US President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday night in the White House Map Room, after they met last time in February 2014 in the same place. Having met the Dalai Lama more often than his Western counterparts in the last decade, Obama has set a bad example.

European leaders usually meet with the Dalai Lama soon after they take office to respond to public opinion, with nothing more. But Obama meets with him almost every two years, totally ignoring China's protests.

The backlash brought by such a meeting is of minor importance compared with the effects of major disputes between China and the US such as security, trade and human rights. This is not because China offers particular tolerance for Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama. This meeting doesn't make sense in any way while other divergences between China and the US can be explained by US national interests or Western values. What we can only read out of it is that Obama feels he is well-positioned to showcase the mean side in his attitude toward China.

The Dalai Lama has done more damage to China than any other exile. What the Dalai Lama's meeting with Obama has bearing on is mostly ideological rather than on international relations. For Chinese, the meeting intensifies people's doubts about the two persons and the political forces they stand for. While Obama often says he welcomes China's peaceful rise, his meetings with the Dalai Lama erode his sincerity and make him look more like he is helping the latter continue to make trouble with China. And at this time the White House appears so hypocritical in its purported concerns about human rights in China. 

The Dalai Lama has once and again provoked frictions between China and Western countries, but he is losing political support from Europe in recent years. Alongside Obama, he attempted to provoke China, making self-evident his die-hard intention for Tibet independence and his role as a politician.

The meetings may upset the Chinese public, but when we learn more about the real international landscape, we will become more composed regardless of pressure exerted by the outside. With bumpy Sino-US relations, Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama indicates the US remains powerful in agenda-setting and can find fault with China in many aspects. But the substantial initiative is taken by China. So long as Tibet maintains economic development and social stability, the meeting will be just a farce.

The Dalai Lama has completely betrayed his country and the fundamental interests of Tibetan people and Tibetan Buddhist believers. The more political shows the 81-year-old stages together with the West, the clearer his role of sabotaging China's unity and peaceful rise.