Nobel Peace Prize laureates will gather in Cape Town, South Africa next month, but one notable recipient will not be among them.  South Africa’s government is accused of denying an entrance visa to the Dalai Lama out of fear of angering its important new trading partner China.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has cancelled his appearance at the 14th summit of Nobel Peace Prize recipients and withdrew his visa application.  He lives in exile in India, but Beijing considers him to be a dangerous Tibetan separatist leader.  Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille has ordered a letter be sent to the government to determine why the Dalai Lama is being kept away. 

“We remain hopeful that the national government will grant the visa in order to spare South Africa the international humiliation of failing to do so,” said Mayor de Lille.

South Africa’s government claims it is not buckling under pressure from Beijing.  But this is the third time South Africa has thrown a sea of red tape in the path of the Tibetan Buddhist leader. 

In 2011, the Dalai Lama was unable to attend the 80th birthday of his friend and fellow Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.  A court later ruled that the Jacob Zuma government unreasonably delayed the Dalai Lama’s paperwork.  Before that, he was denied entry to a Cape Town peace conference in 2009.