BEIJING, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- U.S.-Chinese relations slipped further downwards after Beijing reiterated its "constant and clear" opposition to the scheduled meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.
Government news agency Xinhua said China is "opposing the Dalai Lama's visit to the United States and any contact between the monk and U.S. leaders."
China lodged an official complaint with the Obama administration, Xinhua reported, after White House spokesman Robert Gibbs indicated that the Dalai Lama will meet with Obama later this month.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said, "China resolutely opposed the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes U.S. leaders having contact with the Dalai Lama.
"During President Obama's November visit to China, Chinese leaders had elaborated such a stance."
Ma urged the United States to consider the sensitivity of such a meeting for the Beijing government and was adamant that it would further undermine U.S.-Chinese relations.
A proposed meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama, 75, last year was left unscheduled by the president ahead of his trip to Beijing, even though he was criticized for the move at home.
Beijing has consistently opposed all meetings between the Dalai Lama and any country's political leaders, seeing them as support for what they believe is the Buddhist monk's wish for an independent Tibet. Beijing has considered him a thorn in its side ever since he left Tibet in 1959 when the Chinese army arrived.
He has openly said he wishes only autonomy for Tibet and not total independence.
But Beijing says it set up an autonomous administration in 1965 and it believes the Dalai Lama and his followers are clandestinely fomenting separatist ideas in Tibet.
In case Beijing's opposition to the Dalai Lama is forgotten, the government's official denunciations of the monk follow him wherever he is feted around the world.
China voiced strong dissatisfaction in November over Italian Chamber of Deputies speaker Gianfranco Fini when he met the Dalai Lama who was in Rome attending the fifth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, "We demand the Italian side respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and do more that is conducive to bilateral relations."
Earlier this month the Chinese government removed the University of Calgary in Canada from its list of accredited institutions, a move university officials believe may be connected to the Dalai Lama's visit in September to receive an honorary degree.
On the same day as the latest denunciation of an Obama-Dalai Lama meeting, China's Ministry of Commerce said it would impose initial anti-dumping measures on chicken imports from the United States. The "preliminary ruling" requires importers of chicken products from the United States to place deposits at Chinese customs starting Feb. 13, according to another Xinhua report.
The ministry Web site said investigations showed the U.S. producers had dumped chicken products on the Chinese market, causing substantial damage to China's domestic industry.
Argument over the Dalai Lama is but one of several issues that have strained U.S.-Chinese relations within the past year, including an undervalued Chinese currency, as the United States sees it, and a recent major $6.4 billion U.S. arms sale to Taiwan, which worries China.
The Obama administration has told Chinese officials that the currency issue will be a main agenda point in economic talks this year, a senior official told The New York Times. The artificially undervalued currency is blamed for driving up China's huge trade surpluses against the United States while at the same time raising the prices of U.S. exports. China could also be designated as a manipulator of its currency in the next U.S. Treasury Department's semiannual report on foreign currencies in April.
Meanwhile, Xinhua reported that China would not be violating World Trade Organization rules by imposing sanctions against U.S. firms involved in the arms sales to Taiwan.
Zhang Hanlin, director of the WTO Institute of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said China "has yet to join the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft administered by the WTO, which means China can stop buying civilian aircraft produced by these companies."
The arms sale package makes Boeing, Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon potential targets for Chinese sanctions, the Xinhua report noted.
Zhang pointed to Article 21 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that states contracting parties are free to apply trade controls for national security. "As the arms sales to Taiwan pose a threat to China's national security, China has the right to penalize the companies."
Wang Yong, professor with the School of International Studies of Peking University, said, "The United Sates should realize that China will protect its core interests unwaveringly, which include the national sovereignty and territorial integrity issues."
