Beijing: China on Wednesday again urged President
Barack Obama not to hold a planned meeting with Dalai Lama,
saying it would further hurt already strained bilateral
relations.
It was the second successive day that China has spoken
out against the meeting, and comes after Beijing said ties had
been harmed by a US announcement last week that it would sell
arms to Taiwan.
"China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama
to the United States, and resolutely opposes the US leader
having contact with the Dalai Lama in any name or any form,"
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said today.
The United States has already brushed aside previous
warnings from China, and White House spokesman Bill Burton
said yesterday the meeting was still planned, although no date
has been set.
"The president told ... China's leaders during his
trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama, and he
intends to do so. The Dalai Lama is an internationally
respected religious and cultural leader, and the president
will meet with him in that capacity," Burton said.
Bilateral relations have already been strained by the
US announcement Friday that it planned to sell USD 6.4 billion
worth of arms to Taiwan.
Beijing quickly suspended military exchanges with
Washington and announced an unprecedented threat of sanctions
against the US companies involved in the sale.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, February 03, 2010, 17:56