President Obama finally meets the Dalai Lama – undoubtedly one of the most revered men of our times. That he waited to do this until after he had gone to Beijing was bad on the moral front and meaningless on the policy front. China does not reward weakness. But the President was careful to meet the Tibetan leader in the “Map Room” and not the Oval Office, which is where political figures are normally met. Did someone in the Administration actually think that this gesture would make things better with Beijing? Get real. They responded with their own gesture of selling US treasuries as “punishment”. (Don’t worry, they really can’t abandon the US debt market en masse no matter what they say publicly). Our fear of offending Beijing actually just makes our relationship with them worse as it encourages them to demand more from us.
The Chinese will never be satisified when it comes to our relationship with the Dalai Lama, so why not just do the right thing and give the man the respect that he deserves?
