Dalai Lama on Obama: 'Obama is not soft on China; just has a different style.' - The Dalai LamaAshwini Bhatia
Two Nobel Peace Prize winners will meet Thursday behind closed doors at the White House as Barack Obama seeks a low profile for his belated encounter with the Dalai Lama.
The President already snubbed the 74-year-old exiled Tibetan leader once - refusing to see him last fall prior to Mr. Obama's visit to China, where the Dalai Lama is regarded as a secessionist threat. It was the first time since 1991 that a U.S. President declined to meet the Dalai Lama during one of his occasional trips to the United States.
A predictable brouhaha ensued, with critics accusing the President of trying too hard to avoid offending Beijing's Communist leaders.
Thursday's meeting will be low key - in contrast with the very public welcome then-president George W. Bush gave the Dalai Lama in 2007. No cameras will be allowed, although White House officials say a photograph of the meeting will be released.
The visit is a carefully choreographed piece of political theatre with both Beijing and Washington playing out their chosen roles. Even as the Dalai Lama headed for the White House despite Beijing's loud protestations, thousands of U.S. sailors from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz streamed ashore in Hong Kong, as China signalled a resumption of naval visits less than two weeks after it suspended military exchanges.
Relations between the superpowers hit a bad patch in recent weeks, most recently over Mr. Obama's decision to ship $6.4-billion (U.S.) worth of weapons to Taiwan, which Beijing denounced as "rude interference in China's internal affairs, severely endangering China's national security."
That came on the heels of claims by the search engine Google that China's security agents had hacked into the e-mail accounts of dissidents. The cyber attacks were - according to some U.S. experts - also aimed at stealing industrial secrets from major U.S. corporations.
The accusations of cyber attacks lifted the dispute from a corporate tiff to a national-security issue for the White House. Mr. Obama wants "some answers" and believes those responsible should "face consequences," a White House spokesman said.
But China experts believe that despite the irritants - both new and long-standing - Washington and Beijing need to constructively manage what is emerging as the world's most important bilateral relationship.
"Both sides will want to avoid any serious rupture in relations, which is of paramount importance to their needs to work together on climate change, the financial crisis, and other issues," Robert Barnett, director of the modern Tibetan studies program at Columbia University, said in an online interview posted at the Council on Foreign Relations.
With the "Three Ts" of Tibet, Taiwan and trade all roiling the Sino-American relationship in recent months, it may be that both Beijing and Washington are looking for some chances to mend fences.
The Obama administration desperately needs China's support (or at least a willingness to sit on its hands and abstain) to toughen sanctions on Iran over that country's nuclear defiance. But even without the need for joint leadership on multilaterals issues, such as managing climate change, both behemoths increasingly can't afford to let their relationship sour.
As China's wealth and power grows, it seems inevitable that its interests will overlap, or even clash, with America's. While the risk of confrontation remains remote, Beijing has also been occasionally assertive in demonstrating its military prowess. It sent political shock waves around the globe three years ago when it launched one satellite that destroyed another.
Mostly, the two countries have managed to avoid uncontained political fallout.
Thursday's meeting, which Beijing demanded last week be scrubbed, is far less offensive to China than the very public session with Mr. Bush.
The U.S. sailors thronging Hong Kong bars and shops may not realize that they are Beijing's way of getting past the latest visit of an aging monk.