Australia accused of bowing to China on Dalai Lama

Canberra, May 16: Australia's government and pro-China opposition leader were today accused by rights groups and political rivals of caving to pressure from Beijing by refusing to meet the Dalai Lama.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who China regards as a separatist, is to tour Australia for 10 days next month, speaking to the national press club and addressing stadium rallies.

But after China's Canberra embassy warned it would be inappropriate for political leaders to meet the exiled leader, the Upper House Senate refused an Australian Greens party request for an official reception at Parliament House.

Senate President Paul Calvert said he had to be ''mindful of international sensitivities''.

Resurgent opposition leader Kevin Rudd, a fluent Mandarin speaker who served as a diplomat in Beijing, drew particular criticism for reversing earlier support for the Dalai Lama.

Rudd five years ago met the exiled spiritual leader in Australia and criticised Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as ''weak'' for refusing to do likewise.

But Rudd, riding high in opinion polls ahead of a national election due later this year, will not meet the Dalai Lama again since becoming centre-left Labor Party leader in December.

''What is the problem that the more powerful the political leader in Australia, the weaker they become before the dictates of Beijing? Well, it's trade and it's money,'' Australian Greens senator Bob Brown told journalists.

China has overtaken Japan as Australia's biggest trading partner, although Australia's strategic interests are allied with the United States.

Rudd came in for criticism from within his own Labor ranks.

''I would hope that we could have good relations with China both economically and politically, but at the same time not pre-emptively kowtow to them on human rights whether it's in Tibet or China more generally,'' Labor lawmaker Michael Danby, who plans to visit China soon, told a radio station.

Howard was also criticised by talkback radio callers for refusing to stand up to China just a day after launching a programme to stop school bullies.

Australia's statistics office this month said two-way trade between China and Australia hit A.7 billion (.9 billion) in the year to March, edging ahead of Japan as energy-hungry China's demand for Australian resources continued.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, says he wants greater autonomy, not independence, for his predominantly Buddhist homeland, but China considers him a separatist.

Reuters>