Dalai Lama gets Congressional Medal, Chinese government gets angry

[Starslasher]

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/world/story.html?id=dcf16e21-ba e3-4d7d-9042-511083668a55


The title pretty much says it all. The Dalai Lama revieced the Congressional Medal of Honor from Presdient George W. Bush, which is the highest honor to bestow on a non-American. This has, however, obviously angered the Chinese government, who sees the Dalai Lama as a separatist. Any predictions on future US-China relations tensions?
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[eXistence of Fly]

China already said that the meeting itself would sour relations between the two countries, so if that was more than just an attempted political push (aka we'll send you nasty letters telling you how mad we are but other than that, we won't do dick) this would further sour relations, and since relations between US & Russia are being strained also this could (extremely small chance) actually have a tangible bearing.

I however doubt it, we'll probably hear how more upset they are, Bush will say something stupid and the world will continue turning as it has.
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[Hawk Thanatos]

[Shad]

I swear Yahoo is the worst news source in the universe. Their headline when I checked my email this morning was something to the effect of "The Dalai Lama - a complete failure or just not that important?" Any time something of remote interest happens they misconstrue the headline to make it sound like they have some detail the rest of the news doesn't, then proceed to write a really half assed article on it. I remember once they had something like "Bush discusses possible resignation as president" and the whole article was just on how someone asked him if he was going to resign and he said "no".

Anyway that didn't have much to do with the contents of this news story, just the story itself. As for the Dalai Lama, it's a subject that would require a good bit of research on my end before I could form a sound opinion of it. If this is coming from the President though he had to have seen some benefit for agitating China a bit, because I can't see any other apparent motive. Like I said though, I don't know much about the Dalai Lama. Maybe his sphere of influence is a lot greater than I imagine.

[eXistence of Fly]

[Luceit]

[Starslasher]

I would overall agree with Hawkthanatos. Sure, the Chinese government is mad now, but i doubt that they'll stay mad for long. But they might bring it up when it becomes convenient for them. I'm not sure when it would be, but i'm sure that they won't try something drastic to upset its realtions with the US, at least not at this point.
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Dragonstar13]

I think this might make things harder between the U.S and China, but I think they'll try to work something out.

I saw on the news here, there were some people protesting at the Great wall. I think 3 of them were Canadian, and some of them were American. They held out a banner saying "Free Tibet". They got throw into jail, but were eventually sent back home. I was actually surprised they were let back home.
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[zincbrain]

The US has always found ways to crawl out of the toughest spots but this time they have a big boulder named China in front of them and I doubt that China will forgive the Americans. This is because the Dalai Lama has been a thorn in their side ever since he went into exile and having the US now encouraging him this does not help lessen tension between the US and China.
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"An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind" Mohandis K Gandhi

[Scarlet Assassin]

The Chinese will cry about it for a while and then get over it. As it was mentioned earlier, they've got the Olympics coming up and they know it's a huge deal. That's how they're being forced to intervene in Darfur, and for that reason, they're not going to screw anybody over at the moment, especially not The US (Which holds most of the major broadcasting contracts for the Olympics.)
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Chief of Beat-em-up Honeys Division, Devoted Protector of Lady Tifa Lockhart

[Ujitsuna]

What does a Buddhist monk want with a gold medal anyway?

[Leb]

Humorously, the Chinese called the Dalai Lama a politician under the guise of a holy man. It's what the British said about Mahatma Gandhi.

As almost everyone knows, I hate the People's Republic. Who gives a shit about what they say? I love little things like this-- Victims of Communism Memorial here, Congressional Gold Medal there.

[iscalio]

[Leb]

Mormons would consider their President the leader Christianity proper. That's all that matters.

The idea of one leader for an entire faith-based system is fictitious.

[Admiral Ackbar]

It's amusing to watch China act nice with the Olympics coming up. Taiwan recently made (another) bid to become recognized as an independant nation to the UN, I believe. Plus all of the stuff America has been doing with Tibet and the communism memorial. And let's not forget China's very shoddy food safety reputation, as well as it's horrible cheap manufactured goods reputation. China is even reducing the number of executions because of the Olympics.

After the Olympics the shits gonna hit the fan. I wonder how though. More force against seperatists in Tibet, more military pressure against nearly-defenseless Taiwan, economic moves against the US...? Taiwan's days appear to be numbered. I predict it will become a part of China again within my lifetime. Maybe the next decade even.

But seriously the US needs to wisen up to how powerful China is becoming, especially considering how more and more nations are making closer ties with it and becoming more seperate from US influence. During the Cold War it was Russia and the US...now it's becoming China and the US.
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