On a visit to Washington, the Dalai Lama presented an award to Wang Lixiong, who helped spearhead a petition by more than 300 prominent Chinese who last year questioned a crackdown on major protests in Tibet.

China has tried to isolate the Dalai Lama, pressing nations including the United States to publicly shun him. Organizers did not announce Wang's attendance before the ceremony, saying it could put him at personal risk.

At a theater in Washington's Chinatown, Wang greeted the Dalai Lama by folding his hands in a traditional Tibetan greeting. The two men exchanged a lengthy embrace as the Tibetan leader draped him with a ceremonial white scarf.

Wang, who is married to leading Tibetan poet Woeser, told the crowd that the petition signers were "in no way what the Chinese propaganda professed us to be -- anti-China. We are the opposite, we dearly love China.

"But loving China does not amount to loving the government. Daring to criticize the government is done for the good of China, but a government that cannot accept criticism can only bring harm to China," he said to a standing ovation.

He regretted that China had rejected the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" of seeking greater rights for Tibetans within the context of Chinese rule.

"The false propaganda," Wang said, "has made it difficult for the majority of Chinese to understand the truth about Tibet and they have no way of knowing about the Dalai Lama's Middle Way."

He alluded to the risks for himself, voicing concern over Liu Xiaobo -- a prominent dissident who helped him on the petition and was later imprisoned as he led a separate campaign for democracy and human rights.

Organizers of the award, presented by the International Campaign for Tibet, said that Wang's wife Woeser, another rare voice in Beijing for the Tibetan viewpoint, was not allowed to travel to the United States.

The Dalai Lama, who has met Wang several times previously, praised him as courageous and regretted that Chinese propaganda often describes "Tibetans, and particularly Dalai Lama, as a demon."

"Often the Chinese unfortunately describe these people as Western anti-Chinese forces," he said.

"No, certainly not," he said. "I always say our supporters are not pro-Tibetan but pro-justice, pro-nonviolence."

"All those supporters actually clearly tell me, because your struggle comes through non-violence, therefore we come to help you," he said. "If one day you do violence, then that support withdrawn."

Despite the Dalai Lama's appeal for a Middle Way, China accuses him of separatism and says his "clique" has encouraged unrest in Tibet.

Tibet last year witnessed the biggest protest in years in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics coinciding with the anniversary of a 1959 uprising that led the Dalai Lama to flee to India, where he has remained ever since.

China has said "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths, while saying that its security forces killed only one "insurgent." But the Tibetan government in exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.

Since the crackdown, China has ramped up pressure on other nations not to receive the Dalai Lama.

President Barack Obama will not meet him, marking the first time in 18 years the Dalai Lama has visited Washington without a presidential meeting. The White House said Obama will see him after visiting China next month.

Hollywood actor Richard Gere, the chairman of the board of directors of the International Campaign for Tibet, contrasted Wang and Obama.

"I would just hope that our president had the courage and wisdom of the over 300 Chinese who wrote and signed that extraordinary document," said Gere, who supported Obama in last year's election.

earlier related report
Under-fire Obama to meet Dalai Lama after China trip
US President Barack Obama will meet the Dalai Lama later this year, the White House said, rejecting accusations of "kowtowing" to China by avoiding the exiled Tibetan leader on his current visit.

Top congressional leaders rallied behind the Dalai Lama in a Tuesday ceremony at the Capitol, where they presented him with a new prize for championing human rights.

But despite lawmakers' praise and his sold-out public lectures scheduled later in the week, the trip marks the first time since 1991 that the Dalai Lama has come to Washington without a meeting with the US president.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs denied that Obama, who has championed warmer ties with a growing China, had been trying not to annoy Beijing before his first visit there as president in November.

"In discussions with the Dalai Lama and his staff, we simply agreed that a meeting would be had later in the year," Gibbs told reporters Tuesday.

"We're concerned about the people in Tibet, and we're concerned about the Chinese," he said.

He noted that the Dalai Lama's top negotiator, Lodi Gyari, had voiced support for Obama's approach.

"They understand the stronger relationship that we have with China benefits the Tibetan people," Gibbs said.

China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and has been ramping up pressure on foreign nations not to receive the Dalai Lama.

China accuses the Tibetan leader of separatism, even though he says he is only seeking greater rights for his predominantly Buddhist people under Beijing's rule.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Beijing is "resolutely against the Dalai's engagement in activities aimed at splitting China under any capacity, under any name, and in any country.

"China is resolutely opposed to meetings with the Dalai Lama in any form by officials from any country," he said in a statement issued to AFP.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada of Japan said the country's new center-left government, which like Obama also advocates warmer ties with Beijing, has no plans to meet the spiritual leader when he visits later this month.

The Dalai Lama will arrive there October 30 for a stay of about 10 days, mainly to give speeches to the Japanese public, his aides have said.

In the United States, some members of the Republican Party voiced outrage over Democrat Obama's decision, fearing China could see it as carte blanche to clamp down in the Himalayan territory.

Representative Frank Wolf, a longtime critic of China's rights record, said it was not too late for Obama to invite the Dalai Lama to the White House.

"I call on the president to reclaim the moral high ground and not kowtow to the Chinese government, a government that brutally oppresses its own people," the Virginia Republican said on the House floor.

"I call on the president to stand side by side with His Holiness -- a man of peace -- and align America once again with the oppressed, not the oppressors."

John Bolton, an outspoken conservative and former US ambassador to the United Nations, said he had heard that China had pressed the Obama team against a meeting with the Dalai Lama even before it entered the White House.

"This is a big mistake," Bolton told AFP. "It's a signal to the Chinese and to other authoritarian regimes around the world that they pretty much have a free hand."

The Dalai Lama refrained from criticizing Obama and instead hailed US democracy as he accepted a human rights award named for late congressman Tom Lantos, who arranged the Tibetan leader's first trip to Congress in 1987.

"I think American weapons, military forces, of course some people take seriously," the Dalai Lama said.

"But the real greatness of America is your ancestors' principles," he said. "In any case, you must preserve these principles."

Yet he gently chided his hosts on a very different issue, saying he was alarmed by the "huge gap" between the rich and poor in a nation as wealthy as the United States.

"This is unhealthy. You have to take it seriously about those less privileged people. They're also human beings," he said.

"If they can get happier, then the whole American people will get benefit," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator John McCain, who lost the presidential race to Obama last year, appeared alongside the Dalai Lama.

Pelosi called Tibet a "challenge to the conscience of the world" and urged China to look at the Dalai Lama's message of non-violence and tolerance.

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