China Says Relationship with Washington "Seriously Undermined" Following Meeting Between
President Barack Obama and Dalai Lama

TransWorld News (TWN)
February 18, 2010

Atlanta, Ga. -- China has said their relationship
with Washington has been "seriously undermined"
after U.S. President Barack Obama met with
Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Thursday.

While the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of
Tibet he was forced into exile in 1959 following
a failed uprising against China. The Chinese
government has considered the Dalai Lama a
separatist and has urged foreign leaders to avoid meetings with him.

The White House insisted the meeting between
Obama and the Dalai Lama was a private matter and
not political yet in a ministry statement China
noted “The behavior of the US side seriously
interferes in China's internal politics and
seriously hurts the national feelings of the Chinese people."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu was
more direct in his criticism, stating Obama’s
meeting with the Dalai Lama "violated the US
government's repeated acceptance that Tibet is a
part of China and it does not support Tibetan independence.”

Timing of the meeting certainly didn’t help
matters as the U.S and China have been at odds on
a number of issues including the U.S. sale of
arms to Taiwan and allegations that China was
involved in a cyber attack on the search giant
Google. The U.S. also expressed frustration with
China’s efforts at December’s Copenhagen Summit
in which a global climate accord failed to materialize.