Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to raise the ire of Chinese officials next month when he meets with the Dalai Lama.
The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday that Harper plans to meet the Buddhist leader and Tibetan exile at a government site, a move that would go further than a non-political meeting held by former prime minister Paul Martin with the Dalai Lama in 2004.
The Chinese government has already warned foreign officials that they are weary of meetings with the exiled leader at certain government venues. In a statement sent to The Globe, a Chinese official said, "We are against the provision of venues by foreign countries to the Dalai Lama's secessionist activities and also against foreign dignitaries meeting with him."
The Chinese -- who have run a behind-the-scenes campaign to prevent a formal meeting between the Tibetan leader and the prime minister -- claim that the Dalai Lama is not a mere religious figure. Instead, they argue that he is a political figure who aims to split their country apart. The Dalai Lama, who was forced out of Tibet in 1959, runs a government-in-exile from India.
The Harper government has had a tense relationship with China during its tenure primarily due to the Conservative government's concerns about that country's human rights record. Leaders of Tibet's independence movement in Canada say they hope that the expected meeting between Harper and the Dalai Lama will address the need for serious negotiations about Tibet's relationship with China.
Communists asserted control over Tibet, which is located between India and China in the Himalayan Mountains, in 1950. An independence movement run from within and outside of the country has existed ever since.
In 2004, Martin became the first Canadian leader to meet with the Dalai Lama. He held a 15-minute meeting with the leader at the residence of Ottawa's Roman Catholic archbishop, but Harper's meeting is expected to be held at a government site.
The Chinese also voiced their concerns last year when the Dalai Lama met with Jason Kenney, the current Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity Minister. The Dalai Lama was also given honourary Canadian citizenship at that time.
Fearing increased international support for the Dalai Lama, the Chinese protest any meetings he holds with world leaders. They have also raised objections to a meeting that the Nobel Prize winner is expected to hold with German Chancellor Angela Merkel this weekend. The Chinese were also quick to protest when U.S. President George Bush met with the Tibetan leader at the White House in 2003.
