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WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush and top US
legislators were set to lead Wednesday an
unprecedented official US tribute to the Dalai Lama, bucking
China’s angry
warnings of crippled Sino-US relations.
In a 1 p.m. ceremony at the
Capitol, Bush is scheduled to deliver brief remarks and hand
Tibet’s spiritual leader a US Congressional Gold Medal—the
highest civilian award bestowed by US lawmakers.
It will be the first time a
sitting US president appears in public with the 72-year-old Buddhist
figurehead.
On Tuesday, Bush and the Dalai
Lama met privately for 30 minutes in the ornate “Yellow Oval”
room in the White House residence—far from the formal diplomatic
trappings of the Oval Office in an effort to placate the Chinese.
“We in no way want to stir the
pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eye,”
said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
The point of the meeting was to
pay tribute to “a great spiritual leader” and endorse greater
religious freedom in Tibet, Perino said.
Mindful of Beijing’s role in
efforts to defuse the Iranian and North Korean nuclear crises, the
White House toned down the symbolic overtones of the Tuesday meeting
by declining to specify a time of the event, or release a
photograph, or specify what had been discussed.
Beijing was not appeased. Foreign
ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Wednesday called the meeting a
“gross interference in China’s internal affairs” and urged
that the medal ceremony be canceled.
“China is strongly resentful of
this and resolutely opposes it, and has made solemn representations
to the US side,” Liu said, the official Xinhua news agency
reported.
“We [have] seriously urged the
US side to correct such wrongdoings and stop interfering in
China’s internal affairs in any form.”
Liu reiterated China’s position
that the Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate, was intent on
trying to achieve independence for Tibet, even though he insists he
wants only autonomy under Chinese rule.
“Tibet is an inalienable part
of the Chinese territory, and the Tibet issue is purely China’s
internal affairs,” he said.
“The words and deeds of the
Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee
engaging in secessionist activities in the camouflage of
religion,” Liu added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi said Tuesday that the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Bush and
the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony represent “a severe
violation of the norms of international relations.” He accused the
United States of having “severely hurt” China’s feelings and
interfered in its internal affairs.
After the Tuesday meeting, aides
quoted the Dalai Lama as saying: “I wanted to express my
appreciation to President Bush since he really took seriously the
situation” in Tibet. He added: “We have developed a close
friendship.”
Past Congressional Gold Medal
winners include former South African president Nelson Mandela;
Mother Teresa of Calcutta; polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk;
tough-guy Western actor John Wayne; singer Frank Sinatra; and the
late pope John Paul II.
Top Democratic and Republican
leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives, as well as
Holocaust author Elie Wiesel, were due to make remarks at the event.
Hollywood star Richard Gere, long a campaigner for human rights in
Tibet, was also to attend the ceremony.
The Dalai Lama arrived in
Washington Monday and was warmly received by a crowd of Tibetans in
traditional dress who honored the spiritual icon with blessings,
songs and dances.
The Dalai Lama fled to India
following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, and
currently lives in the northern hill town of Dharamsala, which is
also the seat of his government in exile.
China has ruled Tibet, a devoutly
Buddhist land of six million, since sending troops into the region
in 1950, and officially “liberating” it from feudal rule a year
later.
China showed its displeasure over
the Dalai Lama’s trip to Washington by putting off a Berlin
meeting of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members and
Germany on the Iranian nuclear crisis, a US State Department
official said.
The Chinese foreign ministry
spokesman said the postponement was due to unspecified “technical
reasons,” and added: “China’s stance on Iran’s nuclear
problem remains unchanged.”
While China’s fury is now
directed at the United States, it has also lashed out at Germany,
Australia and other Western countries in recent months after their
leaders met the Dalai Lama.
--AFP
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