Should Obama meet with the Dalai Lama?
How postponing a meeting to avoid angering China affects the people of Tibet
The Dalai Lama. (Reuters/Corbis/Todd Korol)
President Obama has found time to meet with Hugo Chávez, Daniel Ortega, and Vladimir Putin, said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, but he can't be bothered to spend a few minutes with 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 6 million Tibetans." The White House is trying to avoid offending Beijing, but rewarding China's bullying will just make matters worse.
In a rare burst of bipartisanship, said David L. Phillips in The Boston Globe, Republicans and Democrats alike are criticizing Obama for "kow-towing to China." But the decision to defer a meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader "is based on careful calculation. Instead of a photo-opportunity with the Dalai Lama, the administration believes it would be better to focus on diplomacy to restart negotiations between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s envoys that were suspended last year."
"Of course, I understand the move diplomatically," said Ethan Nichtern in BeliefNet. "Pride and appearances are huge in diplomatic relations, especially with the Chinese. But what about standing up for truth, fairness, justice, interdependence?" If you don't stand tall on those values, "you have no real strength when it comes time to negotiate."
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5 Comments
Posted by Yeti, Monday, October 5, 2009, 3:53 pm Clearly, there must not have been any money in meeting with the Dalai Lama for the scumball in the White House.
Posted by Jackson Williams, Monday, October 5, 2009, 3:55 pm So much for Obama being a champion of change. He's willing to meet dictators but not a nobel peace prize winner.
Posted by Barrie, Monday, October 5, 2009, 5:06 pm I think that the Dalai Lama understands the complications of dealing with China better than anyone and realizes that confronting them and humiliating the Chinese government doesn't do any good. I'm sure that Obama's diplomacy is going to be much more useful to Tibet and its people than previous administrations' showy posturing.
Posted by Rig, Monday, October 5, 2009, 5:07 pm He lost my vote, next time around, if he does not fix things soon enough. Obama is the first US president who blew away the hopes and aspirations of the world who are yearning for freedom and human right since Bill Clinton. His appeasement would not help America but support the real dictators around world and specially the Communist Chinese Leaders who had done everything against humanity. America should do better business with its neighbors and in the north and south of its borders instead sucking up for China. What a shame!
Posted by Denise Challenger, Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7:03 am I thought Barrack Obama was a breath of fresh air when he was elected President of the USA , but sadly i was wrong. Once again we have a politican kowtowing to the Chinese government. I have been to Tibet and wittnessed with my own eyes the opression suffered by Tibetans everyday at the hands of the Chinese military. America is the land of the free so come on Obama stop supporting dictatorship and start honouring a Nobel winner, a good human being, a man who has fought peacefully all his life for his people and his country.
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