Beijing: China on Saturday slammed top US
Congressional leaders who met the Tibetan spiritual leader
Dalai Lama in Washington, saying it was an interference in its
internal affairs as he was a political exile engaged in
anti-Beijing activities.
"The Tibetan affairs are purely China's internal
affairs, and China firmly opposes any country or any person to
interfere in China's internal affairs on the Tibetan issue,"
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.
Responding to a question, Hong said China demands that
some US Congress leaders stop indulging and supporting the
Dalai Lama in anti-China and separatist activities.
The words and actions of the Dalai Lama during the
past decades have proven that he is not simply a religious
person, but a political exile who has been engaged in
separatist activities against China under the disguise of
religion, Hong was quoted as saying by the government-run
Xinhua news agency.
The exiled Buddhist leader recently gave up his
political authority over Tibetans, but remains their spiritual
leader.
Shunning strong protest from China, the US
Congressional leadership, cutting across party lines have
rallied behind the Tibetan spiritual leader to greet him at
the Capitol Hill in Washington.
John Boehner, speaker of the US House of
Representatives, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and
several US Congressional leaders met the Dalai Lama during his
11-day US visit in connection with his 76th birthday
celebrations.
Even as a Congressional resolution introduced in House
of Representatives on Thursday welcomed the visit of the Dalai
Lama and his delegation to Washington, the Obama
administration continues to mull over the issue of meeting the
Tibetan spiritual leader.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, July 09, 2011, 21:42