Bush hosts Dalai Lama amid Chinese outrage

[hedgetrimmer]

Source: http://today.reuters.com/News/default.aspx

Tue Oct 16, 2007 6:54pm ET



By Matt Spetalnick and Paul Eckert



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hosted the Dalai Lama on Tuesday despite China's warning that U.S. plans to honor the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could damage relations between Beijing and Washington.

The White House talks were held on the eve of a congressional award ceremony for the Dalai Lama, but the Bush administration took pains to keep the encounter with the president low-key in a bid to placate China.

"We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye -- to a country that we have ... a good relationship with on a variety of issues," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.


Beijing has bitterly denounced plans for the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since staging a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.



Read more: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-10-16T225415Z_01_PEK230544_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHINA-TIBET.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage3

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I sure do wonder what the Dalai expressed to the Bush.

[Amonester]

1. There goes the 2008 Olympic Games...

Bye-bye, dopes!

[tom_paine]

2. You'd think that Bush would burst into flames, or the Lama would burst into flames

or something.

What could he say to a megalomaniacal moster like Bushler? That he likes his new nickname "Gutless" given to him by Der Bushler for his Dalai Lama wussy pacifism (insert bullying noogie here)?

[dflprincess]

7. I'm sure the Dalai Lama saw his private visit with Bush as a test of his principles

He must be truly holy if he could get through it without giving into the urge to run screaming from the White House in frustration after perhaps trying to speak some sense into DimSon (or not cracking completely and trying to beat some sense into him).

[Supersedeas]

3. where is the rightwing outrage....Turkey v China

when the bots are told to be outraged by the Armenian resolution -- there is outrage b/c of how a foreign country might respond negatively

when the bots are told to quiet down -- there is quiet even when a foreign country and major trading partner responds negatively

[RantinRavin]

5. Maybe we can get lucky and China will be so pissed off

they will stop sending all their junk over here.

[Rage for Order]

11. Nah. China's next export:

Dalai Lama bobbleheads!

[arewenotdemo]

4. "and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye"

Jeezus, that was clever.

[iverglas]

6. uh ... the medal was awarded by the US Congress

Bush himself would undoubtedly have chosen to have nothing to do with it, but his appearance and short speech at the ceremony is a necessary tradition. The private talks ... well, presumably the least he could get away with and not look like a complete cretin to the Lama-loving people of the world.

The US Congress is controlled by the Democratic Party at present, I think.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said if the decision to honor the Dalai Lama was not reversed it would have an "extremely serious impact" on bilateral relations.

The stick being poked would appear to be in the hands of Democrats.

Apart from that, I wonder whether any Democrat in the US Congress has a clue as to what Tibet was like when this individual was last in power ...

[robcon]

8. I think Congress was right.

The honor for the Dalai Lama was long overdue.

[iverglas]

9. different issue

but I think your Congress was as wrong as the Canadian government was when it awarded him honorary citizenship in my own country. (He, Nelson Mandela and Raoul Wallenberg are the only three recipients to date.)

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

He's a changed man, I hear, but his entourage doesn't seem to be. The CIA sure was fond of him though. Poking a stick in China's eye wasn't exactly just an unintended adverse consequence of this little dance, I'd say.

[robcon]

10. Poking a stick in China's eye was the point.

If China thoughtthey can bully the Congress to stop them from honoring the Dalai Lama, they've learned a lesson, IMO.

[iverglas]

12. you're not making sense

If the purpose of honouring the Lama person was to poke a stick in China's eye, then the issue of China "bullying" your poor widdle Congress only arises because, well, your Congress started it.

The shameful thing is that the Lama person would be a party to it all, I'd say. Not actually unexpected, though. I've never had the impression that he's really all that bright.

Read the link, did you?

[robcon]

13. Did you take any logic courses.

China threatened retaliation BEFORE the Dalai Lama was honored. And congress did it anyway.

Try to keep up.