. The man has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal. Your implication dosn't make any sense.

10/7/2009 3:56:28 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyxJtc8d2Bo

10/7/2009 4:50:33 PM

I too remember when Free Tibet was a big cause in the Democratic Party, right alongside legalization of pot.

10/9/2009 1:48:12 PM

Now who is going to take up the causes of the limousine liberals?

10/9/2009 1:53:29 PM

Free Tibet






with purchase of equal or lesser valued Tibet.

10/15/2009 7:34:57 AM

ISWYDT

10/15/2009 7:51:28 AM