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| No Time for the Dalai Lama |
| 2009-10-05 |
| Obama is willing to anger China on tire tariffs but not on Tibet. In nearly nine months in office, President Obama has found time to meet with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Vladimir Putin. But this week he'll have no time to see the Dalai Lama, a peaceful religious leader who has for decades been a friend to the United States and an advocate of human rights for China's six million Tibetans. Mr. Obama's slight is the first time a sitting president will not meet with the Dalai Lama during a Washington visit since President George H.W. Bush met with him in 1991. No meeting was ever formally on the agenda for this week, but the exiled Tibetan leader's trip to Washington had been planned for years, and earlier this year he had expressed his hope to meet with the President. Last month, White House aide Valerie Jarrett and Maria Otero, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, traveled to Dharamsala to confer with the Dalai Lama. The next day, the Dalai Lama's office announced his hope that he might meet with Mr. Obama after November, when Mr. Obama will visit Beijing. As a White House official explained it: "Both the Dalai Lama and we agree that a stable and positive U.S.-China relationship will help advance progress on the Tibet issue, and that a meeting after the President's trip would further the likelihood of making progress on Tibetan issues." In other words, not offending Chinese President Hu Jintao is a higher U.S. priority, at least on Tibet. By contrast, Mr. Obama was more than willing to risk offending China by imposing tariffs on Chinese tires last month to please his union supporters. This is of a piece with Mr. Obama's other human-rights backsteps, in particular his muted support for democracy in Iran. The Dalai Lama has met with the sitting U.S. President a dozen times, as well as with Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle (including a certain Senator Obama in 2005). Although Beijing complained about these meetings, there were no serious costs to the U.S.-China relationship. George W. Bush met with the Dalai Lama in May of his first year in office, in advance of his first trip to China, and thereafter made clear that meetings with him were nonnegotiable. These Presidential meetings are important because they affirm the religious and democratic freedoms America stands for, while setting a precedent for the rest of the world. China routinely assails countries whose leaders meet with the Dalai Lama, targeting France and Germany in recent years by cutting off diplomatic exchanges, canceling conferences and the like. Perhaps the Administration is hoping for a return favor from Beijing for snubbing the man Chinese leaders label a "splittist" and a "wolf in sheep's clothing." But rewarding China's bullying only encourages such tactics. On Wednesday in Washington, the Dalai Lama will honor the late Julia Taft, who spoke out against Chinese abuses in Tibet as coordinator on Tibetan issues in the Clinton Administration. He'll also meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and perhaps he can wave at the White House on his way to Capitol Hill. It's becoming clear that Mr. Obama's definition of "engagement" leaves plenty of room to meet with dictators, but less for the men and women who challenge them. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #8 ION WAFF > INDONESIAN VIGILANTES PREPARE FOR BATTLE IN MALAYSIA. "PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC DEFENSE GROUP" aka "BENDARA" Group demands Indonesia should kill Malaysians - Iff Indones Govt won't declare war agz Malaysia, they will; + TURKEY PREPARES FOR COMING UNAVOIDABLE WAR WITH GREECE AND FRANCE. * ION WAFF link > JAKARTA GLOBE - RUMORS OF ANTI-CHINESE DISCRIMINATION SPREAD IN PADANG QUAKE ZONE [Emer Aid = "only 40 boxes of packaged tea" recieved as quake aid]; + INDONESIA QUAKE RECOVERY WILL "TAKE YEARS". * SAME > NDFB [National Democ Front of Boroland] LOOKS TO CHINA, BANGLADESH TO REALIZE [sovereign] "BOROLAND". Helped Bangla gain independence from India-Pak so its time for Bangla to return the favor. * CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > YOUTUBE NEWS: MONGOLIAN FAR-RIGHT GROUP CLAIMS ETHNICITY FACING FOREIGN THREAT [aka CHINA]. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2009-10-05 19:40 |
| #7 Who needs the Dalai Lama when you have Rev. Wright? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2009-10-05 15:59 |
| #6 Lucky Dalai. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-10-05 12:52 |
| #5 When you have already achieved Buddha nature, what could you possibly learn from a mere mortal like the Dalai Lama? |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-10-05 07:47 |
| #4 The Burg had a posting on the Dalai Lama several months back with his observation that pacifism doesn't work with terrorists because their minds are closed. Maybe that hasn't set well with others who's minds are also closed. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-05 07:26 |
| #3 Why should the "smartest man in the world," per the maim scream media, listen to anybody else? That'd be the "smartest etc." who beat out the previous smartest people ever to come to Washington (you know, th' clintons, heh, heh.) |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-10-05 01:12 |
| #2 China's anger with the Dalai Lama has more to do with the Dalai welshing on the deal Tibet signed back in the 1950s than any issue. |
| Posted by: badanov 2009-10-05 00:33 |
| #1 The Dalai Lama is not a s0cia1ist tyrant dictator, so his agenda is of no interest to the big O. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-10-05 00:32 |