Australia's top politicians scrambled yesterday to prove they were not afraid of China after being accused of snubbing the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
First, Prime Minister John Howard said he would check his diary to see whether he had time to meet the Nobel Peace Prize laureate during his 10-day visit to Australia next month.
Then, opposition Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd, who had earlier rejected the idea of a meeting, said he was also trying to find a time slot.
The 71-year-old Dalai Lama has led a Tibetan government in exile in India since 1959 after fleeing Tibet in the wake of the Chinese takeover, and Beijing pressures other nations to shun him.
trading partner
China is now Australia's biggest trading partner, with the growing Asian giant's insatiable demand for energy driving a mining boom Down Under, and no official reception had been planned for the Tibetan.
The leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Bob Brown, raised the issue on Tuesday, saying the president of the senate had blamed the lack of a parliamentary welcome on "international sensitivities."
This, Brown said, made it clear that the government was kowtowing to Beijing and President Hu Jintao (
Howard responded by saying he had no plans to meet the Dalai Lama, but added: "My position is I'm looking at my diary."
He told national radio: "I sort of dealt with this issue some years ago, you may remember, when the Dalai Lama came to Australia in 1996 or 1997. The Chinese did not want me to meet with him and I did."
"You can't have a situation where you're always meant to meet anybody who is coming to this country," he said.
suggestion
Howard in turn suggested that Rudd was a hypocrite for refusing to meet the Dalai Lama, despite years ago attacking Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer for doing the same thing.
"It is true that my opponent did have something rather savage to say about Alexander Downer being gutless and everything for not meeting the Dalai Lama a few years ago.
"Now that has sort of come back, well that happens in politics, doesn't it?" he said.
Shortly after Howard's radio interview, a spokesman for Rudd said he was now trying to find time for a possible meeting the Dalai Lama.
Earlier this month the Dalai Lama called off a visit to Brussels amid Chinese objections ahead of an important Belgian trade mission to China.
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