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Merkel to meet Dalai Lama amid tension with China
2007-09-23
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to hold a historic meeting with the Dalai Lama on Sunday that has raised tensions with China and led Beijing to cancel at least one official event. The Chinese foreign ministry called in Germany's ambassador to Beijing over the meeting, which will mark the first time Tibet's exiled spiritual leader is received at the chancellery, but Berlin has resisted pressure to withdraw Merkel's invitation. "The meeting will take place, the invitation stands, and the chancellor also extended the invitation very consciously," deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said on Friday. He said the government was convinced that the meeting will "not disturb the good state of German-Chinese relations and cooperation" just weeks after Merkel visited China. But the justice ministry on Saturday confirmed that Chinese officials have cancelled a meeting with German counterparts on patent right protection in Munich on Sunday for "technical reasons." In an interview with the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Dalai Lama said he was not angry at China's stance but found it arrogant. "It is simply China's attitude. It is the arrogance of power. Beijing is meddling in the domestic affairs of Germany and demanding that the chancellor should not see me," he said. "Wherever I go, China protests. The Chinese are simply testing how far they can go. Therefore I do not believe that my meeting with Mrs Merkel will have a lastingly negative impact on Chinese-German relations." He said he was "happy" about the invitation and impressed with Merkel, whom he has met before, but while she was still an opposition politician. "What I appreciate about Mrs Merkel, is her steady engagement on human rights and religious freedom, as well as her commitment to the environment. "Perhaps that is why she wants to see me, in spite of all the pressure from China," he said. The Buddhist leader has led a Tibetan government-in-exile in India since 1959. He said he believed that China's policy towards the Himalayan region it occupied in 1950 would have to change. "At the moment, the Chinese government appears to be in a dilemma about Tibet. The more sensitive among the country's political leaders realise that their image in the outside world depends strongly on how they treat Tibet." The Dalai Lama was received by Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer last week and has held talks with several other political leaders, including US President George W. Bush, with whom he has met three times. China has bristled for years at his strong international following. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his non-violent approach to relations with China.
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