Straight Platform Politics

The Dalai Lama Snub

The Dalai Lama visited the United States earlier this month and was snubbed by the President. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled China in 1959, has visited the U.S. ten times since 1991. This was the first time he has not met with the president during his visit.

President Obama did not want to meet with the Dalai Lama until after the president’s visit to China in November. John Pomfret reported in the Washington Post (Oct. 5, 2009) that the decision to postpone the meeting “appears to be a part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China’s human rights and financial policies.”

But according to Pomfret, the Chinese had already concluded that the meeting would take place in October and were interested only in how the president would receive the Dalai Lama: would it be a private or public visit. Thus, Obama officials needlessly postponed the president’s very important meeting with the exiled leader.

"’We’ve got the classic case of a Western government yet again conceding to Chinese pressure that is imaginary long after that Chinese pressure has ceased to exist,’ said Robert Barnett, a Tibetan expert at Columbia University. ‘The Chinese must be falling over themselves with astonishment at what Western diplomats will give them without being asked.’”

China, Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama's visit, John Pomfret, President Obama, Robert Barnett, Tibet, Washington Post, human rights, snub