Today's reunion of Nobel Peace laureates Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama is a sign of the strangest of times, portends Gamal Nkrumah Growing insecurity concerning the precise nature of the relationship between the United States and China mirrors the People's Republic's rising international economic status. Washington seems unfocussed, yet predictable. It's the Chinese year of the Tiger, but the reunion of Nobel laureates is in fact an all too familiar cat and mouse game. In other words, the entire affair is a storm in a teacup. So what if His Holiness the Dalai Lama meets with US President Barack Obama? The Chinese media habitually ridicules His Holiness as a "wolf in monk's robes". The fuss is about quick reactions and counter- reactions. Chinese President Hu Jintao appealed to Obama not to meet with Tibet's spiritual leader. The US president declined to accept the Chinese president's plea. China's place in the world is a prickly subject in the West that sometimes raises hackles. But to the rest of the world such Western concerns are inconsequential. What matters most in this day and age is what China covets, and not what Washington wants. The whole picture of Sino-American relations has been reconstructed by economics. "If we just increased our exports to Asia by a percentage point, by a fraction, it would mean hundreds, maybe millions of jobs here in the US," confessed Obama. Trade, Tibet and Taiwan will top the agenda -- presumably not necessarily in that order. "The approach that we are taking is to try and get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways," Obama told reporters on the eve of his meeting with the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama might not be a political heavyweight. He intrigues more than he excites. But he brings a keen eye to bear. The 75-year-old Nobel Peace laureate left his mountain stronghold of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, in northern India for New Delhi and onwards to Washington to meet with Obama. "The president's meeting with His Holiness is an expression of the international community's concern," explained the Dalai Lama's chief spokesman Tenzin Taklha. He warned that the meeting sent a "strong signal" to Beijing. "The Chinese government and the government of Tibet Autonomous Region under its leadership are the only representatives of the Tibetans," Zhu Weiqun, executive vice-minister of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in the official People's Daily. Tenzin Taklha described Beijing's protestations as "routine rhetoric". In spite of this brusque rebuff it is clear that the Chinese are eager to curry favour with the Dalai Lama who is not exclusively the spiritual leader of the six million Tibetans but has a huge following throughout Asia and the West, and hence cannot be brushed aside by the powers-that-be in Beijing. While officially China dismisses the Dalai Lama's claim to be the legal representative of his Himalayan homeland, the People's Daily reported that the Chinese government and Communist Party officials met private representatives of the Dalai Lama early this month. "Our patience and sincerity have become bargaining chips for him to continue his tricks in the international community, and has allowed him to create a false impression: as long as he can maintain contact with the central government, he will always be able to possess his magic ability for hurting China. Therefore, the Dalai Lama has become much crazier and more insane. It exposes once again his plot of splitting the Motherland and his true intention of selling the interests of China. His effort is doomed and he will never succeed," wrote columnist Deng Haijian in the People's Daily. Mindful of some of the pitfalls of dealing with Beijing's sworn enemies, Washington has been careful in handling topics such as trade, Tibet and Taiwan. Washington's $6.4 billion arms sales to Taiwan infuriated Beijing. Even so, the People's Republic permitted the American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to visit Hong Kong this week. China is, after all, the single biggest holder of US Treasury bonds owing some $776.4 billion of the US government debt. In other words, Beijing is a power to reckon with and can threaten to flex its muscles much to the chagrin of US policy-makers. Washington has not done much to ease tensions, however. It has since tried to repair some of the damage. The visit of the Dalai Lama, nevertheless, will not iron out differences between Washington and Beijing. "The most important thing is that the meeting is taking place," noted the Dalai Lama's spokesman in Washington. The same goes with US policy towards the self-ruled island that is regarded as a breakaway province, Taiwan. China's growth spurt is of considerable concern to American business. First, there is the contentious question of the Chinese currency, the yuan. "We certainly believe it is substantially undervalued, and we certainly encourage greater flexibility of the yuan," Obama said on the eve of his meeting with the Dalai Lama. "We certainly believe it's substantially undervalued, and we certainly encourage greater flexibility of the yuan," Obama explained. He noted, as do many American businessmen, that Chinese currency policies give the People Republic's companies an unfair price advantage in international trade. Washington is urging Beijing to remedy its exchange rate policy. Another bone of contention is China's close relations with Iran and its nuclear ambitions. "To talk about sanctions against Iran at present is counterproductive," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi tweaked his American counterpart's nose in Paris. A string of misshaps has left what should be a promising bilateral relationship between Washington and Beijing strained. This is the Chinese year of the Iron Tiger, presumably an omnipotent figure: would it be Washington, Obama, the Dalai Lama or His Holiness's nemesis, the Communist Party? Logic would have us believe that whoever seizes the opportunity now will make the world a fairer and safer place.
