Defying Beijing, Obama to meet Dalai Lama

Beijing / AFP

US President Barack Obama was to meet the Dalai Lama at the White House on Wednesday, a move condemned by China which portrays the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader as a dangerous separatist.
Obama has met the Dalai Lama several times before and calls the monk “a good friend,” but the pair will—as usual—talk behind closed doors in an effort to avoid Beijing’s ire.
China, which accuses the Nobel peace laureate of using “spiritual terrorism” to seek independence for Tibet, expressed displeasure over the visit to the United States.
“Under the cloak of religion, the 14th Dalai Lama peddles his political ambitions of dividing China all around the world,” foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters. “We demand all countries and governments not to grant him the space or soil for his activities,” he added.
The spiritual leader—who has lived in exile in India since a failed 1959 uprising—has for decades called for more Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.
Beijing maintains he is a “wolf in monk’s clothing” and vigorously lobbies—often successfully—against foreign leaders meeting him.
Obama made a high-profile public appearance with the Dalai Lama, who is widely revered by Tibetans, last year at a prayer breakfast in Washington, calling him “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion.”