Obama-Dalai Lama meeting a lose-lose deal

BEIJING - The planned meeting between US President Barack Obama and the 14th Dalai Lama Friday is doomed to be a lose-lose deal.

While it is doomed to fail in its attempt to press for "Tibet independence," or the "middle way" approach that the high monk preaches, the third Obama-Dalai Lama in five years, planned at the White House Friday, is certain to harm China-US relations.

The White House says Obama is hosting the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a "respected religious and cultural leader," but the meeting is apparently not one about religion or culture.

While announcing the meeting plan Thursday, White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the United States recognizes Tibet as part of China and does not support Tibetan independence.

She added, however, that the United States supports the Dalai Lama's "middle way" approach, his comparatively new policy on autonomy for Tibetan areas.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Friday voiced China's firm opposition against the meeting, saying it is an "rampant interference in China's internal affairs" that violates the norms of international relations and will seriously harm China-US relations.

Hua has urged the US side to call off the meeting and refrain from facilitating the Dalai Lama's anti-China, secessionist activities in the United States.

The meeting, if not called off at the last minute, is certain to impair ties between China and the United States, a relationship that both sides have tried so hard to improve for their mutual best benefits for many years.

Either the White House is blindfolded by the Dalai Lama's word game, or politicians are seeking once again to manipulate China with an unscrupulous old trick.

For nearly two decades, "the middle way" rhetoric has been the Dalai Lama's trump card in his game to rally international sympathy and support.

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