George W Bush to meet Dalai Lama in public

Posted on October 1, 2007 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By Richard Spencer | Telegraph.co.uk
October 01, 2007

President George W Bush is to become the first American president to hold a public meeting with the Dalai Lama in a gesture of recognition for the religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism that risks infuriating the Chinese government.

Mr Bush will meet the Dalai next month at a ceremony in front of the symbol of American democracy, the Capitol building, where the Tibetan leader will be presented with the Congressional Gold Medal.

The Chinese government reacts with fury to any gesture of recognition given to the Dalai who fled the country into exile in 1959 and whom it regularly accuses of trying to "split" Tibet from the rest of China.

Earlier this week, it lashed out at Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany after she held a private meeting in her office with the Dalai Lama and backed his call for more cultural autonomy for the region.

"This not only grossly interferes with the internal affairs of China, it hurts the feelings of the Chinese people and seriously undermines China-Germany relations," its spokeswoman said.

Mr Bush's meeting will be on a far grander scale. The ceremony will be held on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building, which is also thought to be a first.

It will be open to the public, and supporters of free Tibet groups say they expect thousands to attend in what could become the most important public celebration of his life since he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

America has always been less sensitive to Chinese warnings against meeting the Dalai Lama, which have discouraged other world leaders from receiving him. Tony Blair never found time to meet him in his ten years as prime minister.

But in recent months public opinion and political changes have caused great concern to Beijing. John Howard, the Australian prime minister, met him in June, while he also visited the Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer, on his European tour this month.

The Foreign Office earlier this year also said the Dalai "could" meet the prime minister on a visit to Britain scheduled for 2008.

The award of the Congressional Gold Medal is also a sign of a more anti-Chinese mood in Washington.

>> Read the complete report