Invoking Lincoln, China warns Obama

United States President Barack Obama should understand China's opposition to the Dalai Lama as a black president who lauded Abraham Lincoln for ending slavery, said the Foreign Ministry yesterday.

Volunteer Xiao Xin holds a rice bowl and chopsticks while standing in front of a sign during a snowfall on the outskirts of Beijing November 12, 2009. The organizer Oxfam Hong Kong, an international NGO, held the activity to call on U.S. President Barack Obama, who will visit China next week, to keep his public promises and ensure that the U.S. plays a key leadership role in the climate negotiations culminating at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The Chinese characters on the banner reads "Against Climate Change for Poverty People". [Asianewsphoto]

Ministry spokesman Qin Gang made the remarks when asked to respond to a White House official's comments earlier this week that Obama would be ready to meet the Dalai Lama "at the appropriate time". Obama is expected to arrive in China on Sunday for a highly anticipated visit.

"Obama has said in a speech that without the efforts of Lincoln he would not have been able to reach his position," Qin said. "He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement."

Qin said China's position is similar to Lincoln's when the nation abolished serfdom in Tibet.