China Protests Obama Meeting With Dalai Lama

The Chinese government has lodged a formal protest over President Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, AP reports:

Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai summoned U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman to lodge a “solemn representation” over Thursday’s meeting at the White House, the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.

“The behavior of the U.S. side seriously interferes in China’s internal politics and seriously hurts the national feelings of the Chinese people,” the statement said, quoting spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

The meeting was seen as another test of rocky ties between Beijing and Washington, strained in recent weeks by issues from Taiwan arms sales to cyber spying allegations.

However, the language of the protest issued by the Foreign Ministry was relatively constrained, a reflection of the White House’s low-key treatment of the meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader and Beijing’s own desire to maintain healthy China-U.S. relations. The meeting was in the White House’s Map Room, a lower-profile venue than the Oval Office.

See also a Xinhua editorial which says Obama is merely “playing the Tibet card,” by meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader. Also:
- “China and Tibet: A message in a meeting,” an editorial in the Boston Globe
- “Flip-flop diplomacy with the Dalai Lama” from the BBC

And footage of the Dalai Lama arriving at the White House, via AP:

Posted in: Dalai Lama