Ultimate Snub: Pres. Obama Won’t Welcome Dalai Lama During His US Visit
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on October 6, 2009
Pres. Obama is snubbing Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama to make China happy
Our president will meet with bloodthirsty, murderous dictators, even embrace them, laugh with them, accept gifts from them… but NOT meet peaceful Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, the Dalai Lama? The ultimate diss. The ultimate failure in honoring human rights and international relationships.
So much for that ‘hopenchange’ thing we were promised from President Snubby…
I wonder how Hollywood left-wing celebrities, like Richard Gere and others who honor and respect the Dalai Lama, will cope with and justify The One snubbing him during his 5-day visit to the United States? Let the statist waffling begin.
From UK Telegraph, Barack Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama ‘to keep China happy’
President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favour with the Chinese.
By Alex Spillius
October 5, 2009The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader.
It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991.
The Buddhist monk arrived in Washington on Monday for a week of meetings with Congressional leaders, celebrity supporters and interest groups, but the president will not see him until after he has made his first visit to China next month.
Samdhong Rinpoche, the Tibetan prime minister-in-exile, has accused the United States and other Western nations of “appeasement” toward China as its economic weight grows.
“Today, economic interests are much greater than other interests,” he said.
Mr Obama’s decision dismayed human rights and Tibetan support groups, who said he had made an unnecessary concession to the Chinese, who regard the Dalai Lama as a “splittist”, despite his calls for autonomy rather than independence for Tibet. The Chinese invaded in 1950, forcing the young leader to flee.
Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: “Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing.
“This idea that if you are nice to the Chinese Communist Party up front you can cash in later is just wrong. If you lower the bar on human rights they will just move it lower and lower.”Over several months of discussions the Tibetans resisted entreaties to delay the meeting, arguing that a refusal would make smaller countries more vulnerable to pressure from China not to meet the Dalai Lama.
But they were told by US officials they wanted to work with China on critical issues, including nuclear weapons proliferation in North Korea and Iran, according to The Washington Post. Mr Obama then sent a delegation to the Dalai Lama’s home in exile in India last month that confirmed the meeting would be deferred.
Mr Obama has changed his position on Tibet since his election campaign.
In April 2008, he was joined by Hillary Clinton, then his rival for the Democratic nomination and now his Secretary of State, in calling on George W Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony in protest at the bloody repression of a popular uprising in Tibet.
“If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security, and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the President should boycott the opening ceremonies,” they said.
Mrs Clinton has been at the forefront of a new approach, called “strategic reassurance”, which seeks a more amicable partnership with the emerging power.
On her first trip to China in February she said public pressure on China over human rights was ill-advised as she “knew what the Chinese were going to say”.
[...]
The Tibetan leader’s ten meetings with US presidents have played an important role in maintaining his international profile, even though they have never been filmed or followed by a press conference.
The exception was 2007, when George W Bush conferred the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest civilian award, on the Dalai Lama in front of the cameras.
Frank Wolf, a Republican congressman and outspoken critic of China’s human rights record, said: “What would a Buddhist monk or Buddhist nun in Drapchi prison think when he heard that President Obama, the president of the United States, is not going to meet with the Dalai Lama?
“It’s against the law to even have a picture of the Dalai Lama. I can almost hear the words of the Chinese guards saying to them that nobody cares about you in the United States.”
Ms Richardson said treating human rights as separate from other issues guaranteed failure “across the board”.
“If there is no explicit agreement to stop locking up environmental activists and whistle blowers then any environmental agreement will be weakened.
“If the press in China is muzzled it won’t investigate industrial safety and you will have more toxic toys coming to the United States,” she said.
Ingratiate ourselves with our foes, ignore historical realities, betray a democratic ally, ignore critics, stake out an intransigent position, and then try to figure out an escape plan. It’s eerily similar to the Obama team’s Middle East policy. The Obama team clearly lacks an internal warning system to identify when it’s going drastically off course. And the president plainly lacks the gut instinct to figure it out for himself — as well as savvy advisers with enough influence to steer him clear of fiascos like Honduras.
From The American Pundit: Good News: Obama Snubs to Dalai Lama to Appease China:
Wait a minute. What happened to the liberal line about how horrible it is to ignore moral wrongs in order to further our own interests? You know, complaining about our ignoring the social wrongs in Saudi Arabia just because its continued cooperation is of strategic interest to the United States?
Oh, right. That was under Republican leadership. Now ignoring moral wrongs in order to pursue what the White House considers America’s interests is an okey dokey strategy.
From Stand Like a Rock:
The Dalai Lama is lauded in much of the world as a figure of moral authority, but China demonizes him and claims he seeks to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
“A lot of nations are adopting a policy of appeasement” toward China, Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of Tibet’s government in exile, said after Jarrett delivered the news.
“I understand why Obama is not meeting with the Dalai Lama before his Chinese trip” scheduled for November. “It is common sense. Obama should not irritate the Chinese leadership.”
Rinpoche may be understanding, but Michael Gerson of the Washington Post takes issue with Obama’s decision in an article headlined “A Cold Shoulder to Liberty.”
He writes: “Every president needs room for diplomatic maneuvering. But rebuffing the Dalai Lama is part of a pattern…
“Support for Iranian democrats has been hesitant. Overtures to repressive governments in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria and Egypt have generally ignored the struggles of dissidents and prisoners in those nations.
“So far, the Obama era is hardly a high point of human rights solidarity.”
Additional:
Reuters: Obama breaks precedent by not meeting Dalai Lama
Stop The ACLU: Obama Disses Dalai Lama To Woo Red China
Not Your Sweetie: Obama to Dalai Lama: Later, dude!
GayPatriot: Obama Refuses to Meet With Dalai Lama
Snow Report Blog: Obama Snubs the Dalai Lama – WSJ.com: No Time for the Dalai Lama
Blue Crab Boulevard: No More Treacherous Friend
The Anchoress, A First Things Blog: Peretz’s nervy question
The Worst.com: Obama Ends Presidential Tradition of Meeting Dalai Lama
Rev. Danny Fisher: The Wall Street Journal on the Obama Administration “Shunning Tibet”
Stand Like a Rock: Obama Shuns Dalai Lama
Global Geopolitics News: OBAMA DUCKS DALAI LAMA
Hot Air: Obama snubbed Dalai Lama to appease China: Telegraph
Insignificant Thoughts: Obama Won’t Meet With the Dalai Lama For Fear of Offending China
The Lonely Conservative: Obama Throws the Dalai Lama Under his Bus
Empty Suit: Dalai Lama Fist Bump
Only in Memphis: The Dalai Lama is not your Homeboy
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