Ｉｓ Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ ｔｈｅ Ｄａｌａｉ Ｌａｍａ ａ Ｂａｒｇａｉｎｉｎｇ Ｃｈｉｐ？

Days before the 11th China-EU Summit sched-uled for early December in France, FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy, who currentlyholds the rotating presidency of the EU, saidthat he would meet with the Dalai Lama afterthe summit. In response, China announcedit would postpone the China-EU Summit,a harsh stance that caused an internationalmedia frenzy. Why did China throw itself intothis unusual rage? Is it because the FrenchGovernment has infringed upon the bottom line of its national in-terests? Beijing Review reporter Yan Wei spoke to Yan Xuetong,Director of the Institute of International Studies at TsinghuaUniversity, about these questions.