Bush Talks With Dalai Lama Seen by China as 2d Jab in Eye: ‘It is just “a

coincidence,” of course, that President

Bush will have a well publicized “private

meeting” with the Dalai Lama on, of all

days, May 23.

The meeting was condemned today by Chinese officials who have spent the last

week extolling May 23 as an important anniversary in the “liberation” of Tibet.

They have also been shrilly denouncing the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan

leader, as a wicked proponent of serfdom and a “scum” who wants to split the

motherland.’ New York Times [Finally, the Court Jester and I are on the same side of an issue, although of course not nearly for the same reasons…]