The recent 70 minute-long reception of the Dalai Lama by President Obama has greatly increased the tensions between the US and China, apparently putting Hu Jintao’s planned trip to Washington in April in doubt. The Tibetans themselves are not going to benefit from this, however. 

Whilst it is hard to gauge what US policymakers hope to gain from supporting Dalai Lama, one thing is clear : God has been enlisted as a major asset in the US’s quest for global leadership. US policymakers made use of the Talibans and mujahedin against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and it seems that the same apparatchiks are now turning the heat on China. By supporting a theocratic leader like the Dalai Lama, the Western alliance is sure to destabilise an already troublesome region of Asia, for no apparent political gain.

The only time the Church or religion had been successfully used against the enemies of the US was during the Cold War. During Jimmy Carter’s administration, countries like Romania were forced to give neo-protestant sects religious freedoms not enjoyed by the country’s Orthodox Church. During the 1980’s, CIA and the Catholic Church joined forces to cause the downfall of Poland’s shaky communist regime. Such efforts were successful because Soviet-style communists persecuted historical Christian churches in their bloc, thus gravely affecting the cultural identity of entire nations.

China, although led by communists, has never been Christian but Confucian. Trying to use the same recipes that worked against the Soviets shows the short-sightedness of Washington policymaking circles, which is sure to backfire. Chinese academics in Europe claim that the brand of Tibetan Buddhism which spreads within China’s urban areas promotes a Kama Sutra-type lifestyle among the young, affecting traditional family values (source: El Pais). If we add to that the US’s promotion and support of the Falun Gong sect, we can better understand why the Chinese perceive such activities as hostile and anti-Chinese. In truth, in the long run the Tibetans stand to benefit more from being part of China, in terms of infrastructure, education and economic opportunities, than from building a religious state under Indian-US influence.

The existence of another Asian religious state like Iran shows that supporting religious leaders and their cause could end up in a quagmire. The situation is complicated by the fact that China is a cohesive country, its economy is strong and it has become the US's main creditor. Furthermore, Americans should remember the trouble stirred by Vietnamese buddhists against the US-backed South Vietnamese regime. Like the Talibans, if buddhists and the Dalai Lama ever gain the upper hand in Tibet, their loyalty to the West would at best be highly questionable.

A very well-known example of using religion as a means of neutralising one’s political enemies comes from Israel. During the 1980’s, Tel Aviv policymakers and secret services encouraged the spread of Islam in Gaza in the hope of counteracting the PLO’s Moscow-trained leader Yasser Arafat. This, however, ultimately led to the creation of Hamas, with disastruous consequences for Israel’s security.

Using religion to undermine or influence other countries is morally and politically wrong, and the Obama administration should abandon it for good. In actual fact, little remains of the Administration's foreign policy agenda: the Russians are irked by the interceptors placed in Romania and Poland, the Chinese feel undermined, and many European countries blame the US for the financial crisis.

The European Union should therefore avoid bandwagonning on this issue. As history proves, encouraging militant religious movements could lead to more trouble than it’s worth.