By Patricia Lee Sharpe
Because the declining power that is America must kowtow to a burgeoning China on trade and financial issues, American President Barak Obama ducked the opportunity to meet the Dalai Lama before he sets off for Beijing in a few weeks. That’s the way the Times of India reports the behavior of the first U.S. president to shy away from a meeting with the exiled Buddhist leader.
The Tawang Tiff
Perhaps Barack should borrow a page or two from India’s book. Despite very strenuous objections sometimes amounting to threats, India is allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Tawang, a territory that China claims. The Chinese also protested when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did some electioneering in Tawang some months ago. Singh did not change his plans.What’s the context here? Back in 1914, when the U.K. ruled India and Tibet acted like an independent entity, although it was still more or less under Chinese suzerainty, the McMahon Line was drawn east from Bhutan to define the northern boundary of British India. This is now the Line of Actual Control and it was recognized by China in 1957, but deep down Beijing is not happy: this area that is now the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh should be Chinese South Tibet. In 1962 the Chinese army invaded the district of Arunachal known as Tawang. The Red army swarmed over Se La, a 14,000 foot high pass, and drove south, pulling up heart-stoppingly close to the Brahmaputra River before withdrawing to China’s side of the traditional border. Ever since, there have been occasional rumblings from China, a far-from-dormant volcano warning that eruptions are always possible.
The Rules of the Game
Now China was mightly miffed back then. The 14th Dalai Lama had, only a couple of years before, escaped from Chinese control (house arrest, essentially) in Lhasa. He crossed snowy Himalayan passes that took him through Tawang and eventually down into the rice fields of Assam along the Bhramaputra River. India gave him asylum and allowed him to set up a government in exile in Dharamshala, which is still his headquarters. India laid down a few rules, the most important being: no mounting insurrections against China from India territory. Just last summer, India refused to permit a group of India-based Tibetans to cross the border and disrupt the Olympics in Beijing. But otherwise, the Dalai Lama is free to go where he wishes and to say what he pleases, as are the thousands of other Tibetans who are based in India. It helps that Tenzin Gyatso has proved to be a very wise and discreet leader. He recognizes the limits of India’s patience and the material weakness of his own position vis-à-vis China.
Not that India doesn't calculate its approach to China very shrewdly. Even as India insists that the Dalai Lama is free to go to Tawang, an ancient center of Tibetan buddhism where even in our times there is a large, active and prestigious monastery, the Indian government is not issuing press permits to foreign correspondents to cover the visit. There will be no media circus—at least not officially. But reports say the press are filtering in, which means that the Chinese can grumble all they want. India! Such a disorganized country!
Meanwhile, after a meeting two days ago between Man Mohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jibao, China began singing a somewhat different song. The criticism of India largely disappeared, although the Dalai Lama himself was still the target of harsh criticism.
Is Appeasement the Word?
Watching the latest act in the intriguing dance between the Asian giants, I found myself thinking of Barack Obama again. Perhaps if he had been brave enough to act according to principle in his own country, in his own capital, in his own White House, he would find himself in a stronger, less compromised position to do business with the Chinese, who have not dealt gently with the weak in recent times. By not meeting with the Dalai Lama for a cordial few minutes, he has announced that his commitment to the First Amendment is for sale. Freedom of speech? Optional. Freedom of assembly? Overrated. Freedom of Religion? Nonsense.
Now will you help us? Pretty please!
Does anyone believe that such kowtowing will make the Chinese more generous on issues of importance of the U.S.? What’s more, world domination may be built on raw power, but world leadership is built on principle. I’d thought that Barack Obama understood that.