Obama to meet Dalai Lama

United Front Work Department, the Chinese Communist Party's an official deals with ethnic policy, Du Qinglin, told issues concerning China's territory and sovereignty were non-negotiable and no concessions would be made on them, Xinhua reported Dalai Lama's secretary announced, the spiritual leader would arrive in the United States February 17-18. United States and China have recently not seen eye to eye on a number of international issues, including the Iranian nuclear issue, the $6.3-billion weapons sales to Taiwan, as well as the Dalai Lama's status. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced during a press briefing on Thursday,that Barack Obama will be meeting Tibetan Spiritual leader Dalai Lama as he is an internationally respected religious and cultural leader. Beijing to never make concessions on independence for Tibet, a senior Chinese official said at a meeting with envoys of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.Envoys of the Dalai Lama, arrived in Beijing Tuesday for the ninth set of negotiations which have beared no results.Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he seeks real autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from China. China is resolutely opposing this meeting saying it would further hurt the Sino-US relations. Dalai Lama is going to undertake a Washington visit later this month.Dalai Lama received an honourary doctorate from the University of Calgary thus university has been removed from the Chinese government's list of accredited universities. Chinese Consulate in Calgary says the University of Calgary degrees will continue to be recognized in China for those 575 students belonging to Chinese nationals.