US president George Bush today defended his plan to appear at an award ceremony for the Dalai Lama in the face of Chinese objections and urged Beijing to open talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader China views as a separatist.
US president George Bush and the Dalai Lama watch as a colour guard carries the US flag during the award ceremony today. Photo: Reuters/Jim Young
At a ceremony underway in Washington, the Dalai Lama is being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the country's highest civilian honor, by the US Congress. China angrily denounced the award as a "farce" that would hurt relations between Beijing and Washington.
Mr Bush, who attends the ceremony on Capitol Hill in the first public appearance by a US president with the Dalai Lama, said he was going because he supported religious freedom and admired the Tibetan monk and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
"I have consistently told the Chinese that religious freedom is in their nation's interest," he told a news conference hours before the ceremony.
"I've also told them that I think it's in their interest to meet with the Dalai Lama and will say so at the ceremony today in Congress," he said.
"If they were to sit down with the Dalai Lama, they would find him to be a man of peace and reconciliation," Bush added.
A smiling Dalai Lama emerged from his White House meeting with Mr Bush on Tuesday and shrugged off the Chinese criticism, telling reporters: "That always happens."
Tibet has been ruled by China since Communist troops invaded in 1950, and the government deals harshly with Tibetans who press for greater political and religious freedom.