As the exiled spiritual Tibetan leader Dalai Lama began his visit to Norway on May 7, 2014, the Norwegian government announced last week that it had decided against arranging meetings between him and top Norwegian politicians. The Norwegian government's decision came in for criticism. Earlier, a survey in Norway conducted in April for VG, a leading newspaper, said about half of the respondents thought it would be cowardly for Norwegian leaders to avoid the Dalai Lama out of consideration for China.