(TibetanReview.net, Dec28’20) – China expects that US President-elect Joe Biden will meet with the Dalai Lama as promised by him in September but that his administration will return to the restraint of the President Barack Obama’s era and will not engage in many aggressive provocations on the Tibet question like during the outgoing President’s term, according to a commentary posted on China’s official globaltimes.cn Dec 17.
The commentary, which criticized the “Tibetan Policy and Support Act”, sought to belittle the influence of the Central Tibetan Administration on US government policy.
Even though the “Tibetan government-in-exile” may play some tricks, their influence and appeal are far from those comparable to the Dalai Lama. This signals the anxiety of these US anti-China forces, Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, was cited as saying.
The commentary bemoaned the fact that “US political elites had remained on the same page to crack down on China, with Tibet being one of the few ‘cards’ it can play.” It therefore anticipated that “the US would occasionally play tricks on Tibet.”
And it contended that “apart from further damaging overall China-US cooperation and bilateral relations, Washington’s tricks on the Tibet question had no other effect.”
The commentary noted that though several former US presidents, including Barack Obama, had met the Dalai Lama in the White House, the meetings were low profile in a bid to avoid irritating China.
“This mirrors Obama’s restraint over the Tibet question in comparison to the US incumbent president.”
And it expected Joe Biden to get back on Obama’s restraint over the Tibet question.
