The Dalai Lama on Thursday encouraged the US to show self-confidence in defending democracy as top lawmakers rallied behind his calls to preserve Tibetan culture.
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, whose meeting on Feb. 21 with US President Barack Obama was angrily condemned by China, returned to Washington where — for the first time — he delivered the customary prayer that opens each US Senate session.
The Dalai Lama later met congressional leaders and told them one of his main goals was “preservation of Tibetan culture.”
Photo: EPA
Offering advice as a “longtime friend” of the US, the Dalai Lama said that he considered the nation to be “really a champion of democracy, freedom.”
“These traditional values are, I think, very, very relevant in today’s world. After all, you are the leading nation in the free world, So, [show] self-confidence,” he said.
The Dalai Lama sat between US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who said he wanted to show bipartisan support for the Buddhist monk, and the Republican leader’s often bitter rival Nancy Pelosi, a longtime activist on the Tibetan cause. He later met top senators.
“What is happening in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world,” said Pelosi, the leader of Obama’s Democratic Party in the House of Representatives.
In contrast to his meeting with Obama, which the White House took pains to portray as private, the Dalai Lama was accompanied in his talks at Congress by Lobsang Sangay, who was elected in 2011 as the prime minister of Tibetans in exile.
The Dalai Lama told the lawmakers that he had transferred his political role to the elected leader. While the globe-trotting monk has been instrumental in throwing a worldwide spotlight on Tibet, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has increasingly been looking ahead to the future of the movement without him.
The Dalai Lama appeared to reflect on his own mortality as he served as the guest Senate chaplain. Offering prayers to the Buddha “and all other gods,” the Dalai Lama recited what he described as “my favorite prayer,” which he recites daily for inner strength.
Meanwhile, the Beijing government yesterday expressed anger over the meeting, urging the US to “stop conniving” with the man it brands a separatist working under the “cloak of religion.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said Beijing expressed “strong opposition and firm opposition” to the meeting and had “launched solemn representations with the US.”
“He is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-Chinese separatist activities under the cloak of religion,” the spokesman told reporters at a regular briefing.
“China urges the US Congress to abide by its commitment of recognizing Tibet as a part of China, not supporting Tibetan independence, stop interfering in China’s domestic affairs with Tibet-related affairs, stop conniving and supporting the anti-China separatist activities by Tibetan independence forces,” Qin said.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS