[Buddha-l] President Ma Ying-jeou decides to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan

[Curt Steinmetz]

Here is a link to an article from 2008 in which the Dalai Lama talks 
about the great enthusiasm with which he was greeted in Taiwan when he 
visited in 1997 and 2001:
http://www.dalailama.com/news.269.htm

According to the above article, HHDL had decided, after the 2001 visit 
that he would continue to visit Taiwan at least every other year - but 
since then the Taiwanese government has bowed to pressure from the PRC 
to not allow His Holiness back - until now.

I realize that there are lots of messy politics involved, and also that 
the suffering of the people in Taiwan right now is severe. Nevertheless 
- this is a good thing.

Curt

Weng-Fai Wong wrote:
> JKirkpatrick wrote:
>   
>> Amazing.......a while back he decided not to allow HHDL to visit
>> because of you know who's objections. 
>>   
>>     
> Not so amazing. President Ma has been hit very very hard by the 
> Taiwanese public and media for his personal as well as his government's 
> poor handling of the typhoon aftermath. The invitation actually came 
> from the opposition, who after getting HHDL's greenlight went to Ma and 
> said "alright, we invited HHDL, he agreed, now your call - do you have 
> the guts to defy the Communists?" Before the typhoon, there was 
> festering unhappiness that he was "selling out" to China. Given Ma and 
> his government's current ultralow approval ratings in Taiwan, he had no 
> choice. Saying no would have given the opposition one more excuse to rub 
> salt into his wounds. He has to worry less about China's reaction than 
> his own weak domestic position for the moment.
>
> In other words, it's all political. Now the question is when HHDL does 
> go to Taiwan, will Ma meet him and if so, under what protocol.
>
> W.F. Wong
>
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