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Obama to host the Dalai Lama amid protest from China

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Washington: US President Barack Obama will host Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the White House on Friday. China was quick to react on Thursday asking for the abandoning of talks which would otherwise “seriously impair” ties its foreign ministry spokewoman Hua Chunying claimed.

In a statement she said the country was firmly opposed to the meet, adding, “We urge the US side to treat China’s concern in a serious way and immediately cancel the planned meeting.”

The US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden announced that Obama would meet the monk “in his capacity as an internationally respected religious and cultural leader”. In a sign of the sensitivity of the occasion, the event was listed on the president’s daily schedule as closed to the press.

Hayden said the Obama administration will be renewing calls for the Chinese government to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives, without preconditions. “The United States strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in China. We are concerned about continuing tensions and the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibetan areas of China.”

China has for decades opposed foreign dignitaries meeting the Buddhist leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

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