My friends, I have to say, Dalai is a more than a moderate religous leader.The westerners just can see what they want to see,and there is no exact free media: In 1959, when it came to its end of the slavery of Xizang Autonomous Region(Tibet), Dalai Lama was the leader who ploted riots against the then tibetan government and killing the civilians. What he want to do is only to resume his no-match power. It became more complicated when CIA sponsored millions of US Dollars on Xizang separatist. I don't know what makes his good impression to the public, maybe because China is not good at dealing with Publicizing their point of view, or it is just a prejudice people holding towards Communisit China.
Regarding the sanctions you mentioned, it is the reaction to US-Taiwan Arms sales. We protested many times before, but it never worked. But if we don't protest this time, China is afraid that it would be conisdered by International Community as a normal behavior for US government to sell weapons to Taiwan, China will be put in a more passive position. For most Chinese, Taiwan(Republic of China) issue is internal affairs, both of two parties claim they have sovereignity over all the territory of the other's, much like the situation of the two Germanies before 1989. According to China's Constitution, Taiwan is part of China, any China government is obliged to declare war if Taiwan declared independence publicly, and it will be supported by most of Chinese(people in mainland China)
When KMT(Pan-Bule party which is against formal Independence) won the selection in 2008, you can see the relation had improved a lot since then, China were planning to withdrawing many ground-based missiles to express its honestness and sincerity. So, no wonder that why Americans' interruption is so unpopular by Chinese and China's government.
Herewith I'd like to explain to all the friends outside world, we hope that our voice can be heard and our Sentiment can be looked after to some extent. Anyway, we can understand each other through more communication, welcome to China, Chinese are one of the most hospitable nations.