3/8/09 by Shaun Tandon Shaun Tandon – AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Fifty years after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, the United States is still searching for how to support the spiritual leader who commands enormous respect but is up against a rising China.
The United States once covertly funneled weapons to Tibetan guerrillas -- despite unease by the Dalai Lama himself -- and has long criticized Beijing's policy. But a consensus is emerging to only nudge China gently.
John Kenneth Knaus was an officer for the CIA as it trained Tibetan insurgents and dropped arms in the Himalayan territory -- an effort the United States gave up in 1968 as it became clear the Chinese were fully in charge.
"Was it worth it? These are questions that old men ask themselves," Knaus, now 85 and retired from the CIA, said meditatively at his home in suburban Washington.
"I'd like to think so, obviously," he said. "I think it's really a typical American thing, support for the underdog."
But Knaus was surprised that the Dalai Lama, famous for his warmth, gave him a cool reception when they first met face-to-face in 1964.
"I didn't get it. I was going there practically as a convert, a disciple -- I knew several hundred of his people, these kids, and I loved them -- and I was disappointed," Knaus said.
"It took me some time before I realized that to him, I represented the whole problem -- we were providing arms to his people, we were in a sense sustaining violence, which he simply just by definition could not support."
Tibetan Buddhist monks in-exile arrive for a prayer meeting for Tibetans killed in the crackdown since the March 1959 uprising, at a temple in Dharamsala. China should end its "repression" of Tibet and work with the Dalai Lama 50 years after the revolt that forced him into exile, according to a resolution to be introduced in the US Congress on Monday.
The Dalai Lama sneaked out of Lhasa in 1959, traveling by horseback to safety in India, as the Chinese crushed a brewing uprising -- a brutal chapter that exiles say cost 80,000 lives.
The Dalai Lama first traveled to the United States in 1968 and has since become a regular visitor, addressing packed crowds on spirituality and helping spark a worldwide surge of interest in Buddhism.
"I don't think any of us had any appreciation of the tremendous influence this man would have," said Knaus, who is now affiliated with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University.
To China's fury, the Dalai Lama has gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the US Congressional Gold Medal.
But the 74-year-old monk has not succeeded in returning to Tibet, where China has poured in extra troops and forbidden any public support for the Dali Lama, who it accuses of separatism.
The United States has also changed its tone as it pursues a closer relationship with a rapidly growing China, now the biggest holder of US treasuries.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Beijing last month, said Tibet and other human rights concerns would take a back seat in US-China relations in order to collaborate on issues such as fighting the global economic crisis.
William Cohen, a former senator and secretary of defense, said that while members of Congress would continue to be outspoken, the executive branch has learned to take a softer approach with China.
"It's human relations 101," he said. "If you pound the podium and say these are the things you must do, you are likely to get just the opposite result."
Cohen co-chairs a bipartisan commission that includes Henry Kissinger -- who laid the groundwork for normalization of ties between the United States and China in 1972 -- that has called for the two countries to address any disputes in private.
Fellow co-chair Maurice Greenberg, the former head of insurance giant AIG, said that with 1.3 billion people, social stability "is critical to China, as to the world."
"You have to recognize there are different cultures, different histories than our own," he said. "You can't just dictate what they should be based upon what you are."
Even US human rights activists said they put hopes for change in Tibet on a new generation of Chinese scholars who are more open to criticizing government policy.
"One of the reasons you see such a vociferous response from Beijing to any perceived form of separatism or affinity for Tibetan Buddhism is the enormous popularity that the Dalai Lama enjoys outside of China," said Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch advocacy director for Asia.
"We can reasonably expect China to ignore what we say. But we would hope they would listen to what Chinese academics are now saying."
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