Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

In early September 1995, the Dalai Lama smilingly embraced Senator Jesse Helms, renowned for his
ultra-conservative stance. This was a high point in the thoroughgoing reverence the Republicans have
shown him.
The Democrats barely acknowledged such conservative solidarity, since it was they who smoothed
the way for the “liberal” god-king to reach a broad public. The American President, Bill Clinton, and
his Vice-president, Al Gore, were initially reserved and ambivalent towards the Dalai Lama, whom
they have met several times. The American government’s position is expressed unambiguously in a
statement from 1994: „Because we do not recognize Tibet as an independent state, the United States
does not conduct diplomatic relations with the self-styled the ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’“ it says
there (Goldstein, 1997, p. 121).
But after several meetings with President Clinton and his wife Hillary the god-king was able to make
a lasting impression on the presidential couple. Clinton committed himself as never before to
resolving the question of Tibet. One of the major points of his trip to China (in 1998) was to
encourage Jiang Zemin to take up contact with the Dalai Lama. Every western head of state who visits
the Middle Kingdom now reiterates this, which has led to success: in the meantime the two parties
(Beijing and Dharamsala) confer constantly behind closed doors.
In 1989 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel peace prize. The fact that he received this
high accolade has less to do with the political situation in Tibet than, above all, the bloody events in
Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where numerous Chinese students protesting against the regime lost
their lives. The West wanted to morally condemn China and the Tibet lobby was successful in
proposing an honoring of His Holiness as the best means of doing so.
From now on the god-king possessed an international prominence like never before. The Oslo award
could almost be said to have granted him a passport and access to the majority of world heads of state.
There was hardly a president who still in the face of Chinese protests refused to officially receive the
god-king, at least as a religious representative. In Ireland, France, Liechtenstein, Austria, Lithuania,
Latvia, Bulgaria, Russia, the USA, Canada, England, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Japan,
Taiwan, Gabun, Australia, New Zealand, several South American countries — everywhere the
“modest monk” was honored like a pontiff.
In 1996 the lobbyists succeeded in maneuvering Germany into a spectacular confrontation with China
through the passing of a resolution Tibet in the Bundestag (the German lower house). The resolution
was supported by all parties in parliament, be they green, left, liberal, or conservative. The
paradoxical side to this move was that both the Dalai Lama and the Chinese were able to profit from it
whilst the naïve Germans had to pay up. This coup represents the Kundun’s party’s greatest political
success in the West to date. On the other hand, the Chinese succeeded in inducing the intimidated
German federal government into continuing to grant China the much desired Hermes securities
formerly refused them. For Beijing, with this agreement in hand, the question of Tibet in its relations
with Germany was resolved for now. Even if we cannot speak of a direct cooperation here, according
to the cui bonum principle the two Asian parties profited greatly by drawing an essentially uninvolved
nation into the conflict.
The media management of the Kundun’s followers is by now perfect. Numerous offices in all