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China lashes out at US
16/10/2007 10:05 - (SA)
Beijing - China on Tuesday denounced a move by US President George W Bush and the US Congress to honour the Dalai Lama this week, warning that it was interference which could damage relations.
Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, criticised the exiled spiritual leader as a politician who "has tried to split the motherland".
"This is brutal interference in China's internal affairs," Zhang said at a meeting along the sidelines of the party's 17th congress. "We express our firm opposition and grave objection. ... We feel very angry about this."
Bush and the Dalai Lama are scheduled to meet on Tuesday at the White House. On Wednesday, a public ceremony will be held to award the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal.
The Dalai Lama has been based in India since fleeing his Himalayan homeland in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He remains immensely popular among Tibetans, despite persistent efforts to demonise him by Beijing, which claims he is seeking to destroy China's sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.
The Dalai Lama insists he wants "real autonomy", not independence for the region, which the mainland claims has been its territory for centuries.
Foreign leaders have grown increasingly willing to risk Beijing's wrath to underscore concerns for human rights in Tibet, which China has ruled with a heavy hand since communist forces invaded in 1951.
Last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama, a move which also drew harsh criticism from China. Earlier in the year, Canada's granting of honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama raised a similar protest.
"I think that Bush and his administration should do things that are good for relations between China and the United States," said Raidi, vice chairperson of the standing committee of the National People's Congress, who was attending the same meeting as Zhang. Like some Tibetans, he uses only one name.
"He should not carry out any activities that will hinder relations between our people and countries," said Raidi, who is one of the highest-ranking ethnic Tibetans in the government.
"We hope that Bush will stop interfering in China's internal affairs."
- AP
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