US Debt Crisis of Concern to World

Recently, the debt crisis of the Euro Zone worsened and spread to Italy. However, this is no match for the growing possibility that the US Government may not be able to pay its national debt from 2 August onward.
US President Barack Obama has had a one-week-long negotiation with leaders of both the Democratic Party and Republican Party in a bid to avoid closing down parts of the federal government. The current debt ceiling set for the federal government of the United States is $14.29 trillion. This limit will be hit by 2 August. The US Congress has to approve raising this limit before this date. Otherwise, the government would have to put off some of its financial commitments.
Faster Depreciation of US Dollar
Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, warned that defaulting payment will trigger impacts to the global economy. More alarm was heard from two major credit rating agencies, Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P), which warned that if the political standoff persists, they will cut the United States' prized AAA credit rating.
There are a few reasons why the world, the developing world especially, should be on the alert under this situation. First of all, many developing countries hold a few billions of short-term US Treasury Bills as part of their foreign reserves. If happens, a debt default will have unpredictable impacts to countries that have no choice but to make a "haircut" or only have part of their Treasury Bills paid.
Defend Creditors' Interests
Although this seems quite unlikely, a debt default and downgrade of the credit rating alone will also devalue the US Treasury Bills. Moreover, the value of the US dollar seems to have depreciated faster lately. Thus, the losses may be bigger in the future.
Last week, China (which holds $1.15 trillion long-term US Treasury Bills) called on the United States to defend the interests of the holders of the US Treasury Bills through responsible policy and measures.
Secondly, if the impasse or the final solution plunges the United States into economic stagnancy or a new round of economic recession, the economic growth of developing countries will also be affected.
Substantial Cut in Government Spending
Regardless of the final deal of the US President and the two major parties, the core of the deal will certainly be a substantial cut in the government spending. This will cut down the effective demands of the economy. And this will contradict the effects of the monetary stimulus measures introduced by the Obama administration to address the economic recession. The stimulus package had successfully brought economic recovery to the United States in 2008 and 2009.
Thirdly, Washington stressed that there are uncertainties in the unhealthy dependence on the US dollar as the international foreign reserves. There is a need for reforms to reduce the dependence on one single currency. For example, some prominent economists like Joseph Stiglitz, Jose Antonio Ocampo, and Yilmaz Akyuz and some decision-makers like the governor of the central bank of China have advocated the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) (major currency basket) as a currency for global reserves.
Spur Reforms of Global Reserves System
Although a debt default of the United States is most unlikely, the matter has now turned from unimaginable to possible. This may once again trigger the discussions on the reforms of the global reserves system.
The facts of the current impasse facing Washington are as follows. The current $14.29 trillion debt ceiling will be reached by 2 August, therefore new borrowing is not allowed before this date. The government estimates that the debt ceiling has to be raised to $24 trillion, so that the government could fulfill its promises made for the period after the presidential election a nd before November 2012.
Many Republican congressmen, especially those influenced by the Boston Tea Party, hope that the government could achieve budget balance through substantial cut of spending without raising taxes.
But some Republican leaders are willing to consider small tax hike or even closing the tax loopholes. However, they find it hard to convince their colleagues in the party. They also hope the cut of spending could exceed the increase of the debt ceiling.
The President and Democratic Party are willing to cut down the spending substantially, but they also hope to raise the taxes on the rich, so that both can contribute to the reduction of the budget deficit. Leaders of the Democratic Party said unyieldingly that social and medical security must not be affected, although Obama is willing to allow some cut in this area.
Should the extreme attitude of the Boston Tea Party become the mainstream in the Republican Party, it will be a tough task to strike the deal. The Democratic Party and Republican Party must give in fully to solve this problem.
Should the impasse persists, a possible solution is the proposal made by the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. During this period, the President proposed the plan to increase the debt ceiling and cut down budget, but the plan was rejected by the Congress and the President voted against it. McConnell's proposal will be passed, unless two-thirds of the Congress vote against it again.
Regulatory System Collapses
This has also made all quarters claim that they will hold on to their stands and avoid the crisis.
If no consensus is reached by 2 August, then the US Government would have no choice but to choose not to pay what items and when these items would not be paid. These include the interest of the short term national debt, social security, health care, vendors, unemployment relief, food, military expenditure, salaries for employees of the federal government, etc.
The priority will be paying debt. Thus it is very unlikely that the US Government would not pay the debt, unless the impasse persists for a long time. When there is no transaction, other services and remuneration will be affected and increase continuously.
Almost everyone would agree, there will be no way out for the government if it operates this way. Yet, the regulatory system of the United States is losing its functions. This has caused serious impacts to other countries. Therefore, everyone hopes that they could come out with a solution before 2 August.

Obama's State of Union Address

US President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address delivered on 25 January can be viewed as his prelude to seek second term presidency in 2012. Obama has just completed the first half of his presidency. The second State of the Union Address is like a mirror that can reflect what Obama wants to do in the next two years. In this Address, Obama urged both the Democratic Party and Republican Party to work together in improving the US economy. While he wanted all politicians from the two parties to put the nation above politics, he also warned his political rivals not to pull one another's legs when the people of the United States are suffering from economic hardship. He said that if this was not observed, then both the parties could become losers at any one time.

In this second State of the Union Address, Obama did not waste too many times and words on US foreign policy. On the Middle East Peace process, which is a hot potato, Obama did not say a word. On international affairs, the praiseworthy words of Obama in his Address were none other than telling the people that the US military mission in Iraq would soon come to an end.

Revival of Economy

The pace of the US economic recovery has been slow. The US unemployment rate remains as high as above nine percent. The high US federal deficit that cannot go down has led to continual expansion of federal debt.

The reason why the Democratic Party led by Obama could lose out in last year's congressional elections was the Democratic Party has failed to ease the people's concern about the worsening economic situation in the country. If Obama wants to pave a smooth path to run for the next presidential election, then he has no other choice but to focus on domestic economic issues.

Health Care Reform Bill
During the presidential election campaign held two years ago, Obama has made the commitment to promote the sharing of power between the ruling Democratic and the opposition Republic party. Unfortunately, Obama's health care reform bill has divided the two political parties as fire and ice. Not too long after the Republican Party regained control of the House of Representative after the 2010 congressional election, the Republicans have already proposed the abolishment of Obama's health care reform bill.

The remarks addressed to the Republicans by Obama in his latest State of the Union Address have carried with it a special message. He said that when all sectors in the society made evaluation on him and on other congressional representatives, their evaluation "will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow." Although these remarks by Obama have won applause from the whole floor, we believe while the superficial applause coming from the Democratic and Republican congressional representatives were as loud as each party could release, but the deep feelings between the two political camps were different.

The gunshot tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, shocked both the ruling and opposition parties. The poisonous atmosphere in the US political scene has raised red light. To the Republican politicians who have formed a strong force to prevent Obama from being re-elected as a second term President, they know that if they focus only on confronting and opposing the US President and the Democratic Party without considering the feeling of the people, the general public who gave them the votes during last year's congressional election might embrace the Democratic Party again in the next presidential election.

National Policy Implementation
In this regard, when President Obama urged both the parties to join hands and rescue the US economy, not only could he win the hearts of the middle and independent voters, he could also push the Republicans to a corner losing both their advancing and retreating ground. When Obama talked about his thrifty budget plan, he said "We will move forward together, or not at all." With such a statement, President Obama has warned the Republican congressional representatives that if the US Congress failed to achieve any federal budget reduction plan, the overall Congress will upset the people. In the end, no party could reap benefit or take advantage of each other.

From the contents of Obama's latest State of the Union Address; we can observe that in the next two years, President Obama will adopt a pragmatic policy based on concrete work and concrete fight in dealing with national issues. For example, in this round of State of the Union Address, Obama did not mention the legislation of the huge and massive health care plan but instead he has thrown out some proposals deemed pleasing to both the Democratic and Republican Party. This has shown Obama has not only reinforced his 'fundamental political base", he has also tried to absorb some of the Republican congressional representatives to his national policy implementation track to reduce and counter-attack strength of his political rivals.

Lack of Strength
However, before President Obama has released the full contents of his second State of the Union Address, some Republicans have already launched their counter attacks on his speech without any delay. They sent emails to the media criticizing the lack of strength of Obama's decision to freeze federal spending.

If we say this State of the Union Address released by President Obama has subtly drawn open the battlefield curtain of the next US presidential election. This is not an exaggerating conclusion.Overall, Obama's second State of the Union Address has promoted national unity. The Address has included both Obama's defense and attack strategy in dealing with his political rivals.

Afghan War Will Blast US, Europe From Within

Hillary Clinton is the secretary of state of the United States. During the last US elections, she tried her best to be nominated presidential candidate from the platform of Democratic Party; however, she did not succeed. Incumbent President Obama was declared to be the most suitable candidate for the election of the president and he also won the election. The lobbies that wanted to see Hillary elected as president adopted another way in order to avoid disappearing from US political scene. They devised several plans and finally Hillary was nominated for the position of secretary of state. These lobbies succeeded here and Hillary was appointed secretary of state.

Hillary Clinton is wife of former President Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton was a Democrat president. Even during that time, Hillary was politically very active. Her husband had his own view about the global issues. He did his level best to change the political landscape of South Asia; however, he did not succeed. Practically, he was influenced by the Indian lobby. Hillary's mindset forces her to bend toward India. She appears to be very close to the think tanks who look upon the joint and individual influence of China and Pakistan as a major obstacle in the way of long-term US policy and consider India to be the most important power of this region or want to give India that status, which is nothing but a figment of their imagination.

Taliban and Al-Qa'ida Leadership
Very recently, Hillary Clinton gave a very harsh statement against Pakistan. In this statement, she said some of the people in Pakistani Government know about the whereabouts of leadership of Afghan Taliban and Al-Qa'ida. She threatened that if Pakistan continued to be negligent toward this matter, the United States, itself, will strike in Pakistani areas. This statement of hers induced a strong reaction in Pakistan. The Senate, too, approved a resolution against it.

The United States is the only superpower at this time. There is no second power in the world that could defy any of the steps it takes on international level. Therefore, the US political attitudes have changed. Ever since the era of former President Ronald Reagan, the US administrations started to change their attitude in global politics and the principle of waging war for the sake of preventing war was introduced. It became the foundation of Reagan Doctrine later. The strategy of war proved successful against Russian expansion. Pakistan, during the era of President Ziaul Haq, played a key role in the success of this strategy. Russia suffered defeat in Afghanistan. Not only was Russia defeated but the Russian communist empire was also shattered to pieces. Former President Bush and the presidents elected after him continued the policy of might is right.

Withdrawal of Forces From Iraq and Afghanistan
The American nation is sick of the aftermath of this strategy of war. They elected Obama as their new president. Obama had raised the slogan of change. However, the change for which the American people had elected Obama president never came about. President Obama, who had promised to withdraw forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, did not fulfill his promise. On the contrary, despite the public pressure, he decided to commit fresh troops to Afghanistan. He had taken this decision under the pressure of Pentagon, Department of State and Zionist lobbies. However, it did not bear any positive fruit. The major operation which was launched in Helmand, after the arrival of these troops, failed.

When President Obama became president, the same lobbies that had clutched George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, closed in on him. The United States had accused Iraq of possessing destructive weapons and developing weapons of mass destruction and said that these weapons were a threat to the neighboring countries, which are friends of the United States. It did not remain a secret any longer that this accusation was false and baseless. Intoxicated by power, the United States ripped through Iraq and proved that might is all right. In Europe, the United States destroyed Czechoslovakia because it was the only communist government left. It wanted to do the same to Afghanistan. However, here they failed.

In Afghanistan, the United States went even further than the principle of waging war for the sake of preventing war. In this case, the United States went on a war as a precautionary measure. The American and Israeli Jews call it right to preventive war. They used the same technique in Afghanistan. They thought that if the Taliban, who claim to have formed an Islamic government, succeeded here, the entire American and European civilization would be jeopardized.

Atrocities Against Sikhs
The Sikhs are very lighthearted and they enjoy jokes. They like to tell and listen to the jokes about themselves. They do not mind it the slightest bit. One of their jokes is very famous. There were several villages of Sikhs spread around at small distances at a place. The Sikhs of one village thought that they should cultivate sugar cane, as it earns a lot of profit. A wise Sikh said: although, it is something very profitable but if the people of the neighboring village chewed all sugar cane, we will suffer huge loss. Then, with mutual consultation, they decided to teach the neighbors a lesson. Therefore, they raised the slogan of Sat Sri Akal (victory belongs to them who recite the name of God with true heart) and invaded the neighboring village and annihilated everything. The villagers asked the invaders: brothers, what was our fault that you inflicted this misery upon us? The invaders brandished their clubs and said: "Chew more sugar canes!"

The United States have been doing since 1981 what the Sikhs did here. The invasion of Afghanistan had a similar reason; and now the United States is thinking the same about Iran. However, it cannot do the same to Iran; nor can it drive Pakistan with this whip because the US and Pakistani military leaderships are in harmony.

Pakistan-US Ties
In this statement, Hillary said: "The relations between Pakistan and the United States have improved. Pakistan's efforts against terrorism are appreciable." It appears that Hillary issued this comparatively soft statement under the pressure of US military leadership. Thus, the differences between US military and civil leaderships have started to become visible.

Unless President Obama gets rid of his present advisors, he will not succeed in establishing peace and the Afghan war will blast the United States and Europe from within.

Obama Considers Health Care Reform Important Agenda of Presidency

Finally, US President Barack Obama managed to have his biggest political engineering work, which is the US health care bill, passed by the US Congress. The bill was passed with 219 supporting votes as against 212 opposing votes.

Fighting to have the health care reform bill passed has not been an easy battle for President Obama. Nevertheless, President Obama has at least won the battle. However, he and the average American people understood that this was a narrowed victory and a victory that President Obama could not be too proud about the result.

Support for Bill
There were a total 431 congressional seats in that Congress. President Obama's Democratic Party has taken up a total of 253 seats and the opposing Republican only has 178 seats. However when the voting result was known, President Obama only received a total 219 supporting votes. Apparently, there were as many as 34 Democrat congressional representatives did not abide with party line to support the Obama Government's health care reform bill. If President lost four more votes at that critical voting period, his health care bill would be rejected.

Despite the fact that President Obama has cancelled his scheduled visit to Australia and Indonesia and absorbed the embarrassment in public diplomacy by staying back in Washington to lobby the lawmakers, he still could not convince 34 Democrat lawmakers to change their minds and support his health care reform bill. The fact that President Obama has such a narrowed victory in getting his health care bill passed by the Congress has reflected the reality that his health care reform plan does not reflect the views of the majority US citizens.

During the time when the US Congress was debating on the health care bill, the result of the public opinion poll jointly organized by the ABC television channel and Washington Post, a US mainstream media that supports the Obama administration, has shown that there were more people opposing the health care reform bill than the people wanting to support it. This public opinion poll has also shown that President Obama's health care reform bill did not get the consensus of the majority of people.

Reducing Federal Deficit
President Obama wants to use US$ 950 billion tax payer's money to implement the first stage of his national health care plan. This first phase of health care insurance expenditure can help the Obama government to reduce $138 billion federal deficit. This is a health care policy that needs to use high amount of tax payers' money to help the government to save just little money. What the government needs to do next will perhaps be to increase tax or to increase the medical fee for senior citizens. As such many people have criticized Obama's health care medical bill as a bill that can indirectly murder the elderly citizens.

President Obama has his reason to insist on his health care reform pan. He said in the United States as high as 40 million citizens were without health care insurance to protect them. His health care reform plan could allow these 40 million needy people to obtain health care insurance protection.

The Other View
In theory, the action taken by President Obama is laudable for universal medical insurance coverage for all citizens is an equitable policy. However, many American people still feel that there is this 'lazy class of people' who does not want to work hard to earn their living but want to enjoy free medical benefits. The tax payers do not agree to use their income tax to look after the lazy class of people in the society. Many tax payers are also unwilling to use their money to assist in forced abortion. These are perhaps the reasons why majority of the US people are not agreeable with President Obama's universal health care reform plan.

In fact, among the Democratic Party presidents such as Truman, John Kennedy, and Bill Clinton have all tried but could not achieve this massive health care reform plan that President Obama managed to get done. The main reason is that President Obama has insisted on his health care reform plan. He considers this health care reform agenda as his most important mission as the US President.

US President Obama Faces Confident Crisis

US President Barack Obama has just finished his first year in office. But he has already faced the boiling anger of the American people. At the Massachusetts senate by-election held on 19 January, the Republican candidate won a historic victory. Result of the by-election has not only broken the advantage of the control of Senate the Democratic Party used to enjoy in the state for nearly half a century, the election result has also rung an alarm bell for President Obama's health care reform bill. .
Massachusetts used to be a stronghold stage for the Democratic Party/. The senate by-election was to fill the vacant senate seat left by the late Senator Edward Kennedy. The late senator was President Obama's staunch pusher to put Obama into the White House. The late senator was also Obama's mastermind behind his health care reform bill. But the voters in Massachusetts have given President Obama a whack on the face. We trust if voters' complaints about President Obama were not boiling, that senate seat would not have changed hand.

Health Care Reform Plan
President Obama's reaction to the voters' complaints was also fast. He immediately acknowledged that he was out of touch with public opinion. He said that he thought that as long as he focused on working on national policies during his first year in office, the people would understand the reasons behind. However he added he was indeed "so busy handling all kinds of crisis he lost the opportunities to have direct dialogues with the people." As such he said he could not understand the people's feeling.
However, only part of what President Obama said was correct. This is because it is a taboo for any modern government to come out with good policy and excellent law that the people do not understand and thus will not support. President Obama of course knows such principle of government administration. The main reason he could occupy the White House a year ago was because he relied on using his propaganda of "hope and change" to stir up the wave for change. He is good at communicating with people. His speech can always pull the hearts of his audience. President Obama's health care reform plan used to be considered as the most courageous and most idealistic reformation. But now President Obama has to face the dilemma of it suffering severe setback.
The one senate seat the Republican Party obtained at the recent senate by-election in Massachusetts has led to the crush of allowing the Democratic Party to enjoy the advantage of having 60 senate seats. In the coming Congressional session, the Republican congressional representatives can now use lengthy procedure and long debating time allowed to hamper the implementation of President Obama's health care reform plan.

Reformation Vision
In order to make a breakthrough in congressional procedure, the Democratic Party must consult with the opposition Republican Party to accept the proposed amended health care reform bill to avoid President Obama's health care reform bill losing its original spirit and lead the US health care reform plan to become as good as a piece of document only. The House and Senate should consult the original "joint hearing version" of the health care reform bill and allow the bill be passed. As a matter of fact if the Democratic still maintains the majority advantage in the Congress and sent the bill for President Obama's signature, we are afraid that the rebound action coming from the Republican Party could be more vigorous. In the end, the people and criticism from media commentary can also be rude. To the extreme end, the American people might even avoid the discussion of it.
Of particularly importance is that the Republicans do understand the psychological fear of the American people when their government has to spend such a massive amount of money and time to carry out the health care reform plan. When the economy is not doing too well and when the employment rate remains record high, the people in the United States would no longer be so generous to support the government's "money-burning" decision. In other words, it is the Republican Party that has a more accurate grasp of the public sentiment and public opinion. This was reflected at the senate by-election in Massachusetts.
President Obama's reformation vision a year ago is no longer in line with people's expectation now. What the people expect is for him to desperately make good the US economy. This should be President Obama's top priority. Over the past one year, President Obama did not detect this change in people priority. Instead he spent time to handle the less urgent agenda. Naturally, the confidence and trust the American people give to President Obama will gradually reduce with the passing of days.

Democratic Congressional Representatives
In retrospect's, when President Obama pushed forward his health care reform plan during the past months, He did have ample opportunities to have dialogues with the people. However in the end the town hall meetings in the local community that he could most effectively convey his message to the people in the past also did not work well.
At those meetings, many public opposed his health care reform policy with heated debates. In the end, the Democratic congressional representatives and President Obama also became afraid to use such public venues to touch base and to engage exchanges with the grassroots community.

Re-Prioritize National Agenda
Hence, it is neither President Obama's poor communication with the American people nor the lack of opportunities for Obama to engage dialogues with the people that led to people's complaints about him. It was because he did not respond to the need of the people promptly and take timely adjustment to re-prioritize his national agenda. In the past year, President Obama continued to wallow in the mud of outdated reform agenda, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As President, he did not allow people feel his momentum and result in improving the economy.
The statement "Stupid, it is economy!" remains a global rule of election.
If President Obama cannot see and cannot do this, the confidence crisis he now faces can deepen further. His reputation and image will also continue to fall.

President Obama Needs To Put Economic Issue as Priority

This year is the US midterm election year. However, before the congressional election can begin, the Democratic Party has already lost the Massachusetts Senate seat held by the late Senator Edward Kennedy in this important state held by the Democratic Party for the past 47 years. The defeat of Democratic Party in this Senate bi-election is without doubt, a blow to President Obama who has put high hope to push forward the health care medical plan during his term as US President. The defeat in Massachusetts has also served a warning for him in the implementation of national policies.
The main reason why the Democratic Party could lose this stronghold Massachusetts's senate seat to the relatively unknown Republican candidate by the name Brown can be attributed to the fact that the independent voters and those non-partisan voters who used to support Obama during the presidential election have turned away from the Democratic Party. They have become unhappy over the huge spending plans of the Obama government.

Important Issues
In this regard, US voters' inspired hope and enthusiasm for reform stirred by President Obama during the presidential election campaign period have also faded due to the political cruelty. On foreign and environmental affairs, President Obama has produced a number of achievements. On domestic affairs, he has also prevented the US banking system from collapse. However, since June 2009, President Obama has devoted too much political capital to make sure that his health reform bill could sail through the Congress. He has neglected the two important issues that are most important to the voters. These two include having secure job and stable family life.
In the past year, what the voters saw was economic winter with no sign of recovery. Besides, there was also the scary figure of ten percent unemployment rate. Two months ago, the Democrat has already lost the governor posts in New Jersey and Virginia to the Republican. Such defeats have already revealed the political reality that the independent and Democratic voters were dissatisfied with Obama Government's policies. The defeated bi-election battle in Massachusetts was a whack on the Democratic Party's face.

Reform Wagon
The House and Senate have passed the health care reform bill. What required next is for both the House and senate health care bill to combine and come out with a final version of the act. However, the by-election result of the Massachusetts Senate seat has now caused grave uneasiness to the moderate Democratic congressional representatives seeking re-election at the November congressional election. Some Democrat congressional representatives might just jump down from President Obama's reform wagon in order to save their respective congressional seats.
The present situation of President Obama is like 'burning candle at both ends.' In order to allow the combined senate and house health care medical bill to get through, Obama might have to trim the bill to the 'core content.' At the same time, in order for the congressional representatives from the Democratic Party to continue supporting his reform agenda, the most important issue for President Obama to do is to resolve the pending economic issue, which is of direct bearing to the voters' benefits.

Obama Shows Diplomatic Flair in Handling International Situation

When the Dalai Lama was in the United States, President Barack Obama did not receive the visiting Tibetan spiritual leader. But one cannot interpret that President Obama had refused to meet with and exchange view with the Dalai Lama.

President Obama was just waiting for a more appropriate time to meet with him only. The ability of President Obama in using this old but still effective diplomatic skill in handling US-China diplomatic exchange has reflected the reality that the new US President has mastered some of the subtle diplomatic skills in handling international affairs and situation.

Important and Bigger Ideas
In November, President Obama will meet with Chinese leader Hu Jintao in Singapore. Following that meeting at the APEC Summit, President Obama knows that he will have more important and bigger ideas he wants to discuss with the Chinese leader. China has long declared to the world community that the Dalai Lama is a violent element who aims to separate Tibet from China, but President Obama, his Democratic Party, as well as the people in the United States have their own judgment about the Dalai Lama that can be very different from China's perspective.

However, when the Dalai Lama issue comes out at the diplomatic level, the judgment on the Dalai Lama has to be put on a different perspective. As such, when President Obama needs to talk to Chinese leader Hu Jintao, President Obama of course knows that he cannot upset Hu Jintao by meeting with the Dalai Lama during the period close to his meeting with the Chinese leader. President Obama knows that by not seeing the Dalai Lama, he at least can temporarily avoid having unnecessarily argument with China over the Dalai Lama issue.

President Obama understands perfectly well that although most of the past US presidents did receive the Dalai Lama or did enjoy the friendship with the Tibetan spiritual leader, it is not too convenience for him to meet with the Dalai Lama in his capacity as the US President now. Although President Obama did not receive the Dalai Lama, he has nevertheless allowed his Democrat leaders, leaders in the political circle and the local community to extend warm friendship with the visiting Dalai Lama.

President Obama knows that the Dalai Lama has too many friends in his Democratic Party as well as his rival Republican Party. As such when the Dalai Lama was in the United States, the visiting schedule of the Dalai Lama has proceeded as planned. In retrospect, President Obama has followed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's method in handling the controversial Dalai Lama issue to extend his friendship to the Dalai Lama in this indirect manner.

Dalai Lama's visit to France
Dalai Lama visited France in 2008. Prior to the Dalai Lama's visit to France, China had already given stern warning to the world community. China made clear that whichever countries received and made contact with the Dalai Lama, China would consider these countries as not respecting the wish of Beijing. Since Sarkozy wanted to go to China to attend the Beijing Olympics, Sarkozy knew that he could not afford to provoke China. So, when the Dalai Lama visited France in 2008, the French President found an excuse not to meet with the Dalai Lama. But after Sarkozy finished his important dealing with China and during a considerable low diplomatic period when France did not have major issue to deal with China, President Sarkozy did find an appropriate date and time to warmly welcome the Dalai Lama to France and compensated the temporarily broken friendship with the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Friendship Between Dalai Lama and US Political Circle
Such a diplomatic approach to see and meet with controversial figure at an appropriate date and time is simply and workable. As such President Obama has decided to copy such diplomatic pattern. We trust that after President Obama has settled what he wanted to discuss with the Chinese leader, he will pick a suitable date, perhaps during winter season, to invite the Dalai Lama to Washington for a visit. Yet there are many variable factors in international affairs.

Whether President Obama can find a suitable time to meet with the Dalai Lama will, to a great degree, depend on the US dealing with China. But since the United States and China will have frequent exchanges, President Obama might not have the time to receive the Dalai Lama. But even if President Obama puts his dealing with China above the Dalai Lama, we trust President Obama will not behave like the Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou who made effort to bar the Dalai Lama's entry into Taiwan. President Obama will show his diplomatic flair to allow the friendship between Dalai Lama and the US political circle and civil society to continue.