By DPA,
Beijing : China Tuesday expressed it opposition to Paris city council’s awarding of honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama, describing is as an act of “act of provocation.”
“This act grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs and severely infringes on Sino-French relations, as well as the existing friendly relations between Beijing and Paris, in particular,” said Jiang Yu, foreign ministry spokesperson, at a press conference in Beijing.
Paris city council voted Monday to award honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama.
“The Paris city council’s awarding … will be taken as another severe provocation to 1.3 billion Chinese people including Tibetans, and will further encourage the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan secessionists,” Jiang said.
Jiang said Tibet is an inalienable part of China, and a purely internal Chinese affair.
“China is strongly against any nation or individual using the Dalai Lama issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” she added.
Jiang also condemned a meeting of the US special envoy to Tibet, US Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, with the Dalai Lama which took place at the north-eastern US University of Michigan Monday.
The US government official met with the Dalai “regardless of the Chinese firmly opposing the meeting” and “casually commented on Tibetan problems which belong to Chinese internal affairs,” she charged.
This “violates severely the basic rules of international relations,” she stressed.
The US should desist from “supporting and conniving” with the separatist activities of the “Dalai clique,” she said.