Pro-China bias?

[Niall]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

China's super-rich communist Buddhists

By John Sudworth - BBC News, Shanghai

Could China be bringing Tibetan Buddhism in from the cold? There are new signs that while a crackdown on Tibetan nationalism continues, the atheist state may be softening its position towards the religion - and even the Dalai Lama.

That a former senior Communist Party official would invite the BBC into his home might, to most foreign journalists in China, seem an unlikely prospect.

Especially if that official was rumoured to have close links to the Chinese leadership and to have worked closely with the country's security services.

But the idea that such an official would then invite the BBC to witness him praying in front of a portrait of the Dalai Lama, would seem a preposterous one. Laughable - insane even.

That, though, is exactly what Xiao Wunan did.

Inside Xiao's luxury Beijing apartment, in pride of place atop his own private Buddhist shrine, sits a portrait of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, a man long reviled by the Chinese government as a dangerous separatist.

For Tibetan monks even the possession of the Dalai Lama's photograph is a risky proposition and the displaying of his portrait in monasteries is prohibited.

But there, beneath that same image sat Xiao, with a Tibetan Buddhist guru, Geshe Sonam, sitting beside him.

It's really no big deal, the 50-year-old Xiao explains.

"In regard to the political problems between the Dalai Lama and China… we hardly pay any attention," he says.

"It's really hard for us to judge him from that angle. As Buddhists, we only pay attention to him as part of our Buddhist practice."

Xiao was introduced to the BBC by a Chinese businessman, 36-year-old Sun Kejia - one of an unknown, but reportedly growing number of wealthy Chinese, drawn in recent years to the mysticism of Tibetan Buddhism.

The increasing popularity of religion in general in China has been well documented and is often explained in terms of China's rapid economic expansion.

Millions of Chinese today may now have the kind of wealth that previous generations could only dream of, but economic growth has been accompanied by seismic social upheaval and many of the old certainties have been swept away.

"I was once confronted with great difficulties and problems in my business," Sun says.

"I felt they couldn't be overcome by human effort and that only Buddha, ghosts and God could help me."

So Sun became a follower not of merchant bankers or money managers, but monks - Tibetan monks in particular. And he has indeed since earned his fortune, which he estimates at more than $100m.

He now runs a chain of Buddhist clubs, and pays from his own pocket for Tibetan gurus like Geshe Sonam to come and preach there, giving them badly needed funds for their missions and monasteries back in Tibet.

But while Sun's invited guests - businessmen, party officials and property owners - find comfort and spirituality, he finds something else.

"What I want is influence," he says.

"My friends who come here are attracted to this place. I can use the resources they bring to do my other business. From that angle, it is also my contribution for spreading Buddhism. This brings good karma and so I get what I want."

And it seems to be working.

Sun invites us to meet other well-connected individuals who use his club.

Seated on the floor with Geshe Sonam is a woman who Sun says is connected through family ties to the highest echelons of Chinese politics.

She and a man she introduces as a senior official at China's National Development and Reform Commission, and who appears to be her driver, are placing watches, prayer beads and necklaces into the centre of the circle for Geshe Sonam to bless.

A luxury banquet follows the religious ceremony, and later the monk admits to being a bit uncomfortable with the whole thing.

"No matter how good the food is, it's still just food," he says.

"Sometimes it takes so long and I really feel I'm wasting my time. I become a bit anxious. But this can also be a way to preach. If I don't go here, or don't go there, would it be better for me to just stay in a cave and never come out?"

Buddhist monks need the money and dozens, perhaps hundreds, are now prospecting for funds in China's big cities.

Given that China is still, officially, an atheist country, that may seem odd, especially because of the links between Buddhism and political activism in Tibet.

China however is not only allowing this Buddhist evangelism to take place but may now be actively encouraging it.

There have been reports that President Xi Jinping is - relatively speaking - more tolerant of religion than his predecessors, in the hope that it will help fill China's moral vacuum and stem social unrest.

And there have also long been rumours that members of the Chinese elite have been interested in Buddhism, including Xi Jinping's wife, Peng Liyuan.

The president's father, Xi Zhongxun, a Communist Party revolutionary and leader, is himself reported to have had a good relationship with the Dalai Lama before he fled China in 1959.

And that's perhaps where Xiao Wunan comes in, because another unsubstantiated rumour has it that his father was also close to the president's father.

Much of this is speculation, of course, but the important question is whether Xiao's permission for the BBC to witness him worshipping at a Buddhist altar is meant to send a signal.

Xiao had yet another surprise up his sleeve, handing the BBC some video footage of a meeting he had with the Dalai Lama in India - his place of exile - in 2012.

Formal talks were last held in 2010 but even they were only between representatives of the two sides.

Xiao's footage is rare evidence of face-to-face talks between the Dalai Lama himself and someone close to the Chinese government.

There were at the time a few unconfirmed newspaper reports about it in the Indian press, full of speculation about the significance, but there was never any official confirmation that it took place - until the BBC received the video.

At one point in the conversation the Dalai Lama tells Xiao he is concerned about the activities of fake monks in China.

"I am also concerned about this," Xiao replies. "Therefore, we are really in need of a Buddhist leader and that's why I think your holiness can play such an important role."

Elsewhere, the Dalai Lama complains about China's whole approach to Tibet.

"Let's be honest, the Chinese government has been thinking like a crazy person on their Tibetan policy," he says.

"They haven't been facing up to it. This tough policy is not beneficial to China or to Tibetans and also gives China a very bad international image."

Xiao Wunan's exact role when he was in government is unclear - "just call me a former high official", he says.

He also insists that he was not acting as a Chinese government envoy when he met the Dalai Lama.

He says he was in India in his capacity as the executive vice chairman of an organisation called the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APECF).

APECF is often described as being backed by the Chinese government and is involved in some pretty substantial influence building, including a multi-billion-dollar investment in developing a Buddhist site in Nepal.

Either way, it seems unlikely that any former senior Chinese official would be able to visit the Dalai Lama in India, or for that matter be filmed worshipping in front of his picture, without some pretty powerful backing in Beijing.

So what might it all mean? I put this question to Robbie Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University in New York.

Barnett advises against reading too much into Xiao Wunan's meeting with the Dalai Lama, but says it is nonetheless symbolic.

"I can detect no politically significant activities in that meeting," he says, "but it is significant as a symbolic indicator, a glimpse of a shift that might be under consideration in, or near, the policy-making heights of the Chinese system."

He suggests that Xiao's confidence in releasing the video does not necessarily mean he has the backing of the whole of the Chinese leadership, but that he probably has the backing of a powerful faction within it, at the very least.

"We know it is meant to symbolise something," Barnett says.

"They want us to see that something might be happening, that a debate may be taking place."

There can be little doubt that the ban on the portrait of the Dalai Lama and the tightening of Chinese control over the past two decades have served to heighten tensions in Tibet.

Throughout that period there have been talks between the two sides, both formal and informal, but little has changed.

In recent months, however, some reports suggest that the unofficial dialogue has become more substantial, even raising the possibility of the Dalai Lama being allowed to return from exile for a historic visit.

So, should the release of the video by Xiao Wunan be seen as evidence that Xi Jinping really is changing China's approach to Tibetan Buddhism, or is it simply a smokescreen, designed to give the appearance of a softening line, while the harsh crackdown in Tibet continues?

If nothing else, Xiao Wunan and his Dalai Lama shrine appear to be proof that well-connected members of the Chinese elite are now taking an active interest in Tibetan Buddhism - and that monks are now being given license to encourage them.

"They may not be able to buy their way into Nirvana," Geshe Sonam says, "but in Buddhism, you can get more karmic reward the more money you spend on rituals."

 

[Sol Logos]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

I was wondering too Mal7 what exactly was sensational about that Trimondi stuff: _http://www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html ?
Admittedly, I didn't go into a lot of depth with it but I have something of a stone in my shoe about the Dalai Lama's celebration in the West and mainstream media. Maybe I lean on the sceptical side a bit too much because of that, so when I scanned the Trimondi writings it wasn't too surprising seeing the view of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism put forward. The question is worth asking though (like Obyvatel mentioned earlier in a similar way) - how useful is a "spiritual" practice that fails to see and point to reality? If the Dalai Lama is mates with the heads of the Empire and doesn't speak frankly about its psychopathic and destructive dealings, either the practice is highly flawed, the participant is, or we are being deceived. What other options are there?

This would lead me to be even more suspect too...

The 14th Dalai Lama was financially backed by the CIA from the late 1950s until 1974, receiving US$180,000 each year. The funds were paid to him personally, although he used most of them for Tibetan government-in-exile activities funding foreign offices to lobby for international support.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_Tibetan_program

 

[hlat]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

China's decades long pollution problem has no end in sight.

http://www.sott.net/article/292018-Beijing-China-Mayor-says-city-is-unliveable-because-of-smog
Beijing, China - Mayor says city is "unliveable" because of smog

Beijing's mayor, Wang Anshun, has called the city "unliveable" because of its noxious smog, according to state media. "To establish a first-tier, international, liveable and harmonious city, it is very important to establish a system of standards, and Beijing is currently doing this," he said last Friday, according to the China Youth Daily newspaper. "At the present time, however, Beijing is not a liveable city."

Anshun's speech came days before the market research company Euromonitor International announced, in its findings on theglobal tourism market in 2013, that tourism to Beijing had declined by 10% from the year before due to pollution and a countrywide economic slowdown. The company's top 100 city destination rankings, released on Tuesday, ranked Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok in its top three spots, followed by London and Paris. Beijing ranked 34th, in between Johannesburg and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Wang, a former official in the state-controlled petroleum sector and in north-west China's Gansu province, said the pollution was caused by its distribution of polluting factories and skyrocketing ownership of motor vehicles. In his speech, he demanded that Beijing's polluting factories shut down entirely rather than "irresponsibly relocate" to neighbouring areas of Hebei and Tianjin.

In 2014, Beijing authorities closed 392 companies for causing pollution and took 476,000 old vehicles off the roads, Wang said.

He added that despite the choking pollution, Beijing's biggest problem was population control, claiming the influx of migrant labour put strains on the city's infrastructure. The city has 21.5 million residents and is growing at a rate of more than 350,000 a year.

In September 2013, China's cabinet introduced a sweeping anti-pollution plan, which included prohibiting the construction of new coal-fired power plants in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the country's three most important cities.

"This represents the government is strict with science, truth-seeking, responsible for the people and determined to pursue human-centred administration, improve the environment and safeguard people's health rights," said the announcement.

Yet 18 months on, the plan appears to be taking slow effect. Beijing is still shrouded by smog on most days. Authorities announced that in 2014, particulate matter 2.5 - pollutants most dangerous to human health - dropped by 4%, falling just short of the government's 5% reduction target.

 

[Mal7]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

I was wondering too Mal7 what exactly was sensational about that Trimondi stuff: _http://www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html ?

I mentioned one example of what I thought was sensational, the significance made of the connection between the Dalai Lama and the Doomsday Cult leader Shoko Asahara.
I also think Heinrich Harrer was probably more interested in mountaineering than the occult, notwithstanding that he did become an SS officer in 1938 and that there was a Nazi interest in the occult. (_http://www.trimondi.de/EN/Harrer.htm)

By way of analogy though, imagine trying to come up with a book or web-page that portrays Christianity in the worst possible light. One could present information such as:

- vampiric rituals of drinking the blood of their god (Communion).
- child abuse scandals among the priesthood.
- holy scriptures where their God instructs people to kill their own son as a sacrifice.
- a new testament messiah figure who curses fig trees, makes pigs jump off cliffs, and speaks of turning brother against brother, child against parent (Matthew 10:20-21).
- Holy wars / millennial wars for world domination.
- extreme beliefs and anti-social behaviour of certain sects e.g. Westboro Baptist Church.
- inequality of wealth between the church elite and the masses.
- historical instances of intolerance and aggression against other cultures.

While there is some or even a lot of truth in all these points, I think bringing them all together like this and excluding much else of the context would present Christianity unfairly in a sensational way. I think the Trimondi stuff takes this kind of a sensational approach in its presentation of Tibetan Buddhism.

 

[Sol Logos]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

I was wondering too Mal7 what exactly was sensational about that Trimondi stuff: _http://www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html ?

I mentioned one example of what I thought was sensational, the significance made of the connection between the Dalai Lama and the Doomsday Cult leader Shoko Asahara.
I also think Heinrich Harrer was probably more interested in mountaineering than the occult, notwithstanding that he did become an SS officer in 1938 and that there was a Nazi interest in the occult. (_http://www.trimondi.de/EN/Harrer.htm)

By way of analogy though, imagine trying to come up with a book or web-page that portrays Christianity in the worst possible light. One could present information such as:

- vampiric rituals of drinking the blood of their god (Communion).
- child abuse scandals among the priesthood.
- holy scriptures where their God instructs people to kill their own son as a sacrifice.
- a new testament messiah figure who curses fig trees, makes pigs jump off cliffs, and speaks of turning brother against brother, child against parent (Matthew 10:20-21).
- Holy wars / millennial wars for world domination.
- extreme beliefs and anti-social behaviour of certain sects e.g. Westboro Baptist Church.
- inequality of wealth between the church elite and the masses.
- historical instances of intolerance and aggression against other cultures.

While there is some or even a lot of truth in all these points, I think bringing them all together like this and excluding much else of the context would present Christianity unfairly in a sensational way. I think the Trimondi stuff takes this kind of a sensational approach in its presentation of Tibetan Buddhism.

There's plenty of evil practiced in the name of Christianity, particularly Catholicism and to do it best, its usually hidden behind the facade of holiness. In my opinion its hardly sensational to point that out, however doing so will trigger Catholics or anyone invested in the facade to protect it vehemently. Thats usually a good sign of investment in my opinion.

 

[Mal7]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

There's plenty of evil practiced in the name of Christianity, particularly Catholicism and to do it best, its usually hidden behind the facade of holiness. In my opinion its hardly sensational to point that out, however doing so will trigger Catholics or anyone invested in the facade to protect it vehemently. Thats usually a good sign of investment in my opinion.

My attempt to make a sensational picture of Christianity may not have been been a good example then, if it ended up coming across as a fairly accurate summary. :)

I still think that what happened in Tibet in the second half of the 20th Century was more like attempted cultural genocide than a peaceful liberation, so I think it is appropriate to feel triggered if it seems like those events are being passed over too hastily. But I'm happy to give the subject of Tibet a rest, since the situation seems to be looking better under the present leadership of Xi Jinping. I'm still happy to give my opinion though if you have any more specific questions relating to the Trimondi material. I doubt if the Chinese Communist Party's take-over of Tibet would make the Top 10 list of humanity's worst episodes of the 20th Century, but probably I think it would be in the Top 100.

At the moment I'm reading a book What's Left? How the Left Lost its Way by Nick Cohen. I don't agree with everything in it, probably not even half of it (the author is against "conspiratorial" analyses of history), but nevertheless am finding it an interesting and challenging read. Cohen's main theme is that what could loosely be called the modern "Left", in its stance of being anti-American, along with being post-modern and embracing cultural relativism, often finds itself closely aligned with far-right fascist or totalitarian governments. The book begins with a few chapters on the changing attitudes of the Left to Kanan Makiya and his book Republic of Fear about Iraq under Saddam Hussein's Baath party. When Saddam Hussein was America's tin-pot dictator friend in the Middle East, it was ok for the liberal left to speak out against Saddam and his oppressive regime in Iraq. Then once Saddam became America's official enemy, the Left became less interested in hearing Makiya "harping on about the Baathists' crimes".

Makiya saw at once that many on the liberal-left were prepared to turn their eyes from fascistic totalitarianism and realized the dismal consequences for the future. In 1993, he published Cruelty and Silence, which dissected the Arab intelligentsia's unwillingness to confront its monsters. He took on Edward Said, whose Orientalism was and is a hugely influential account of how the West shaped the Middle East. Orientalism is a narrative of victimhood that finds in racist outsiders a comforting explanation for Arab backwardness. Makiya replied that if you placed all the blame for the region's disasters on Western imperialism and racism, you ignored the home-grown disasters of Arab nationalism and Islamism. The unintended consequence was an inverted racism that denied the autonomy of Arabs and let local oppressors off the hook. Tyrants could always claim that the woes that afflicted their peoples came from America or Israel, and divert the anger that should have been directed against them.

- Nick Cohen, What's Left? page 75.

There is also a chapter on Noam Chomsky, who while doing a very good job of listing America's crimes, has made some dismissive comments regarding other non-American atrocities, such as those of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge or the treatment of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs.

 

[Niall]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

There is also a chapter on Noam Chomsky, who while doing a very good job of listing America's crimes, has made some dismissive comments regarding other non-American atrocities, such as those of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge or the treatment of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs.

With good reason: Pol Pot's atrocities took place within a context of the US carpet-bombing Indochina for almost 2 decades. And 'the [negative, egregious] treatment of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs' is Western, liberal fiction of a war they created for specific, geostrategic aims.

Nick Cohen's views are essentially the British establishment's views. Again, you're missing the forest for the trees, and it's no surprise if you keep reading that stuff.

 

[seek10]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

I was wondering too Mal7 what exactly was sensational about that Trimondi stuff: _http://www.trimondi.de/EN/front.html ?
Admittedly, I didn't go into a lot of depth with it but I have something of a stone in my shoe about the Dalai Lama's celebration in the West and mainstream media. Maybe I lean on the sceptical side a bit too much because of that, so when I scanned the Trimondi writings it wasn't too surprising seeing the view of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism put forward. The question is worth asking though (like Obyvatel mentioned earlier in a similar way) - how useful is a "spiritual" practice that fails to see and point to reality?

Little bit different angle beyond politics.

I think Buddhism along with Hinduism (its vegetarianism components) was used to create and propagate New age for the western people who are fed up with Christianity and other related religions.

For example, In India some castes can't eat any meat, No Hindu expected to eat beef (cow is a sacred animal), Muslims can't eay Pork( Pig is sacred to them). Even in India It is a common knowledge that meat is good for healthy muscles( Leaving aside who holeheartedly believed. Whenever a 6-pack or 4-pack movie hero comes, people used to attribute it to Meat. I heard similar comments whenever any heavy Indian athlete fail to lift a weight(weight lifting competition), but thin Western/Russian athlete lifts it. Once I was taken to a doctor(in India) for being weak, the first thing doctor told us is 'Eat Meat'.

Whenever some one promote vegetarianism citing Hindu sources, It makes me wonder- where did this vegetarianism propaganda came from? It looks to me it as a Western propaganda that fits their agenda of screwing up the people's brain.

 

[Mal7]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

And 'the [negative, egregious] treatment of Bosnian Muslims by the Serbs' is Western, liberal fiction of a war they created for specific, geostrategic aims.

Nick Cohen's views are essentially the British establishment's views. Again, you're missing the forest for the trees, and it's no surprise if you keep reading that stuff.

I think the US intervenes in other countries where it will advance US interests, and not because it has a giant humanitarian heart and hates to see oppression or genocide going on.

The Srebrenica killing of about 8,000 Muslim men by ponerized followers of Slobodan Milosevic is surely not just a western liberal fiction though? It seems to have been investigated at some depth by the international Court of Justice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_Genocide)

The book Fools' Crusade by Diana Johnstone did question whether 8,000 Muslim men were killed at Sreberenica. Johnstone "was prepared to condemn Serb nationalists for killing only 199 Muslims in Srebrenica." (Nick Cohen, What's Left, p. 177). Chomsky and other leftists wrote a letter of defence of Johnstone, saying "‘We regard Johnstone’s Fools’ Crusade as an outstanding work, dissenting from the mainstream view but doing so by an appeal to fact and reason, in a great tradition." (_https://bosniangenocide.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/chomskys-genocidal-denial/)

 

[Joe]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

Well, the ICJ may not be so impartial, like any international body. You should look around for other viewpoints. For example

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-srebrenica-massacre-was-a-gigantic-political-fraud/5321388

 

[Mal7]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

Well, the ICJ may not be so impartial, like any international body. You should look around for other viewpoints. For example

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-srebrenica-massacre-was-a-gigantic-political-fraud/5321388

Thank you Perceval for the link to the interview with Edward S. Herman on Srebrenica. (Herman was co-author with Noam Chomsky of their book Manufacturing Consent.)

I also found of some interest this email exchange, partly on this topic, between George Monbiot and Noam Chomsky:

_http://www.monbiot.com/2012/05/21/2181/

Chomsky argues that the Srebenica "genocide" pales in comparison with the American genocide of native Americans. Monbiot replies that this criticism is unfair since he (Monbiot) has also written about the "invisible" (i.e. largely invisible to the Western mainstream media) American Genocide, e.g. in his article on the message in "Avatar".

This page has information on the work done by Mirsad Tokaca's Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center on deaths in the Bosnian war:

_https://srebrenicamassacre1995.wordpress.com/tag/mirsad-tokaca/

 

[SeekinTruth]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

You might want to research the outrageous frauds, false testimony/fabricated evidence/suppression of evidence, miscarriages of justice, and astonishing violations of the judicial processes concerning the "Tribunal" for the Former Yugoslavia. There are international lawyers and legal experts/analysts that have exposed what a politicized witch hunt many of these "trials" were that I've read online over the years. They did many similar things being done now with the Ukraine crisis (e.g. blaming the victims for crimes of the opposing side/false flag type events, etc.) to shape and propagate the official narrative.

 

[Siberia]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

Here is what China has to say about yesterday's meeting of Dalai Lama & Obama:

Commentary: Mr. Obama, playing the Dalai Lama card backfires

02-05-2015

by Xinhua Writer Tian Dongdong

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Though the degree to which U.S. President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama will interact Thursday during the National Prayer Breakfast is unclear, any possible meeting or encounter between the two is sure to have negative consequences because the Dalai Lama is a political liability which backfires.

Issues regarding Tibet concern China's core interests and national sentiments. Beijing has long made it clear that the Dalai Lama, who has for decades tried to separate Tibet from China, should never be hosted by leaders of other countries.

Chumming with a secessionist is playing with fire, which severely harms the mutual trust between China and the United States, and downgrades Obama's credit as a national leader for breaking his commitments to China on the Tibet issue.

There may be self-claimed friendship between Obama and the Dalai Lama as individuals, but a meeting between a U.S. president and a political fugitive goes beyond personal domain. What lies under their hypocritical relationship is nothing but political deals and cold calculations.

Frankly speaking, Obama needs the Dalai Lama not because the latter is respectful, as Obama claimed, but because the Dalai Lama is useful. For one thing, he is a separatist. For another, he comes from China and is against his own motherland.

In essence, the Dalai Lama is just a handy tool for Obama to scramble for short-term gains, show off his moral clarity and score easy points at home.

But Obama and other politicians who want to meet the political fugitive will soon find they have miscalculated as their losses outweigh their gains and they have to pay too much for the whistle.

Firstly, China's determination to defend its core interests such as the Tibet issue should never be underestimated.

"We strongly oppose any country interfering in China's internal affairs in the name of issues regarding Tibet," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson strongly reiterated on Monday.

Secondly, if Obama meets the Dalai Lama, he will simply reverse the positive trends established by China and the U.S. in the development of their relations.

For all that, any possible meeting or encounter with the Dalai Lama planned by Obama will dampen the hard-won positive momentum in China-U.S. relations.

Now the ball is in Washington's court. It is highly advisable that the United States stick to its commitments and properly handle related issues with the overall interests of China-U.S. relations in mind.

Pretty clear position. And here is New York Times about the same event:

Obama’s Public Encounter With the Dalai Lama Riles China

By ANDREW JACOBSFEB. 6, 2015

BEIJING — China and the United States have worked out a reliable pas de deux over the Dalai Lama, the Nobel laureate and Tibetan spiritual leader, whom Beijing sometimes describes as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

It goes like this: Chinese leaders warn the White House against granting the Dalai Lama a public audience, and the American president either ignores the threats of diplomatic fallout or finds a way to hold a meeting that will result in the least offense to Beijing.

Since taking office, President Obama has met with the Dalai Lama on three occasions, each time within the privacy of the White House rather than during the kind of public event that might prompt outsize indignation on the part of Chinese leaders.

Then, on Thursday, Mr. Obama was handed a diplomatically novel way to express his admiration for the Dalai Lama when the two exchanged greetings at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington and the president described him as a “good friend.”

Video footage of the event showed Mr. Obama clasping his hands in a gesture of reverence and then waving at the Dalai Lama with a broad smile. In a speech, he described the 79-year-old exiled Buddhist leader as a “powerful example of what it means to practice compassion,” one “who inspired us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings.”

The highly public episode infuriated Beijing, which accused Mr. Obama of cynically orchestrating the encounter and suggested it was designed to complicate China’s governance of Tibet, the vast, strategically pivotal region that has bridled at Beijing’s heavy-handed rule since Communist troops invaded in 1950.

“The Dalai Lama has over a long period of time used the banner of religion to engage in separatist, anti-Chinese activities as a political exile,” Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a regular news conference on Friday. “We oppose any foreign country allowing the Dalai Lama to visit, and oppose any country using the issue of Tibet to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

In a commentary Friday, the state-run news agency Xinhua was more colorful. “This action by the U.S. to ‘drive a nail’ into the hearts of the Chinese people is harmful to the political trust between the two countries, and it is harmful to the premise and foundation of both sides building a new relationship,” it said.

China typically reacts with petulance when a foreign leader meets the Dalai Lama, who is admired across much of the world but loathed by the Communist Party. China frequently accuses the Dalai Lama of promoting Tibetan independence, although he has repeatedly said he seeks only the autonomy long promised by Beijing.

In recent years, as its economic and diplomatic stature has grown, China has had increasing success in persuading countries to publicly snub the Tibetan spiritual leader and, in some cases, deny him a visa.

But China’s latest effort to discourage an encounter between the Dalai Lama and Mr. Obama appears to have been doomed from the start, given the public nature of the event, to which both men were invited guests.

In a commentary published shortly before the event, Xinhua warned Mr. Obama against doing anything that might be interpreted as demonstrating respect for the Dalai Lama. “Chumming with a secessionist is playing with fire, which severely harms the mutual trust between China and the United States, and downgrades Obama’s credit as a national leader for breaking his commitments to China on the Tibet issue,” it said.

Robert J. Barnett, director of the Modern Tibet Studies Program at Columbia University, said the White House had outmaneuvered China by declining to grant the Dalai Lama an official audience during his visit to Washington but demonstrating the president’s support through a public encounter that would resonate with rights advocates and Tibetan exile groups.

Although China’s forceful and florid protests are largely aimed at showing its resolve to a domestic audience, Mr. Barnett said its public statements were unbecoming of a world power. “It makes them look tetchy and unreasonable,” he said, “and in the end, the Chinese allowed the Americans to walk them into a situation that doesn’t look good.”

If previous presidential meetings with the Dalai Lama are any guide, the harm to United States-China relations from the event on Thursday will be negligible. Still, Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, said that Chinese leaders believed they had no choice but to draw semantic lines in the sand. “If China doesn’t protest, then many other leaders would meet up with the Dalai Lama, and that would have a negative impact on our efforts to bring stability to Tibet,” he said.

Sure, Obama: Ukrainian separatism is not enough, why not fueling Tibetian separatism as well?...

 

[hlat]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

Those who compare Ukraine with Tibet or Taiwan seem to be blinded by your own ideology. You have a hammer but then you mistakenly see everything as nails. I suppose you would also view Taiwanese as separatists and the elderly surviving KMT as people from China against their own motherland.

I get it, you hate the US-led West and everything you support must fall in line with that. I don't agree with that approach. I'm an equal opportunity opposer of all governments who abuse people. China is not off limits to legitimate criticism, even if that legitimate criticism happens to strengthen the West against China.

 

[Mal7]

Re: Pro-China bias on SOTT?

I think whether separatist movements are "legitimate" in an ethical sense is a choice that has to be made by those involved, and by those who support them, based on the particularities and the history of each particular situation, whether it be Taiwan, Tibet, Ukraine, Palestine, Scotland, or the Kurds (reportedly the largest ethnic group without their own state). A person may reach a conclusion that some of these movements are legitimate, and others are not.

This may sometimes result in people aligning with a cause where they don't have much realistic hope of achieving their goal, but it may still be important that they make that choice. If politics was just about "might is right", then determining the "legitimacy" of political struggles would be easy: "We have a much bigger army than you, so we are right and you are wrong."

When the Dalai Lama meets foreign politicians, China always says "He is a separatist. Let us handle our internal politics. Tibet has always been part of China." This may be right or wrong, but I don't think it should be accepted at face value without some historical investigation. As a hypothetical parallel, the Prime Minister of Israel (which doesn't recognize the state of Palestine, along with most of the West) could say something similar about a political representative of Palestine meeting with a leader from one of the BRICS countries (which do recognize the state of Palestine), e.g. "He is a separatist. Let us handle our internal politics. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip have been part of Israel since 1967."