Bush takes the Dalai Lama for a walk

Late yesterday news broke that President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush will attend the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony for the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, at the U.S. Capitol next Wednesday. Now, ABC News is reporting that not only will Bush be attending the ceremony, he will be delivering remarks. It will be the first time Bush has made a public appearance with the Dalai Lama. Normally, the White House is careful to arrange “unofficial” meetings with His Holiness in the White House residence. No more. Bush will reportedly use his remarks to refer to His Holiness as, “a great spiritual leader who is seeking rights for the people of Tibet … and to protect their land.”

Beijing, as you might imagine, is furious. Even before news broke that Bush would be making remarks, China was denouncing the “so-called award,” using state-controlled media to take pot shots at the Dalai Lama, and secretly accusing Tibetan Communist Party members of disloyalty. The Burmese junta can’t be thrilled with this, either, given that the Dalai Lama is the spiritual shepherd of global Buddhism. Some folks, including the New York Sun‘s Nicholas Wapshott, are arguing that Bush is using the award as an opportunity to crank up the pressure on the junta. That may be so, although as Asia scholar Phillip Cunningham over at Informed Comment: Global Affairs points out today, interest in Burma is all but fizzled out. No doubt the first lady, who appears to be genuinely passionate about Burma, played a role in the decision to attend the event. Perhaps President Bush will take the opportunity to yet again condemn the junta’s crackdown on Buddhist monks.

Judging from the brief excerpts of Bush’s remarks released today, though, this looks mostly like a clever attempt by the White House to press the Chinese on human rights at a time when they have little choice but to sit back and take it. First, Beijing wants a quiet Communist Party Congress this year. In fact, Beijing is already cracking down on democracy advocates in advance of next week’s sessions in order to ensure they go smoothly. And second, as was widely noted during the Burma protests, the bigwigs in Beijing don’t want attention drawn to China’s stance on human rights in advance of the Olympics.

So kudos to the White House for spotting a small window within which to deliver the message that booming exports and imports don’t translate to democratic reform. Maybe the vaunted “freedom agenda” isn’t dead after all.