China angry as Obama confirms Dalai Lama meeting on February 18th
China urges White House to cancel meeting between Barack Obama and Dalai Lama despite date for talks being set
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Friday, 12, Feb 2010 01:39
By Matthew Champion.
China has urged the White House to cancel a meeting between Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama despite a date for the talks being confirmed for next week.
The US president will beet the Buddhist Tibetan spiritual leader on February 18th, it was confirmed on Thursday.
Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman, said the president would be meeting with an "internationally respected religious leader".
But China, which has previously insisted such a meeting would threaten relations between the two countries, reacted quickly to urge the president to cancel the talks.
"We urge the US side to fully understand the high sensitivity of Tibet-related issues, and honour its commitment to recognise Tibet as part of China and to oppose 'Tibet independence'," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.
"China urges the US... to immediately call off the wrong decision of arranging for President Obama to meet with the Dalai Lama... to avoid any more damage to Sino-US relations."
A meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama - both Nobel peace prize laureates - was always likely, however.
Mr Obama's predecessor George Bush met the Buddhist leader three times in his eight years in office and in 2007 awarded him the congressional gold medal, the highest US civilian award.
"He's a spokesman for Tibetan rights," Mr Gibbs explained. "The president looks forward to an engaging and constructive meeting.
"We think we have a mature enough relationship with the Chinese that we can agree on mutual interests, but also have a mature enough relationship that we know the two countries are not always going to agree on everything."
Nevertheless the row over the Dalai Lama comes 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.