Obama, Dalai Lama anger China with White House meeting

China says the Dalai Lama is seeking to split Tibet from the rest of China and calls him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

China today firmly opposed a planned “private meeting” between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama by lodging a diplomatic protest to the USA, saying it is a violation of the “One China” policy and the Tibetan leader was engaged in splitting Tibet from China.

China has ruled Tibet since the 1950s, but several Buddhist Tibetans accuse Beijing of often repressing their religion and culture.

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since a failed 1959 uprising, has for decades been calling for greater Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.

But U.S. policy that Tibet is a part of China has not changed, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

This latest confab took place in the Map Room, not the Oval Office, and the press was not invited – meaning images of the two Nobel peace laureates would not be flashed around the world.

It has not been confirmed if there will be any meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.

The White House has barred news media coverage of the meeting, which is likely to offend China.

“China’s foreign ministry has launched solemn representations with the United States side, expressing our firm opposition to such an arrangement”, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters.

“Tibetan affairs are China’s domestic affairs, which needs no outside interference”. “Trust and friendship with neighboring countries is essential; including the United States also”.

“At the same time, Earnest said the USA position of considering Tibet as part of China had not changed”.

The Dalai Lama officially retired in 2011 from his political role as the leader of the exiled Tibetan government, but remains the head of Tibetan Buddhists and the object of scorn from the Chinese government.

“The U.S. government made solemn commitments”.

The show of US naval power came as Japan and the United States worry China is extending its influence into the Western Pacific with submarines and surface vessels as it pushes territorial claims in the neighboring South China Sea, expanding and building on islands.

A spokeswoman for the US State Department, Anna Richey-Allen, said the visit would be “private and unofficial” and the transits would be handled in accordance with the “unofficial nature of the (U.S.) relationship with Taiwan”.