Obama to host Dalai Lama at White House

 

US President Barack Obama will meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Friday, US officials say.

China has urged the US to cancel the meeting, saying it will "seriously impair China-US relations".
China describes the Dalai Lama as a separatist, while the spiritual leader says he only advocates greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence.

Officials say the US does not support Tibetan independence but is concerned about human rights in China.

The two men last met in 2011, in talks that angered China.

Tibet is governed as an autonomous region in China.

China has been widely accused of repressing political and religious freedoms in Tibet. Beijing rejects this and says economic development has improved Tibetans' lives.

'Respected leader'
 
Mr Obama will host the Dalai Lama in a private meeting in the White House Map Room on Friday morning, US officials said.

"We do not support Tibetan independence," she said, adding that the US "strongly supports human rights and religious freedom in Chinaers in the Oval Office, so the decision to use the Map Room is viewed as an attempt to give the visit a lower-profile.

In recent years more than 110 ethnic Tibetans - mostly young monks and nuns living in areas outside Tibet - have set themselves on fire in apparent protest against Beijing's rule.