President Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama will add untimely strain to a U.S.-China relationship still simmering over recent disputes, a top Chinese diplomat said in Atlanta. 

Mr. Obama hosted the Tibetan spiritual leader Thursday for the first time, despite strident objections by the Chinese government. 

The meeting comes less than a month after the U.S. roiled China by announcing a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan. The countries have also sparred recently over Internet freedom and the value of China's currency, the yuan.

Xie Feng, minister and deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in Atlanta Feb. 5 that the conflicts are setbacks in a relationship that trended toward positive economic and diplomatic cooperation throughout 2009.

Speaking Feb. 5 at Emory University, which granted the Dalai Lama a professorship in 2007 and maintains an educational partnership with his government-in-exile, Mr. Xie said Western perceptions of Tibet are skewed. 

"Western people have a sort of romantic view of Tibet in the form of Shangri-La," but history tells a different story, he said. 

Before China took over in 1950, Tibet was under a "slave system" where the Dalai Lama was the "biggest slave owner," Mr. Xie said. Literacy rates were low and wealth was concentrated in the upper class. Since Chinese reforms in the 1950s, Tibetans' average life expectancy has risen from 36 to 68 years, he added. 

China has accused the Dalai Lama of separatism and inciting anti-Chinese riots in 2008. The 74-year-old Nobel laureate, who has lived in Dharamsala, India, since his exile after a brief uprising in 1959, says he advocates only for a peaceful path to greater autonomy, not a break from China.

Mr. Xie called China's policy toward the Dalai Lama "flexible" and blamed lack of progress in the relationship on demands by the Buddhist leader's envoys. In closed-door meetings, the Tibetans promote the enlargement of Tibet's territory and expulsion of Han Chinese settlers from the region, he said.

"Though the Dalai Lama is not asking openly, if you look at these facts, I think the conclusion will be that he is moving toward independence in disguise," Mr. Xie said. 

At today's meeting, Mr. Obama "stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China," according to a statement by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Mr. Obama decided not to meet with the Dalai Lama in Washington last October, apparently in an effort to avoid upsetting China ahead of his first visit there in November. 

Aside from the Dalai Lama issue, Mr. Xie mentioned the Taiwan arms sale and trade disputes as blows to U.S.-China cooperation.

The arms sale "perplexed" China because it came at a time when its relations with both Taiwan and the U.S. were going strong. The U.S. should abide by its commitment to gradually reducing arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China considers a wayward province, Mr. Xie said. 

On trade, he stressed that both the U.S. and China should avoid protectionism and the temptation to "politicize economic issues." 

China must maintain its target 8 percent gross domestic product growth to create enough jobs for its people, especially its "floating population" of some 200 million migrant workers, he said. 

Overall, Mr. Xie said, the relationship between the U.S. and China has moved forward in recent years. He cited increased high-level dialogue, including multiple meetings between Mr. Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, and noted the interdependence of the countries' economies. 

He presented China's long-term partnership with the U.S. as vital to its foreign policy.

"We have to adopt a peaceful foreign policy. To put it simply, we want to make friends to all countries, enemies to none," Mr. Xie said. 

Part of that strategy is boosting diplomatic representation around the world. Mr. Xie told GlobalAtlanta that China has expressed a desire to put a consulate in Atlanta, but he wasn't sure if or when that would happen. 

Mr. Xie was a guest in Atlanta of the National Association of Chinese-Americans. He spoke at Emory and the Georgia Institute of Technology and participated in Chinese New Year festivities. 

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