Jane Macartney in Beijing
Strained ties between the US and China could deteriorate further if President Obama goes ahead with a meeting with the Dalai Lama, Beijing warned today.
China’s anger at the Tibetan spiritual leader’s overseas visits and the warm reception he is afforded by foreign leaders spilled over in tough words from officials in Beijing who led the latest round of talks with his representatives last week.
Zhu Weiqun, executive deputy head of the Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, who is in charge of the talks, said that a meeting between Mr Obama and the Dalai Lama would “seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-US relations”.
An increasingly assertive Beijing even issued a veiled threat that such a meeting would not only fail to serve the interests of diplomacy but could damage the US economic recovery. A view has become widespread that the strength of the economic revival in China, the largest holder of US treasuries, could help to lead the world out of the current downturn.
Mr Zhu said: “If the US leader chooses this time to meet the Dalai Lama, that would damage trust and co-operation between our two countries, and how would that help the United States surmount the current economic crisis?”
He added that the Dalai Lama was a troublemaker bent on inciting world hatred of China for its control of his mountainous homeland.
Mr Zhu gave no details of how China would retaliate if President Obama met the monk, whom Beijing views as a dangerous separatist working to win independence for the Himalayan homeland he fled in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Beijing rule.
He said: “We will take corresponding measures to make the relevant countries realise their mistakes.”
President Obama could meet the Dalai Lama as early as this month, when the monk is expected to make a visit to the United States from his home in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.
An announcement by the US last week that it would proceed with plans to sell $6.4 billion of arms to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, claimed by Beijing as a renegade province, has already chilled bilateral relations. China quickly suspended military exchanges and announced an unprecedented threat of sanctions against the US companies involved in the sale.
Last week’s talks between China and the Dalai Lama’s envoys – the ninth round since the dialogue began in 2002 – appeared to have made no progress. Mr Zhu said: “As in previous rounds of negotiations, the positions of the two sides are sharply divided.”
How, he asked, could the Chinese trust the Dalai Lama’s sincerity in voicing respect for the Communist Party and for Chinese rule over Tibet when he had commented that after 60 years in power it was time for the party to retire?
The Tibetan side had stuck to a memorandum it submitted in the last round in November 2008 that insisted its autonomy demands were in line with China’s constitution.
Mr Zhu criticised the document as a ploy to win independence. The talks could not move forward, he said, if the Dalai Lama “continues to devote himself to anti-China propaganda and sabotage on the international stage”.
He urged the exiled monk to show sincerity and to match his words with deeds. “The Dalai Lama is already 75. We hope he will face up to reality, change his stand and make a correct choice for the remainder of his life.”
