Translated material
So the two laureates met
The US-China conflict will be moderate
Yesterday, two Nobel Peace Prize laureates met at the White House in Washington. US President Barack Obama, 48, received this prestigious award last year, and his guest, 74-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (pictured) , received it in 1989. However, the reaction of the Chinese authorities to this seemingly peaceful meeting was sharply negative, since contacts between the leaders of foreign powers and the Dalai Lama are perceived by Beijing as support for separatist forces seeking to break Tibet from China.The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after the defeat of an anti-Chinese uprising. Since then, he has lived in India, travels a lot around the world and asks foreign politicians to support his fight for expanded autonomy for Tibet. Beijing is holding protracted negotiations with representatives of the Dalai Lama, but at the same time is urging foreign leaders not to meet with him. However, since 1990, not a single US president has heeded these calls.
“President Obama looks forward to engaging in constructive dialogue with an internationally respected religious leader and advocate for the rights of Tibetans. He intends to advise the guest to continue negotiations with Beijing,” the White House press service said ahead of the meeting. “The most important thing is that it will take place and send a strong signal to the Chinese that they need to work with us,” a spokesman for the Dalai Lama said before he left for the United States.
The United States needs China's support to resolve the nuclear problems of Iran and North Korea, as well as to overcome the consequences of the global economic crisis. In November 2009, Obama made his first visit to China and then did not dare to receive the Dalai Lama, who visited the United States in October. The move drew criticism from human rights activists and even lawmakers from the president's Democratic Party.
However, in early February, the White House almost simultaneously announced the president's upcoming contact with the Dalai Lama and its intention to supply $6.4 billion worth of American weapons to Taiwan. The United States stated that it pursues a “one China” policy and considers Tibet to be part of the PRC, but at the same time expressed concern about “respect for human rights, treatment of Tibetans” and called on the PRC authorities to “protect the unique cultural and religious traditions of Tibet.”
In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry recalled that in November, during a meeting with Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao “explained China’s tough position, which opposes meetings of the leaders of any states with the Dalai Lama in any capacity and in any form.” In mid-February, Beijing demanded that the US President “immediately abandon the erroneous decision to meet with the Dalai Lama and not provide him with a platform for conducting anti-Chinese divisive activities in order to avoid further deterioration of bilateral relations.” At the same time, China confirmed its intention to suspend military contacts with the United States and impose sanctions against American companies participating in the arms deal with Taiwan, among which such giants as Boeing and Lockheed were named.
“The consequences of Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama will add to the negative background of relations between China and the United States in connection with American military supplies to Taiwan. These are two interrelated steps of the White House within the framework of one anti-Chinese logic,” Deputy Director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergei Luzyanin told Vremya Novostey. In his opinion, China will react “toughly and systematically,” as evidenced by the announcement of sanctions against American companies. The expert noted that Beijing is “trying to realize its global responsibility within the framework of its own vision of a harmonious world, but with an emphasis on the fact that China is a global power with its own interests and a strategy for their implementation.”
At the same time, VN’s interlocutor emphasized, neither Washington nor Beijing will switch to the Cold War, and “the moderate confrontation between them will end over time. The stakes are very high on the map of their partnership with trade turnover in 2009 amounting to $410 billion.”
The American media noted before Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama that it would take place not in the working Oval Office, but in the Map Room in an informal setting. The Chinese “will be interested not in what the interlocutors will say to each other, but in the details - how long the audience will last, whether it will be shown on television, whether the president’s wife will be present, whether there will be a final document. For Beijing, the main thing is protocol, ceremony.”
“China traditionally protests against meetings of US presidents with the Dalai Lama and US military supplies to Taiwan. He cannot make these protests less loud for foreign policy and domestic policy reasons,” Vasily Mikheev, head of the China group at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told VN. - But a few days will pass, and the protests will subside without affecting bilateral relations even in the short term. Some contacts will be suspended, but will soon resume to mutual joy. There will be absolutely no consequences." Threats of sanctions against US companies, the expert noted, have not yet been implemented: “Is it possible to introduce them, for example, against Boeing, which has powerful production in China?”