Obama cancels meeting with Dalai Lama ‘to keep China happy’

Oh, this is just awesomeness on a stick. According to the Telegraph:

President Barack Obama has refused to meet the Dalai Lama in Washington this week in a move to curry favour with the Chinese.

The decision came after China stepped up a campaign urging nations to shun the Tibetan spiritual leader.

It means Mr Obama will become the first president not to welcome the Nobel peace prize winner to the White House since the Dalai Lama began visiting Washington in 1991.

And of course there’s this:

Mr Obama has changed his position on Tibet since his election campaign.

In April 2008, he was joined by Hillary Clinton, then his rival for the Democratic nomination and now his Secretary of State, in calling on George W Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony in protest at the bloody repression of a popular uprising in Tibet.

I’ve no particular fondness for the Dalai Lama. But I do know that the Chinese Communists – in fact, all Communists – suck. I also know that the far Left, Obamas most loyal fanbase, revere the Dalai Lama. The repurcussions of this could be entertaining, to say the least.

At least one person in the article well and truly Gets It:

Sophie Richardson, Asia advocate for Human Rights Watch, said: “Presidents always meets the Dalai Lama and what happens? Absolutely nothing.

“This idea that if you are nice to the Chinese Communist Party up front you can cash in later is just wrong. If you lower the bar on human rights they will just move it lower and lower.”