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Rod Liddle

Where am I?

Meetings with the President of the United States are a prize in diplomacy. President Obama has attracted criticism for offering them too freely. But the critics have till now been domestic, concerned that Mr Obama is throwing away leverage on autocratic states. China has suddenly reversed that pattern. Its leaders are warning Mr Obama against meeting a leader without a state: the Dalai Lama. China’s intervention is an unconscionable interference in US sovereign affairs. Its veiled threat of economic retaliation is self-defeating.

A meeting between Mr Obama and the Dalai Lama would show that, regardless of the shifting balance of world...