With One Eye on China, Bush Receives Dalai Lama

Source: New York Times
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 17, 2007
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — President Bush met privately with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Tuesday, as tensions escalated between the United States and China over Congress’s awarding its highest civilian honor to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Back Story With The Times's Sheryl Stolberg (mp3)The 30-minute meeting, which the Dalai Lama said included a discussion of the situations in Tibet and Myanmar, formerly Burma, was fraught with symbolism and cloaked in secrecy — an effort by the White House to avoid further angering the Chinese.

The session was held upstairs in the Yellow Oval Room of the White House residence, not the Oval Office, to send a message that Mr. Bush was receiving a spiritual leader, not a political one.

Aides to Mr. Bush declined to disclose details of the discussion, and the White House would not release a photograph of the two together, as it has during previous visits.

“We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye,” Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, told reporters, adding, “We understand the Chinese have very strong feelings about this.”

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, has lived in exile in India since the Chinese army crushed an uprising in his homeland in 1959, and is revered as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He has been pressing, without success, to return to China to advocate for greater cultural and religious freedoms for his followers.

The Dalai Lama’s envoy, Lodi Gyari, who attended the meeting, said Mr. Bush described his efforts with China’s president, Hu Jintao, on the Dalai Lama’s behalf: “The president said he has been telling the Chinese president that you need to meet with this man, you should trust the Dalai Lama, I know this man and I trust him and you must not hesitate to meet with his holiness.”

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Gyari said, the Dalai Lama closed his eyes, as if in prayer, and then offered gifts to the president and first lady: white silk ceremonial shawls, which he draped around each of their necks.

The Dalai Lama is in Washington for a week of festivities. On Wednesday, he will receive the Congressional Gold Medal in a ceremony at the Capitol, and will later deliver a speech on the Capitol lawn. Mr. Bush will participate in the award ceremony, marking the first time he and the Dalai Lama will have appeared together in public during this visit.

That has infuriated the Chinese, who on Tuesday warned the United States not to honor the Dalai Lama, saying it would have “an extremely serious impact” on relations between the United States and China.

Speaking at a Foreign Ministry briefing and on the sidelines of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party, the Communist Party boss of Tibet, Zhang Qingli, condemned the Dalai Lama as a “splittist” who wants to break Tibet away from China.

“Such a person who basely splits his motherland and doesn’t even love his motherland has been welcomed by some countries and has even been receiving this or that award,” Mr. Zhang said, adding, “We are furious.”

But the officials did not say what actions the Chinese would take. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid further straining relations, said the award was unlikely to seriously disrupt China’s relations with the United States, which have warmed as the countries have cooperated on an agreement to end North Korea’s nuclear program.

“They know where we stand on the Dalai Lama and religious freedom, and we know where they stand,” the official said. “So we can all make these statements, but we wind up in the same place at the end of the day.”

Still, by participating in the ceremony, Mr. Bush will be walking a fine line. He began laying the groundwork to soothe Chinese feelings more than a month ago, in Sydney, where he told President Hu that he would attend the Congressional medal ceremony — at the same time that he accepted an invitation to attend the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.

Mr. Bush cannot afford to alienate Mr. Hu; he wants China to help end Iran’s nuclear program, as it has done with North Korea.

But on Monday, the Chinese postponed a meeting in Berlin at which world powers were to discuss Iran, raising speculation that it had done so because of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Washington.

China also recently canceled its annual human rights dialogue with Germany, to protest the September meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Dalai Lama.

In a brief encounter with reporters on the sidewalk outside his Washington hotel after leaving the White House on Tuesday, the Dalai Lama shrugged off China’s protest. Dressed in his familiar flowing burgundy robe with gold trim, he threw up his hands when asked about the Chinese.

“Oh, that always happens,” he said, laughing.

He said Mr. Bush was “showing his concern about Tibet” and, “accordingly, I explained.” He also said he had “expressed my appreciation to Mrs. Bush” for her advocacy on Myanmar, where the military government last month cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations led by Buddhist monks.

He described the meeting as “very good,” adding, “Since we know each other and we develop some kind of, I think, very close friendship, therefore something like a reunion of one family.”