Hosts want Obama to say Tibet is Chinese
At the top of Beijing's wish list for this month's visit to China by Barack Obama is a public statement by the US president recognising Chinese sovereignty over Tibet .
In exchange, say Chinese diplomats, Beijing would commit to military transparency and to co-operation on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
Diplomats from the world's two most influential nations are still negotiating details of the summit between Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao . The Chinese side has suggested Obama state that 'Tibet is part of China's territory and the US opposes Tibetan independence', the Chinese envoys say.
Obama will visit Shanghai and Beijing between November 15 and 18. An agreement on this most sensitive political issue would be a triumph for Beijing and could help end deadlock on strategic issues, though human rights campaigners and the US Congress would be bound to criticise it.
Diplomats say Washington is stressing as topics for dialogue during Obama's visit strategic issues, transparency about China's rapid military build-up, and co-operation on non-proliferation and disarmament, dealing with the nuclear programmes in North Korea and Iran, and terrorism.
Like most Western governments, Washington has avoided making any public statement on Tibet's status. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, has advocated Tibetan autonomy under Chinese jurisdiction and has not made any mention of sovereignty for Tibet in more than 20 years.
Last year, the British government was accused of undermining the Dalai Lama by recognising China's direct rule over Tibet.
'China sees that Tibet and Taiwan remain the leadership's top concerns in its relationship with the United States, and a public statement by a visiting US president is certainly highly sought after by the Chinese leadership,' said Jin Canrong, associate dean of the school of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
A diplomat who met US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell - the top US diplomat on China affairs, who was in Beijing recently to lay the groundwork for Obama's visit - quoted him as saying that Washington hoped the summit would produce results on strategic issues, such as developing 'rules of the road for how we co-operate in the future'.
Jin believes there is a less than 50 per cent chance Obama will make such a public statement, but thinks the US president might be willing to do something in a closed-door encounter to satisfy Chinese demands.
