By Qin Jize (China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-10-18 07:22

China lashed out at US President George Bush's meeting with the Dalai Lama, calling the meeting a "gross interference" in its internal affairs.

"China is strongly resentful of this and resolutely opposes it, and has made repeated solemn representations to the US side," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Wednesday.

He again urged the US side to correct its wrongdoings and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any form.

Liu said such a meeting "seriously violated" the norms of international relations and gravely hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.

"It is a gross interference in China's internal affairs," Liu added.

Liu's remarks were the latest response in a string of Chinese protests about the decision to award the Dalai Lama the US Congressional Gold Medal in a public ceremony earlier yesterday.

Despite stern warnings from Beijing, Bush met with the Dalai Lama in the White House on Tuesday

The meeting is the third since Bush took office in January 2001, but the first public appearance with the Dalai Lama for a sitting US president.

Liu reiterated that Tibet is an inalienable part of China, saying China is firmly against any country and any people using this issue to interfere with its internal affairs.

"The words and deeds of the Dalai Lama in past decades have demonstrated that he is a political refugee engaged in secessionist activities under the camouflage of religion," Liu said, adding that any attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs using the Dalai issue is "doomed to failure".

"Chinese people's resolve to safeguard the nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity is firm and unshakeable."

'Farce'

Also on Wednesday, top religious affairs official lashed out at the Dalai Lama's US congressional award and meeting with US President George W. Bush, saying he had staged a "farce".

"It's like a Peking Opera, and the Dalai Lama is the protagonist singing his long-time attempts to split the motherland and seek 'Tibet independence'", said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, at a press briefing during the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

When no one sang along, the Dalai Lama claimed he had dropped his "independence" claim and wanted a "higher degree of autonomy" and "Greater Tibet" instead, Ye said.

"Both are the same old claim of 'independence' in guised forms."

One who betrays his own country must feel isolated wherever he is, said Ye. "When he feels isolated and miserable, he would stage a farce with the Westerners, hoping to exert more influence."

Quoting the Bible, Ye told "those who watched the Dalai Lama's farce" not to do unto others as it would not have others do unto it.

The religious affairs official warned the Dalai Lama, 72, to repent and mend his ways. "The Dalai Lama question is quite easy to solve, as long as he stops his secessionist activities," he said. "I hope he'll solve this problem in his life."

He said the central government has been in contact and consultation with the Dalai Lama's envoy. "Any attempts to split China are doomed to failure, whether the Dalai Lama is alive or not."