China is protesting because the Dalai Lama is being met soon by President Obama. The Chinese don't want any publicity for Tibet. Why not? Because the Tibetan plateau controls a great deal of China's water supply. Some large rivers start up there and run from there down into China, irrigating a lot of it. If the Tibetans dammed those, China would have big trouble on its hands. President Obama, no doubt, is well aware of this. Soon, he's meeting the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader. Coincidence, I'm sure :-)  