U.S. President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama were together in the same Washington hotel ballroom in early February. They were not alone. Thousands of other people were also present, participating in the National Prayer Breakfast, an annual event hosted by members of the U.S. Congress and routinely attended by American presidents.
Nevertheless, China was outraged. A meeting "in any form" between the U.S. president and the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet would harm China's "core interests" and "national sentiments" regarding Tibet, the Chinese foreign ministry said. Beijing routinely excoriates the Dalai Lama as a "splittist" and a "wolf in sheep's clothing."