Dalai Lama's visit actually went well

The Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, had been invited by the out-of-power Democratic Progressive Party ostensibly to comfort the victims of the typhoon, which killed more than 600 people. While Ma knew that a visit by the Dalai Lama would anger Beijing, he had no choice but to allow it to go ahead, given the large number of Buddhists in Taiwan.

The DPP was thus able to depict itself as caring for the spiritual needs of the people while putting the ruling Kuomintang between a rock and a hard place, knowing that the visit would strain relations between Ma and the Chinese leadership.

Ma has been traveling around Taiwan apologizing for the government's slow response to the typhoon, which has seen his popularity drop to the greatest depths since he was inaugurated in May 2008. If he refused to let the visit to go ahead, he would have been seen as putting the desire to placate Beijing above the needs of his constituents.

Ma had no choice but to approve the visit. But he minimized the collateral damage.

First, he sent an envoy to Beijing to inform Chinese leaders of his decision and the reasons that led to it. Then he made it clear that the Dalai Lama would only be allowed to engage in religious activities during the visit. And he also made it clear that neither he nor any senior member of his government would meet the Tibetan leader.

Beijing was not happy. It sees the Dalai Lama as a “splittist,” trying to separate Tibet from China, and having him join forces with “splittist” forces on Taiwan was anathema to Beijing. But the Chinese realized that the Ma government was in an impossible position, and so decided to cooperate. In doing so, Beijing showed unusual flexibility.

Beijing declared that it “resolutely” opposed a visit by the Dalai Lama to Taiwan “in whatever form and capacity.” But while it condemned “some DPP members” for plotting the Dalai Lama's visit, it did not denounce Ma, the ruling party or the government. Nor did it use the harshest language in its repertoire to condemn the Tibetan spiritual leader.

While saying that the visit would “have a negative influence on the relations between the mainland and Taiwan,” in the end the punishment was relatively light: the postponement by a week of a visit by a deputy governor of the People's Bank of China.

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