Considering he's a soft-spoken monk and not the head of a major nation, the lineup of officials eager to talk with him was remarkable: President Bill Clinton, the First Lady, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Yet last week's White House welcome was more than a reflection of the respect and affection Americans have long had for the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet. It was the latest step in a noble, though perhaps futile effort to reach accord with China over the future of Tibet, from which he fled nearly 40 years ago during a failed revolt against Beijing's occupation of his homeland.

The very visibility of last week's meeting guaranteed three short-term results: first, that nothing would happen in Washington because China would resent the overly public U.S. involvement in what Beijing considers an internal affair; next, that Clinton would bring up Tibet again with Chinese President Jiang Zemin at this week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Malaysia; and last, that there would be another phase of the dialogue, which all three parties would approach more quietly.

So there is motion if not movement underway, as has been the case since Clinton visited China in June and, in a news conference, urged Jiang to begin a dialogue with the Dalai Lama "in return for the recognition that Tibet is part of China." Jiang replied that he'd talk if the Dalai Lama publicly acknowledged that not only Tibet was "an inalienable part of China" but also Taiwan, where he had visited to the annoyance of Beijing. He has done neither, and while there have been back-channel contacts between the Tibetan and Jiang, no negotiations have begun. That's where the matter stood when the Dalai Lama arrived in Washington. The ball was in his court, and Clinton hoped to move it along. Why was a separate matter.

The U.S. President, who has already made clear that he sees China, not Japan, as Asia's future power, has devoted more effort to Tibet than any of his predecessors. He is not a Buddhist follower, as are some of his Hollywood backers, but he has been enormously impressed by the Dalai Lama, who is impossible to dislike and whose cause seems to many Americans a moral imperative. Other presidents have felt similarly, but Clinton senses the timing is more auspicious now. He believes that in Jiang China has an increasingly confident and pragmatic leader, a potential agent of enlightened change. Resolving Tibet could earn China's trust, stabilize its relations with nervous neighbors like India, possibly open the way to peaceful reunification with Taiwan and strengthen ties with the West.

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