German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to hold a historic meeting with the Dalai Lama yesterday despite strong protests from China, which has canceled talks with German officials.
The German justice ministry said Chinese officials have called off a meeting with German counterparts on patent right protection that was scheduled to take place in Munich yesterday for "technical reasons."
The meeting would have been addressed by Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries and taken place just hours before Merkel is due to become the first German chancellor to receive Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.
The Chinese foreign ministry also called in Germany's ambassador to Beijing and warned Germany not to receive the venerated Buddhist authority, whom it denounced as a separatist activist who wants to undermine China.
But Berlin has resisted the pressure to withdraw Merkel's invitation.
"The meeting will take place, the invitation stands and the chancellor also extended the invitation very consciously," deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said on Friday.
He said the government was convinced that the meeting would "not disturb the good state of German-Chinese relations and cooperation" just weeks after Merkel visited China.
In an interview with the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Dalai Lama said he was not angry at China's stance but found it arrogant.
"It is simply China's attitude. It is the arrogance of power. Beijing is meddling in the domestic affairs of Germany and demanding that the chancellor should not see me," he said. "Wherever I go, China protests. The Chinese are simply testing how far they can go. Therefore I do not believe that my meeting with Mrs Merkel will have a lastingly negative impact on Chinese-German relations."
He said he was "happy" about the invitation and impressed with Merkel, whom he has met before, but while she was still an opposition politician.
"What I appreciate about Mrs Merkel is her steady engagement on human rights and religious freedom, as well as her commitment to the environment. Perhaps that is why she wants to see me, in spite of all the pressure from China," he said.
The Dalai Lama has led a Tibetan government-in-exile in India since 1959.
He said he believed that China's policy towards the Himalayan region it occupied in 1950 would have to change.
"At the moment, the Chinese government appears to be in a dilemma about Tibet. The more sensitive among the country's political leaders realize that their image in the outside world depends strongly on how they treat Tibet," he said.
The Dalai Lama said he believed that he felt a special affinity with Merkel, as he had with the late pope John Paul II, because both had lived under a communist regime.
Merkel is the first German chancellor to have grown up in communist East Germany.
The Dalai Lama was received by Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer last week, also amid protest from China.
He has held talks with several other political leaders including US President George W. Bush, with whom he has met on three occasions.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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