China has warned US President Barack Obama not to meet the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, when he visits the United States next month. The authorities in Beijing say any such meeting would seriously undermine relations between the US and China.
Tensions between the two world powers are already running high following a US decision to sell weapons to Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province.
Talks between China and envoys of the Dalai Lama last weekend ended without any progress being made. Beijing says the two sides are still "sharply divided" on the status of Tibet.
Dalai Lama (photo: ANP)
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Well, Hiram, the DL cannot outgun the Chinese and negociation through the moral and other suation of the international community is all he really has to work with. A substantial number of younger Tibetans openly contested and defied the DL's strategy, winding up as prisonners and labourers of the occupying Chinese powers. This in turn only made the DL's task more difficult, as now these would-be liberators are in effect extra bargaining chips for the Chinese to exercise further leverage against anyone's desires for autonomy and human rights in Tibet. China is acting way out of line dictating to the US who and where it can exercise it's soverignty with (this concerning arms sales to Taiwan as well). In fact, the DL himself is acting as an instrument with which the Americans can increase their diplomatic clout in countering these dictates from China, by welcoming the DL as a recognized friend of the US. The Chinese Communist Party should keep it's paranoia in China. The DL has never threatened China, so why is he so feared there? It is the responsibilty of the US and it's allies to recognize the DL as a champion of human rights and a spiritual leader of an occupied people. If the Americans and other democracies can perserve the soverignty and territorial integrity of other contries though massive armaments sales, why can't they just invite the DL over for a cup of tea? David Berridge.
You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom.
"You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom."........If a man will not protect his own freedom by standing-up to tyranny, then he shouldn't expect others to protect his freedom from tyrants.
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