The US risked inflaming a row on multiple fronts with China on Thursday, saying the Dalai Lama would visit the White House this month despite Beijing’s fierce protests.
But as tensions built over US President Barack Obama’s planned welcome for Tibet’s spiritual leader, officials sought to douse a running row with Beijing, saying the two sides had common interests despite mounting disagreements.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was pressed by reporters to name the date when the Dalai Lama would make his long-expected White House visit.
“He will be here later this month,” Gibbs said, but could not be more precise, adding that he did not know if the Dalai Lama would be granted the potent symbolism of an Oval Office visit with media availability.
US presidents have sometimes used a diplomatic tactic known as a “drop by” to see leaders or dignitaries likely to anger or embarrass key foreign powers, fitting in a visit in between scheduled talks between the visitor and another top official.
As China mounts fierce advance protests against the visit, Gibbs said Obama had informed Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) when they met in Beijing in November that he would go ahead with the meeting.
Obama had declined to meet the Dalai Lama, who was in the US late last year, before going to China, in an apparent bid to get his ties with Beijing off on the right foot.
The Chinese government on Wednesday said it “resolutely opposes” the Dalai Lama’s visit to the US his meeting any US leaders.
“We urge the US side to clearly recognize the high sensitivity of the Tibet issue and handle related issues carefully and appropriately to avoid causing more harm to Sino-US ties,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said.
The Dalai Lama will visit Washington starting on Feb. 17, according to his office in India where the monk fled into exile in 1959.
The Dalai Lama said he was seeking greater rights for Tibetans under Chinese rule, but Beijing accuses him of separatism.
The US says it regards Tibet as part of China, but accuses Beijing of serious human rights abuses in the region.
Gibbs also sought to downplay the current back-and-forth between Beijing and Washington, adding that all the issues being aired publicly had been talked over in private between the two sides.
“There will be issues that we will disagree on, and we will disagree on them both in private and in public,” Gibbs said. “We envision this relationship as one where we can work together on issues of mutual concern. We’ve worked together on stabilizing the world economy. We’ve worked together on issues of proliferation, particularly around North Korea.”
David Shear, a State Department official who works on China, said the US would “regret” such reprisals, but noted that Beijing had not yet followed through on its threats.
“The Chinese reaction has been within expected parameters,” Shear said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS