China Takes Dim View of US Official’s Meeting With Dalai Lama in Delhi

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‘The US should…stop meddling in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of Xizang-related issues, and offer no support to the anti-China separatist activities of the Dalai clique.’

China Takes Dim View of US Official's Meeting With Dalai Lama in Delhi

The Dalai Lama. Photo: Video screengrab/BBC

New Delhi: China has taken a dim view of a US official’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi on July 9, accusing the US of interfering with its internal affairs.

Uzra Zeya, the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights at the US State Department and the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, met the Dalai Lama in New Delhi on July 9.

The Hindu has reported that ahead of the meeting, the Dalai Lama had said that the Chinese government had sent feelers to him on wanting to hold talks and that he was open to them.

“We are not seeking independence. We are decided since many years that we remain a part of People’s Republic of China,” the Dalai Lama also said.

Last week, Zeya who is visiting India and Bangladesh, attended birthday celebrations for the Dalai Lama’s 88th birthday, organised by the ‘Office of Tibet in Washington’, the report said.

In response, Wang Xiaojian, a spokesperson of the Embassy of People’s Republic of China in New Delhi, tweeted: “Xizang (Tibet) affairs are purely internal affairs of China and no external forces have the right to interfere. China firmly opposes any form of contact between foreign officials and the ‘Tibetan independence’ forces.”

 

Wang added, “The so-called ‘Special Coordinator for Tibet Issues’ is pure offense and a move of political manipulation to interfere in China’s internal affairs and undermine Xizang’s development and stability. China has always been firmly opposed to this and has never recognized it.”

He also said the Dalai Lama has long been a separatist.

“The 14th Dalai Lama is by no means just a religious figure, but rather a political exile who has long been engaging in anti-China separatist activities and attempting to split Xizang from China…The so-called “Tibetan government-in-exile” is an out-and-out separatist political group and an illegal organization completely in violation of China’s Constitution and laws. It is not recognized by any country in the world.”

Wang said that the US should “take concrete actions to honour its commitment of acknowledging Xizang as part of China, stop meddling in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of Xizang-related issues, and offer no support to the anti-China separatist activities of the Dalai clique.”