{"id":12669,"date":"2014-02-21T04:47:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T04:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/president-obama-to-meet-dalai-lama\/"},"modified":"2014-02-21T04:49:38","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T04:49:38","slug":"president-obama-to-meet-dalai-lama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/president-obama-to-meet-dalai-lama\/","title":{"rendered":"President Obama to Meet Dalai Lama"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{US President Barack Obama will meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday, at the White House , US officials say.}}<\/p>\n

China has urged the US to cancel the meeting, saying it will “seriously impair China-US relations”.<\/p>\n

China describes the Dalai Lama as a separatist, while the spiritual leader says he only advocates greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence.<\/p>\n

Officials say the US does not support Tibetan independence but is concerned about human rights in China.<\/p>\n

The two men last met in 2011, in talks that angered China.<\/p>\n

Tibet is governed as an autonomous region in China.<\/p>\n

China has been widely accused of repressing political and religious freedoms in Tibet. Beijing rejects this and says economic development has improved Tibetans’ lives.<\/p>\n

{{‘Respected leader’}}<\/p>\n

Mr Obama will host the Dalai Lama in a private meeting in the White House Map Room on Friday morning, US officials said.<\/p>\n

Obama traditionally hosts foreign leaders in the Oval Office, so the decision to use the Map Room is viewed as an attempt to give the visit a lower-profile.<\/p>\n

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said Mr Obama would meet the Dalai Lama “in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader”.<\/p>\n

“We do not support Tibetan independence,” she said, adding that the US “strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China.<\/p>\n

“We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Beijing was “firmly opposed” to the meeting.<\/p>\n

“The US leader’s meeting with the Dalai is a gross interference in China’s internal affairs, a severe violation of codes of international relations and will seriously impair China-US relations,” she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

China had “already lodged solemn representations” with the US on the matter, she added.<\/p>\n

In recent years more than 110 ethnic Tibetans – mostly young monks and nuns living in areas outside Tibet – have set themselves on fire in apparent protest against Beijing’s rule.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{US President Barack Obama will meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday, at the White House , US officials say.}} China has urged the US to cancel the meeting, saying it will “seriously impair China-US relations”. China describes the Dalai Lama as a separatist, while the spiritual leader says he only advocates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-12669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050477,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton12669.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=12669"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=12669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}