By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, March 19 – China has derided last month’s meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama saying, “Although he did meet with the U.S. President Feb. 18, 2010, it was only after Obama’s visit to China, and they only met in the Map Room of the White House. Moreover, the picture of the Dalai Lama leaving the White House from the backdoor by the trashcans makes the meeting seem disgraceful.”
China has also lashed out against US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other world leaders supportive of Tibet and the Dalai Lama. An article published March 19 by the People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, called her “anti-China crusader in the House” and said she always votes “no” in issues that favor China. China’s reaction came after Pelosi had expressed her support to the Dalai Lama’s March 10 statement.
The article accused Pelosi of supporting the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exile government for her “political gain.” Pelosi has been an ardent supporter of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people throughout her political career. She visited Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama and the exile Tibetan government, in 2008 to express her support for the Tibetan people as China cracked down on Tibetan protesters in Tibet.
It also said the US is getting more and more reluctant to show support to the Dalai Lama and the exile Tibetan government who, it said, had maintained a “low profile this year”, apparently referring to the March 10 commemoration.
The article called the Tibetan leader “a political pawn” of the US to “contain China.” It said the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile would have “retreated from the stage of history if the U.S. did not serve to prop him up.”
It said the Tibetan leader and the government can not survive without help from western supporters.
