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Bush meets Dalai Lama, upsets Beijing

In a move certain to rile China, President George W Bush not only met the Dalai Lama at the White House on Wednesday, but offered strong support to the exiled Tibetan leader and endorsed his efforts to initiate a dialogue with Beijing.

In previous administrations, the spiritual leader would be invited to a short meeting with the vice-president, during which the president would drop by to greet him. This time around, Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama was a full-fledged one listed on the White House schedule.

Bush hosted the Nobel Peace laureate in the Yellow Oval Room -- not the Oval Office where foreign leaders are greeted, and where External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh was invited when he met National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice at the White House on April 6.

The Yellow Oval Room is a smaller, oval-shaped living room in the White House next to the Oval Office.

President Bill Clinton had met the Dalai Lama several times during his two terms in office, but would just "drop by" during the latter's meetings with Vice-President Al Gore. This encounter was never listed on the White House schedule.

Following Wednesday's meeting, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer issued a statement that Bush had pledged to help the Dalai Lama in his quest to begin a dialogue with the Chinese leadership to alleviate the lot of the Tibetan people.

"The President," Fleischer said, "said he would seek ways to encourage dialogue and expressed his hope that the Chinese government would respond favourably."

"The President also reiterated the strong commitment of the United States to support the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of the human rights of all Tibetans," Fleischer added.

For years the Dalai Lama has sought to have a dialogue with China over Tibet's future, but Beijing has dismissed his efforts, accused him of fomenting unrest and stoking anti-China propaganda around the world.

It said that as a pre-condition for talks, he should first recognize Beijing's sovereignty over Tibet, which the US too recognizes.

The White House statement noted that Bush and the Dalai Lama had agreed it was imperative that Washington and Beijing have "strong and constructive relations".

As he left the White House, the Dalai Lama acknowledged to reporters that the talks with Bush were permeated by a discussion on Tibet and the importance of US-China relations. "I [told] him that in the future, whenever the president has the opportunity to meet Chinese leaders, he can assure the Chinese government that I am not seeking independence."

He said that what he was seeking was autonomy, not total separation from China, which annexed Tibet in 1949 and then put down with an iron fist an uprising by Tibetans in 1959, which led to the Dalai Lama and hundreds of his supporters fleeing to India.

But the Dalai Lama acknowledged that in his meeting with Bush he had asked the president to keep up the pressure on Beijing to improve the human rights of Tibetans as well as the Chinese people and to move away from authoritarianism to democracy. China has argued that the lot of the Tibetan people has improved dramatically in Tibet, that economic conditions have vastly improved and that the Dalai Lama does not have much support among the Tibetans in the region.

Fleischer -- as did State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher when Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and newly appointed Special Coordinator for Tibet Paula Dobriansky, met the Dalai Lama -- said Bush met the Dalai Lama in his role as a spiritual leader, something previous administrations have also said to placate the Chinese who believe Washington receives him as political leader of the Tibetans.

Boucher said, "We see him as a respected religious figure. Obviously, our position on Tibet is well known. That has not changed. But these are important and useful meetings to improve our understanding on the situation in the region."

This time around, the Dalai Lama's meeting with Bush upset Beijing even more as it took place on the same day Beijing marked what it described as the 'peaceful liberation of Tibet'.

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