Will Obama meet with China's nemesis, Dalai Lama?

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A closely watched visit is set to take place in October, when a frail, 74-year-old Buddhist monk seeks an audience with President Barack Obama.

Obama must make a delicate calculation as he considers a meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists, seen by his supporters as a symbol of peace but vilified by China as a "wolf in monk's robes" who seeks to split Tibet from the rest of China.

(snip)

Meeting with the Dalai Lama, as every president since George H.W. Bush has done, would infuriate China, whose help the United States sees as crucial to global economic recovery efforts and dealing with nuclear standoffs in North Korea and Iran.

Activists would seize on a White House visit for the Nobel Peace laureate as a powerful message to Tibetans and others struggling for human rights around the world.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPX1hfvgN0UVga9X1o5aTj-ALb2wD97MN1RG0

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If Obama doesn't meet with the Dalai Lama because of China, I will be extremely disappointed in him.

[PassingFair]

1. Puhleaze!

Of course he will meet with him.

Who WRITES this crap?

Oh, AP, of course.

[gamecock]

2. if he's smart

He'll have the Secretary of China and the Dalai Lama meet face to face with him. He should become the next great "negotiator".

[iandhr]

3. A lesson from the West Wing

Leo said that Presidents would "accidentally" meet the Dalai Lama. According to Leo you give the Dalai with someone a very low level you leave the door open and the President walks by "hey how ya doing Dalai Lama.

[nyy1998]

5. I was thinking of that same exact scene when I saw this story

[iandhr]

6. Do you think president Obama is a fan

maybe this is how it would happen

[madrchsod]

4. yup.... another ap "news story"

i know i just can`t wait till.... october?

[RedCloud]

7. How can he be 74 and frail? Doesn't HE practice the 5 rites?

This is an outrage! I am getting up there in years and have much more energy than folks half my age and some of it is because of the Five Tibetan rites.

And my other source keeps anything from getting frail.

Inviting His Holiness to my humble abode to fix what ails him, I am

Red Cloud

[BuddhaGirl]

9. I can understand why he's frail

he has a lot of weight on his shoulders, don't you think? :eyes:

[Hekate]

8. Obama met with the Dalai Lama already in 2005 at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Photo...

Presidential candidate Obama included a photo from that event in the media section of his campaign website. They had hoped to meet again in Aspen last summer, but Obama's schedule didn't permit. Instead they exchanged letters, and after t he election the Dalai Lama sent a warmly congratulatory letter to the president-elect.

As it happens, Buddhists in general seem to like Barack Obama -- he's very calm and centered, and reflective.

Hekate