Obama Meets with the Dalai Lama

Here we go again: Obama is meeting with the Dalai Lama, China is snarling and we are witnessing another unpleasant intercontinental exchange. Shortly, everything will return to how it was before. The triangle between the U.S., China and the Dalai Lama has now become an international custom. From this meeting, it is believed that all parties will benefit in, naturally, diverse ways.

The United States, upon listening to the spiritual leader of one of the most sensitive regions in Beijing, feels the need to respond to international requirements, emphasizing in particular the question of human rights and the linguistic and cultural autonomy of Tibet. Obama and the Dalai Lama’s meeting allows Washington to emerge as a state able to stress a clear and precise distance with respect to their rival, but obligatory economic ally.

The resentment taken in turn by the Chinese has a function that is mostly internal. Beijing maintains a national stance that they are immovable over Tibet and that they must remain involved, especially during this period of economic and social transformation. With this, there is the new “Chinese dream,” the slogan of Xi Jinping, which requires a vigilant China that is able to communicate on equal ground with the United States. Of course, the Tibetan spiritual leader also has something to gain: These types of meetings allow him to maintain, at least for a few days, international attention on the Tibetan region, emphasizing the necessity of being vigilant regarding what has happened recently in the area, which is often closed off in an airtight manner from Chinese authorities. They convene at a little theater that is used every time the Dalai Lama finds himself meeting with any foreign leaders. It is good to remember that prime ministers and presidents, once they arrive in Beijing, forget about Tibetan requests and put on the table whatever most appeals to the Chinese treasure chest, looking to avoid any words that would be suspect to Chinese ears.

As we saw yesterday, the National Security Council spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, emphasized that the United States considers Tibet to be part of China, adding, however, that they are “concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.” A request to cancel the meeting had arrived from Beijing because they were afraid that it would cause “serious damage” to relations between the two countries, constituting interference in China’s internal affairs. The occasion, Beijing specified, “will seriously damage Sino-U.S. relations. We urge the United States to take seriously China’s concerns, immediately cancel plans for the U.S. leader to meet the Dalai, do not facilitate and provide a platform for Dalai’s anti-China separatist activities in the United States.”

The meeting came at a delicate moment for Sino-American relations. The United States has expressed worry regarding China’s behavior in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and Beijing fears that Obama’s strategic pivot to Asia could cause damage to its interests in the region.

Plus, yesterday an American Navy official maintained that the Chinese are preparing a blitzkrieg of the disputed anti-Japanese islands, a hypothesis mitigated by other officials and then categorized as coming from the rumor mill that, ultimately, two armies seemed to forage.

However, “at the same time,” Reuters points out, “both countries are increasingly interdependent and have to cooperate on international issues such as Iran and North Korea. China is also the United States’ biggest foreign creditor. As of July 31, China held $1.28 trillion in U.S. treasury bonds, according to Treasury Department data.”