The Belgian government has communicated to the Dalai Lama the opinion of the Chinese government that a planned visit by the Dalai Lama to Belgium could possibly spoil the atmosphere of the upcoming Belgian trade mission to China in June headed by His Royal Highness Prince Philip. Two immediate results merit attention:
+ The Dalai Lama cancels his trip, because he doesn't want to cause any trouble to the Belgian government.
+ The Belgian government says he is still most welcome at any time.
Another consequence is a media storm about the Belgian government capitulating to Chinese pressure in order to save business contracts. This is utter nonsense. Even if the Dalai Lama would have visited Belgium in the coming days, no Belgian company would have been denied a lucrative contract. But Prince Philip could perhaps during his upcoming visit in June have been subjected to the horrible torture of having to answer a polite question by the Chinese government about the visit to Belgium of the Dalai Lama. This would of course have far surpassed the IQ-level of the Belgian prince, who has no clue whatsoever about an answer to the question.
The only reason the Belgian government doesn't want the Dalai Lama to visit Belgium is to avoid any embarrassing questions which the Chinese government could possibly fire at a prince too stupid to understand a (beep) shit.
Having said that, there is another question still unanswered. Should the Dalai Lama visit Belgium or run around all over the world, preaching not only his religion, but also his separatist politics? If he really wants to go down in history as a great spiritual and temporal leader he should agree to the basic preconditions of the Chinese government: Tibet and Taiwan are an inseparable part of China. That shouldn't be too difficult to do. The Chinese government is keeping the door open if the Dalai Lama renounces separatism. He could then return to Lhasa and make further contributions to the development of Tibet.
Tibetan independence – apart from any other considerations – is not viable. The only readily available resource to generate income is tourism. If you open the gates of Tibet too wide, nothing of the Tibetan culture the Dalai Lama professes to defend will be left. Tibet will be swamped by McDonald's and Starbucks. Who needs a Zionist Starbucks outpost on the roof of the Potala Palace?
The Chinese government stands accused of restricting the freedom of speech. But those who say they are defending the freedom of speech are themselves denying the Chinese government to express its opinion.
A storm brewed up to shield a prince who is to stupid to open doors – even the doors of the toilets.
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