China’s Artificial Anger at President Obama

Beijing skillfully complains about the Dalai Lama’s invitation. In truth, China wishes the U.S. all the best, especially regarding the dollar.

It was like the start to a new drama in China-U.S. relations: At midnight, Cui Tian-kai, Chinese assistant minister of Foreign Affairs, within the first few minutes of Sunday morning, ordered Robert Wang, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy Beijing, to come to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was there that he bitterly blamed him for the U.S. president’s meeting with the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet in faraway Washington.

However, the late night appointment was less of a harassment than a reaction to the meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama that was taking place simultaneously in a different time zone. It deliberately did not take place in the Oval Office of the White House, but in the Map Room — the reception hall thought of for memorable meetings. TV cameras and journalists were banned. Thus, Beijing did not need to have broadcasts by the BBC or CNN censored on Sunday because of information about the meeting, which it would otherwise have done.

Stereotypical Allegations

Despite such calming gestures, the U.S. got to hear the four well-known, stereotypical allegations from Beijing: The Dalai Lama meeting “has grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, hurt the feelings of Chinese people, undermined their core interests and damaged Sino-American relations.”

The Dalai Lama has been living in India since the Chinese People’s Liberation Army brutally suppressed an uprising of the Tibetan people in 1959, and Beijing has been fighting him to this day as the alleged champion of Tibetan liberation.

On Saturday, Chinese propaganda tried to dissuade Obama from the meeting with a special message. All daily newspapers appeared with front pages that showed Hu Jintao, president of the People’s Republic of China, personally leading a group of U.S. students and teachers from Chicago on a tour of his party and government headquarters in Zhongnanhai, a district in Beijing. The message should certainly have been: “Our relations are so good right now. Do not put them at risk.”

Diplomatic Visits Should Be Intensified

The students, some of whom, according to newspaper reports, even addressed Hu Jintao as “Grandpa Hu,” were the vanguard of 100,000 students from the U.S. who are to come to China in 2015. During Hu’s visit to Washington in January, both countries had agreed to the most substantial youth exchange that China had ever entered into with a foreign country.

Diplomatic visits are also to be intensified: Last week, Beijing celebrated the “successful” visit of the highest-ranking member of the U.S. military to China, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and leading Chinese foreign policy figure Dai Bingguo intend to meet on July 25; visits by Vice President Joseph Biden to China and Vice President Xi Jinping to the U.S. are to follow.

U.S. Lobbies for Dialogue between Beijing and Dalai Lama

Thus, Beijing’s anger over Obama’s 44-minute meeting with the Dalai Lama only came to light in a limited manner and with a cue to quickly return to normal. On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry demanded that the U.S. “take credible measures to undo the damage done.”

Obama and the Dalai Lama had already downplayed the urgency of their meeting. Above all, both sides confirmed the symbolic value. According to a statement from the White House, Obama supports “the preservation of the unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions of Tibet and the Tibetan people throughout the world.” The U.S. advocated dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama precisely because he is not striving for the independence of Tibet.

China’s Tibet Policy Criticized Globally

Talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government in January 2010 were ultimately fruitless. The 76-year-old, who is now staying in the U.S. for 10 days, called his conversation with Obama a “spiritual meeting.” He particularly welcomed Obama’s commitment to improving the human rights situation in Tibet, saying, “Naturally, he showed genuine concern about suffering in Tibet.”

Sixty years after the invasion of Tibet’s capital Lhasa by the People’s Liberation Army, China’s policy concerning Tibet, the Seventeen Point Agreement, is once again coming under global criticism. Human rights organizations like the International Campaign for Tibet are accusing Beijing of a “massive wave of repression.”

Tibetan areas in neighboring provinces, such as the Kirti monastery in the Sichuan province bordering Tibet, are also being heavily suppressed. China did not allow Beijing correspondents to verify the accusations on the ground. The region was even off-limits to foreign tourists ahead of its 60th anniversary celebrations.

Pictures Similar to Those from North Korea

Doubt was further strengthened by Chinese propaganda, which published photos and reports about “happy Tibet” on Sunday. Xi Jinping, Chinese vice president and the designated next leader of China’s Communist Party, flew from Beijing to Lhasa on Sunday as the leader of a large delegation for the 60-year celebration.

Television images showed how he was greeted at the airport by 600 Tibetan dancers. The streets were lined with thousands of cheering people en route to the city. China’s television audience recognizes such images only from reports about North Korea.

Chinese newspapers did not print their own commentaries or analyses of the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Obama. In contrast, they are following the president’s battle for dollar stability much more attentively. Large business newspapers warned of the consequences, including those for China, in the event of the U.S. declaring itself technically insolvent.

In April alone, China invested a third of its federal reserve of $3.3 trillion — approximately $1.152 trillion — in U.S. government bonds. The China Business Journal warns that this is why Beijing does not have more pull. If the U.S. were to become insolvent, then “we [China] and the Japanese will be the biggest losers.”