Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, April 23 – China today said that President Barack Obama should not meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his October visit to Washington D.C.
“We firmly oppose the Dalai’s engagement in separatist activities in any country under whatever capacity and under whatever name,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu was quoted by Associated Press as saying at a regular news conference in Beijing.
Jiang said her government has urged the US to “honor its commitments and not allow the Dalai to engage in separatist activities in the United States.”
China cancelled a major summit with the European Union last year due to a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Dalai Lama in Poland.
China regularly accuses the 73 year old Tibetan leader of seeking independence for Tibet but the Tibetan leader who is respected and admired widely in the world says he is seeking a genuine autonomy for the restive Himalayan region and not independence as accused by China.
In February, the Obama administration came under strong criticism when its Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her trip to Beijing, said that the United States would not let its human rights concerns interfere with cooperation with Beijing.
His Holiness begins his US tour tomorrow with a lecture at the University of Santa Barbara, California. His Holiness will also visit Berkeley, Boston, New York and Albany in the next two weeks. This is His first visit to the country after Obama became president of the United States.
