Trapdoor Books

The Chinese Government is getting worked up because President Obama wants to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader visits USA later this month. This angry condemnation is standard procedure for Beijing – they issue stern warnings every time an international leader agrees to meet the Dalai Lama.  Some of the most spineless, like the President of South Africa, cave into Chinese demands.  Most, including the Prime Minister of Australia, whose economy is extremely exposed to China’s, tell Beijing to butt out.

The reason China gives for its on-going disapproval of the Dalai Lama is that he is supposedly a ’splittist’ and wants Tibet to become independent of the Chinese motherland.  In fact Tibet was independent of China until they invaded it in 1959 – a dynamic which provides one of the storylines in The Magician of Lhasa.