{"id":38278,"date":"2014-02-21T22:08:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T22:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=38278 "},"modified":"2014-02-21T22:08:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T22:08:00","slug":"38278-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=38278","title":{"rendered":"Obama to Host Dalai Lama at White House"},"content":{"rendered":"
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February 21, 2014<\/div>
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President Barack Obama will host exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House Friday, despite a stern warning from China.<\/div>
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The White House said late Thursday that Obama is meeting the Dalai Lama “in his capacity as a respected religious and cultural leader.”<\/div>
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A statement said the U.S. supports the Dalai Lama’s so-called “middle way” approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.<\/div>
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China’s foreign ministry quickly urged the U.S. to cancel the meeting. Spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned of serious diplomatic repercussions.<\/div>
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“The Dalai is a political exile who has long used the cloak of religion to engage in anti-China, separatist activities. The United States’ arrangement for its leader to meet the Dalai would be a gross interference in China’s internal affairs and is a serious violation of the norms of international affairs. It will also seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations,” said Hua.<\/div>
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China issued similar threats against the U.S. following meetings between Obama and the Dalai Lama in 2010 and 2011.<\/div>
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The visits did not significantly impact U.S.-China relations then, and analysts such as John Powers, an Asian studies professor at the Australian National University, said this upcoming meeting is unlikely to do so now.<\/div>
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“China goes through the same sort of routine about protesting regularly and interference in China’s internal affairs and things keep going the same way. Nothing ever really happens,” said Powers.<\/div>
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Powers told VOA the visits and subsequent Chinese response have become “formulaic,” with China, the U.S., and the Dalai Lama neither greatly benefiting nor suffering from the process.<\/div>
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Nonetheless, many rights groups have said it is important for the meetings to continue, in order to keep up global awareness of China’s treatment of Tibetans.<\/div>
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Since February 2009, more than 126 people have self-immolated in traditionally Tibetan areas of China to protest Beijing’s policy in their homeland.<\/div>
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Beijing has said the Dalai Lama is responsible for the wave of self-immolations, which it views as terrorism.<\/div>
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While the Dalai Lama and the India-based Central Tibetan Administration are outspoken critics of China, they have discouraged the suicide protests.<\/div>
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Tashi Phuntsok of the Central Tibetan Administration told VOA the responsibility for unrest in Tibet lies with Chinese authorities.<\/div>
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“Why are Tibetans protesting or self-immolating? It’s very simple. Tibetans in Tibet after nearly 60 years under China do not feel free and therefore they are against the repression. And the world sees [this] very clearly,” said Phuntsok.<\/div>
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Phuntsok said the meeting is “good for Tibet” and represents a “strong endorsement” of the policies of the Dalai Lama, who officially retired from his political role three years ago.<\/div>
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The Britain-based Free Tibet said in a statement President Obama “deserves praise” for holding the meeting. It said China has “no right to tell the leaders of democratic countries that they cannot meet anyone, let alone a spiritual leader and Nobel-laureate who is one of the world’s leading advocates for peace.”<\/div>
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Many Tibetans in China accuse the government of a campaign of religious and cultural persecution, as the country’s majority Han ethnic group continues to move into historically Tibetan areas.<\/div>
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China rejects that, saying Tibetans enjoy religious freedom. Beijing also points to huge ongoing investment it says has brought modernization and an increased standard of living to Tibet.<\/div>
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 <\/div>Continue reading the <\/span>original article<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>
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VOA: China Angry Over Obama-Dalai Lama Meeting<\/a><\/div>
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Rueters:Obama Meets Dalai Lama, Despite China’s Warnings<\/a><\/div>
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BBC:Obama’s meeting with Dalai Lama irks China<\/a><\/div>
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<div>The White House said late Thursday that Obama is meeting the Dalai Lama "in his capacity as a respected religious and cultural leader."A statement said the U.S. supports the Dalai Lama's so-called "middle way" approach of neither assimilation nor independence for Tibetans in China.<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}