Reaction to Dalai Lama meeting President Bush

(17 Oct 2007) SHOTLIST
1. People walking past newspaper stand on street
2. People reading newspaper at newspaper stand
3. Newspapers on sale
4. Close, pan of headline on newspaper reads: (English) "Don't meet Dalai Lama, Bush urged"
5. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin), Li Boning, Student in Beijing:
"China has built the Qinghai-Tibetan railway in order to develop Tibet. Tibet has developed greatly and it is part of China and it cannot be separated from China. I am totally against Bush meeting the Dalai Lama. I am very angry about that."
6. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin), Li Penghao, Beijing Resident:
"The meeting between Bush and the Dalai Lama means that the US sees China as a big power to them, that China is a big threat. Tibet is part of China, and the US wants to disassemble China's power by recognising Tibetan separatists."
7. People buying newspaper from stand
8. People walking past newspaper stand on street
STORLYLINE
Some Chinese expressed anger over US President George W Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday, saying it showed he was siding with separatists.
"China has built the Qinghai-Tibetan railway in order to develop Tibet. Tibet has developed greatly and it is part of China and it can not be separated from China. I am totally against Bush's meeting Dalai Lama. I am very angry about that," said Li Boning, a student in Beijing.
"The meeting between Bush and Dalai Lama means that the US sees China as a big power to them, that China is a big threat. Tibet is part of China, and the US wants to disassemble China's power by recogniSing Tibetan separatists," said Li Penghao,a Beijing resident.
Chinese state media criticised the United States on Wednesday for its plan to grant the Dalai Lama a Congressional Medal of Honour, saying the move would 'cast a shadow' over bilateral ties.
"The Chinese government and people have every reason to consider the event as interference in the internal affairs of China," the official China Daily newspaper said in an unsigned editorial titled 'Wrong Move by the US'
The US side must be "held responsible for the consequences of honouring the Dalai Lama," it warned, without giving specifics.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Tuesday demanded the US cancel the award, saying it would wound the feelings of the Chinese people and interfere with China's internal affairs.
Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao separately said honouring the Dalai Lama would "seriously damage China-US relations," but he did not elaborate on potential consequences.
Bush and senior lawmakers are set to host an elaborate public ceremony in the US Capitol in Washington on Wednesday to award the Dalai Lama with Congress' highest civilian honour, the Gold Medal.
The Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has lived with followers in exile in India since they fled Chinese soldiers in Tibet in 1959.
He says he wants "real autonomy," not independence, for Tibet.
But China demonises the spiritual leader and believes the United States is honouring a separatist

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