For more than 60 years, the United States and the 14th Dalai Lama have used each other in pursuit of their own interests

On Friday, in a stealthy manner as usual, the 14th Dalai Lama visited the White House and attended an "unofficial meeting" with US President Barack Obama.

His meeting was carefully timed, because March is of special significance to the Dalai Lama and his followers, as on March 10, 1959, some Tibetan serf lords and their followers resorted to an armed rebellion which failed by March 22, and days later the Dalai Lama chose to flee from China. From then on, he and his clique have often tried to stir up trouble around that date.

This year, the New Year according to the Tibetan calendar is on March 2, and the annual sessions of the National People's Congress of China and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, two of the most important events in China, will also be held in the same month. By visiting the White House at the end of February, the Dalai Lama has made his political intentions obvious.

Ever since they fled to India, the Dalai Lama and his clique have endeavored to promote the "independence of Tibet", either by encouraging and provoking unrest, mass incidents, even armed insurrections, which destroy the normal lives of all people in Tibet, including the Tibetans, or else by visiting various countries and regions and rallying support from political forces that are unfriendly to China, in a bid to spur international intervention.

From 1959 to the late 1970s, the Dalai Lama did his dirty work openly, calling for the "independence of Tibet" and launching armed attacks for that purpose. But after that approach failed, he began employing a new strategy by pretending to pursue a non-violent "middle way", in order to better attract sympathy from the international community.

But his ultimate purpose of "independence" and separating Tibet from China remains the same. Even the principle of non-violence has been broken in recent years as he and clique have encouraged Tibetan teenagers to perform self-immolations and violent attacks against non-Tibetan residents.

By "international community" the Dalai Lama and his supporters mean first of all the United States, which has used the Dalai Lama and his followers as a chess piece on its strategy board in its bid to contain China. For the past six decades, the US and the Dalai Lama clique have together made trouble and rallied support for international intervention in Tibet.

As early as 1951, on the eve of the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the US co-planned and supported armed forces of the old ruling serf lords in resisting the People's Liberation Army. After the attempt failed, the Central Intelligence Agency trained special forces for the Dalai Lama clique and airdropped them into Tibet to lead the rebellion in 1959. The same special forces guarded the Dalai Lama when he fled to India.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the CIA helped the Dalai Lama group establish its guerrilla force, as well as funded the special frontier force of India, which accepted exile Tibetans as soldiers; both forces aimed at military invasion of Tibet.

CIA documents show that the US used to spend over $1.7 million annually in actions related to Tibet. At the same time, the US also controlled the United Nations to pass resolutions on so-called Tibetan issues in the hope of internationalizing the domestic issue.

The US only lessened its support to Dalai Lama clique after its relations with China improved in the 1970s.

However, it accepted the Dalai Lama's request for a visit for the first time in 1979, and since then the Dalai Lama has visited the US many times. He met then-president George H.W. Bush and over the years he has met a considerable number of senior officials.

The US Department of State introduced the job of special coordinator for Tibetan Issues in 1997, and the US' support for Dalai Lama has increased in the 21st century. In 2002, the US Congress passed the Tibetan Policy Act, according to which the Department of State must submit a report to Congress every year on so-called Tibetan issues. Congress has also held repeated hearings on these "issues". As a reward, the Dalai Lama and his clique always make trouble for Beijing.

But their efforts are doomed to fail. What the Dalai Lama and his clique are doing lacks the support of all ethnic groups in China, including Tibetans, and will only be condemned by all. Efforts to disintegrate China or separate some of its territories will never succeed.

The author is a researcher with China Tibetology Research Center.

(China Daily USA 02/25/2014 page11)