Tibetologists: Obama-Dalai meeting interferes in China's internal affairs
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Tibetologists said Friday the Obama-Dalai Lama meeting was apparently "interference in China's internal affairs" and "defiance of China's state sovereignty."
Despite China's strong opposition, U.S. President Barack Obama met Thursday with the Dalai Lama in Washington. China urged the United States early Friday morning to take concrete actions for healthy development of bilateral ties.
Du Yongbin, a researcher with the China Tibetology Research Center, told Xinhua that no nation in the world recognizes "Tibet independence," nor does any country deem the Dharamsala-based "Tibet government-in-exile" legal, and all U.S. presidents and governments publicly acknowledge that Tibet is a part of the Chinese territory.
While the White House said Obama met the Dalai Lama in his so-called "religious identity", Du said it was just "diplomatic manoeuvres".
The Dalai Lama's religious and political identities could not be separated, as he is not only a living Buddha of the Gelug sect of the Tibetan Buddhism, but also the de facto leader of the theocratic "government-in-exile," he said.
The meeting aimed to contain China by playing the "Tibet Card," Du said, adding when the Dalai Lama went to Washington last October, Obama did not meet him for purpose of making his ensuing first China visit successful.
The Thursday meeting is actually fulfillment of Obama's promise to the Dalai Lama that he would meet him later, Du said, adding Obama had been under pressure from the U.S. hardliners and its advocates of "Tibet issue".
Since 1991 when then U.S. President George H. W. Bush became the first U.S. president to meet the Dalai Lama, there had been 11 meetings between U.S. presidents and the Dalai Lama before Obama took office.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement it was regardless of China's repeated solemn representations for the U.S. to obstinately arrange the meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama.
"The U.S. act grossly violated the norms governing the international relations, and ran counter to the principles set forth in the three China-U.S. joint communiques and the China-U.S. joint statement," he said.
It also went against the repeated commitments by the U.S. government that the U.S. recognizes Tibet as part of China and gives no support to "Tibet independence," he said.
