On each occasion, Obama has tried to limit the fallout by keeping the meeting private. Alongside the post was a caption crediting the official White House photographer for taking the photo.
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Responding to a question on Chinese opposition to the meeting, Earnest said that has not worked.
Souza, the official White House photographer, was the only lens in the room.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the choice of the residence emphasised the “personal nature of their meeting”. When there’s as head of state typically there will be a meeting in the Oval Office, typically there will be some kind of joint statement to the media.
On an optimistic note, Lama also said that the Chinese President Xi Jinping had praised Buddhism and said that it was an important part of the Chinese culture.
Mr Obama has previously described the Tibetan Buddhist leader as a “good friend”. Obama commended the Dalai Lama for his efforts to promote compassion, empathy, and respect for others.
“All of those were policy positions that the United States, before the meeting occurred, and our policy hasn’t changed after the meeting”, he said. Earnest characterized the visit as a personal visit.
The United States should show its sincerity by boosting mutual trust with China through concrete deeds, by respecting the core interests and major concerns of China, by desisting from making irresponsible moves and eating its own words, and by promoting the sustainable, healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.
“Chinese foreign ministry has already made are presentation to the USA embassy in China”, spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily news briefing. Tibetans re-elected their prime minister in May, and they maintain hope that talks with China to give Tibet more autonomy can continue. It is common sense that not meeting with the Dalai Lama is a benchmark for governments not supporting Tibet’s independence.
The Dalai Lama and his followers have been in exile in India since 1959, due to China’s dominance of Tibet.
Foreign leaders have increasingly declined to meet with the Dalai Lama, fearing retaliation from Beijing.
China considers the Dalai Lama a risky separatist.
“There is no change to the US “One-China” policy”, she said, adding that Tsai would be greeted as a courtesy in Miami by Joe Donovan, acting chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, and in Los Angeles by Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the institute”.
In recent years, many Tibetans have demonstrated against Chinese rule over their homeland, and more than 140 have set themselves on fire. A lot of them have died.
But dialogue between the Dalai Lama and China’s central government stopped in 2010. From the late 1950s until 1974, the Dalai Lama received $180,000 from the Central Intelligence Agency each year.
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His stance has led Chinese communist rulers, who are officially atheist, to insist that the Dalai Lama can only reincarnate after his death.
