China warns Obama against meeting Dalai Lama
Barack Obama's predecessor George Bush meeting the Dalai Lama in 2007
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Tuesday, 02, Feb 2010 04:04
By Matthew Champion.
Barack Obama's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama later this month represents an attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs, Beijing has said.
In a stark warning to the US president a senior Communist party official said Mr Obama would be risking normal relations with China by meeting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
"If the US leader chooses to meet with the Dalai Lama at this time, it will certainly threaten trust and cooperation between China and the United States," said Zhu Weigun, deputy head of the ruling party's popular front body.
"We oppose any attempt by foreign forces to interfere in China's internal affairs using the Dalai Lama as an excuse."
The comments come during a time of increased tensions between the two countries.
This year Beijing has reacted angrily to veiled accusations from Google that it was behind a cyber attack upon human rights activists' email accounts and US plans to sell $6.4 billion of defensive weapons to Taiwan.
The bad blood adds to the disagreements that characterised President Obama's first year in office including rows over trade imports, a lack of Chinese support on stricter sanctions against Iran and Beijing's unmoving stance on carbon emissions at Copenhagen last year.
China, which has a longstanding position of warning foreign leaders off meeting the Dalai Lama, seized control of Tibet in 1950, while the Dalai Lama fled into exile nine years later aged 23 following a failed uprising.
Beijing regards the Buddhist leader as leading a "splittist" agenda, although he is now in semi-retirement after leading a non-violent campaign for greater autonomy in his homeland, his efforts winning him the Nobel peace prize in 1989.
China's objections to the Dalai Lama meeting President Obama are likely to fall on deaf ears however, with the previous incumbent at the White House George Bush meeting him three times in his eight years in office.
In 2007 President Bush also awarded him the congressional gold medal, the highest US civilian award.