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As China made strong diplomatic protest over US President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama, the Chinese media today said the event turned out to be an embarrassment for Beijing with its warning making little difference.
While Obama played "dumb" at his meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House yesterday, so far "China has found no effective way to counter such acts, said state-run Global Times which is also an official publication of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC).
"With China growing stronger, old practices such as US presidents meeting the Dalai Lama or selling arms to Taiwan are having less impact. But still, Friday's meeting embarrassed China. Beijing had to protest, but the protest did not make much difference," it said.
As Obama went ahead with his third meeting with the Dalai Lama, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned US envoy here to lodge strong protest over it.
Observers say the US move could cast a shadow on Obama's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingping at the next month's nuclear security summit in the Netherlands.
According to Zhang, such a wrong move gravely interfered in China's internal affairs, seriously violated the US commitment of not supporting the "Tibet independence", gravely violated basic norms governing the international relations, and seriously undermined the China-US relations.
"Such a move will gravely sabotage China-US cooperation and relations, and will definitely undermine its own interests," he warned.
In its editorial, Global Times said that for the US, the Dalai Lama is an easy card to play - not as powerful as before - still, it is a card to deal with China.
"The instant effect of the meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama is nothing but some loss of face for China. It only serves as a reminder for the Chinese people to get a better understanding of what the US is," it said.
"The Dalai clique has been on the decline and is seeing an increasingly unclear future," it said.
"They are grasping at the West for support. The clique has been living in an out-of-date self-deceiving fantasy. Western leaders have met with the Dalai Lama one after another, but the influence of the Dalai clique continues to dwindle. Except some funding, Western countries have nothing to give them," it said.
The state-run China Daily said, America's "idea of using the Dalai Lama to assume a moral high ground is fundamentally flawed. The Dalai Lama is essentially a political fugitive whose supporters instigate separatist activities, fuelling them by committing self-immolation".
