A prize-winning snub
The greatest of the many ironies of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is that it was announced on the day he blew off one of the most deserving winners of the prize in its history: His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has met the president of the United States ...
The greatest of the many ironies of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is that it was announced on the day he blew off one of the most deserving winners of the prize in its history: His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
The greatest of the many ironies of President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize is that it was announced on the day he blew off one of the most deserving winners of the prize in its history: His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
The Dalai Lama has met the president of the United States on every one of his visits to Washington since 1991 — until now. The White House decided it would be smarter to postpone the visit until after President Obama’s visit to China, after initially indicating to the Tibetans that there would be a meeting with the president per usual. It appears that the Chinese side implored the administration not to meet the Dalai Lama this time because of the particular sensitivity of the Tibet issue at this juncture for President Hu Jintao.
Of course, the Chinese demarched the Bush and Clinton White Houses and argued that it was a "particularly bad time to see the Dalai Lama" every other time he came to Washington as well. Unfortunately, the Chinese may now concluded that the Tibet issue has fallen permanently on the back burner for the United States. This is the Tibetans’ understandable fear. President Obama can correct that impression by pressing Beijing for concrete action on issues of importance to Tibet — like excessive Han migration into the region — when he is in Beijing. The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was given in anticipation of great things, and the president’s November trip to China will be a good time to start repaying the vote of confidence from Norway.
Michael J. Green is the CEO of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a distinguished scholar at the Asia Pacific Institute in Tokyo, and a former senior National Security Council official on Asia policy during the George W. Bush administration. Twitter: @DrMichaelJGreen
More from Foreign Policy

Saudi-Iranian Détente Is a Wake-Up Call for America
The peace plan is a big deal—and it’s no accident that China brokered it.

The U.S.-Israel Relationship No Longer Makes Sense
If Israel and its supporters want the country to continue receiving U.S. largesse, they will need to come up with a new narrative.

Putin Is Trapped in the Sunk-Cost Fallacy of War
Moscow is grasping for meaning in a meaningless invasion.

How China’s Saudi-Iran Deal Can Serve U.S. Interests
And why there’s less to Beijing’s diplomatic breakthrough than meets the eye.