Dalai Lama cancels South Africa trip. Did China trade ties get in the way?

The Dalai Lama said he was forced to cancel a trip to South Africa due to visa delays. Critics say it's a foreign policy embarrassment.

Tibet?s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama ? who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent political and spiritual guidance of the Tibetan people from his government in exile ? has canceled a trip to South Africa, saying the South African government didn?t issue him a visa.

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The Dalai Lama had been invited by fellow Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu to attend Mr. Tutu?s 80^th birthday celebrations, but the South African government failed to issue him a visa after several weeks of delays. The cancellation is seen by political observers as a sharp embarrassment for the South African government, which refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama last year.

Steven Friedman, a political analyst and director of the University of Johannesburg?s Center for the Study of Democracy, says that South Africa?s delay in issuing a visa was part of the government?s growing desire to cultivate relations with China, which has controlled Tibet since invading that country in 1959.

?I think it?s a source of international embarrassment,? says Mr. Friedman. ?South Africa identifies itself more as a partner of BRICS? ? the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and now South Africa ? ?but that is now being taken to absurd levels, and they?re behaving as if being a member of BRICS means you have to do what other members of BRICS tell you. I don?t think that idea would occur to Russia or China, but somehow it?s what we?re doing.?

China recently overtook the US and Britain as South Africa?s largest trading partner, and in a trade visit last week led by South African deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, China announced a further $2.5 billion investment plan in South Africa?s minerals market, including refineries that would create thousands of new jobs in South Africa.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BF4w6l91C5I/Dalai-Lama-cancels-South-Africa-trip.-Did-China-trade-ties-get-in-the-way

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