Dalai Lama鈥檚 US visit angers China
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CHINA has protested the Dalai Lama’s presence at a public event attended by US President Barack Obama, saying Washington was exploiting the issue of Tibet for political purposes.
“We are against foreign countries interfering in China’s domestic affairs under the pretext of Tibet-related issues,” foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.
“The Dalai Lama is seeking support from foreign counties to realize his political end, but he cannot succeed,” Hong said, calling the monk “a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the pretext of religion.”
“We oppose any other country’s decision to allow Dalai to visit,” Hong said at a regular news conference.
“We have repeatedly pointed out that the Tibet issue concerns China’s core interest and national feelings. We oppose any other country’s decision to provide platforms for Dalai’s visit, and we oppose any foreign leaders’ meeting with Dalai,” Hong said.
On Thursday, the 79-year-old was a guest at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, the first time Obama and the Dalai Lama had attended the same public event.
Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama as a “good friend” and from the head table pressed his hands together in a prayer-like position and bowed his head toward him before giving him a wave and a broad smile.
Obama’s three previous meetings with the Dalai Lama have been in private because of the sensitivity of the situation.
But in a show of White House support for the Dalai Lama, he sat at a table with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Actor Richard Gere, a friend and follower of the Dalai Lama, was seated nearby.
Although Hong did not threaten any direct retribution, Xinhua news agency warned in an editorial that “any possible meeting or encounter between the two is sure to have negative consequences.”
“Chumming with a secessionist is playing with fire, which severely harms the mutual trust between China and the United States, and downgrades Obama’s credit as a national leader for breaking his commitments to China on the Tibet issue,” it said.
China has imposed diplomatic and economic punishments on countries whose leaders meet the Dalai Lama.
It suspended high-level diplomatic contacts with Britain for 14 months after Prime Minister David Cameron met him in May 2012.
In 2008, China canceled a major annual summit with the European Union after then-French President Nicholas Sarkozy met the Dalai Lama in Poland.
That also cooled China-French relations, which recovered only after commitments were made not to meet the Dalai Lama again.
Britain also said it had no plans to meet him.
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