China slams US for interfering in 'internal matters'

China on Wednesday criticised United States President George W Bush's high-profile meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying that Washington's bid to meddle in its internal affairs was doomed to fail.

Terming the meeting as "gross interference in China's internal affairs", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said it has severely violated the basic norms of international relations and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. "Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and the Tibet issue is purely China's internal affair," he said.

Liu also said that the Chinese people have undeviating resolution to safeguard their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. He warned that any attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs using the Dalai problem 'is doomed to fail'.

"The words and deeds of Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee engaging in secessionist activities in the camouflage of religion," the spokesperson said.

"China is strongly resentful of and resolutely opposes this and has also made solemn representation to the US side. We seriously urged the US side to correct such wrongdoing and stop interfering in China's internal affairs in any form," Liu said.

Expressing serious reservations over the meeting, Beijing had on Tuesday warned the US against going forward with it. 

China had asked the US not to bestow the Congressional Gold Medal, America's highest civilian award, on the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan spiritual leader is scheduled to receive the honour later today

"I believe the move of the United States will seriously damage Sino-US relations. I hope the US can seriously deal with the solemn representations of China and correct its mistakes and cancel relevant arrangements and stop interfering in the internal affairs of China," Liu had told reporters at a bi-weekly ministry briefing.

According to reports from Washington, Bush was also scheduled to speak at the presentation of the medal, whose recipients have included Mother Teresa, former South African President Nelson Mandela and Pope John Paul II.

Apparently retaliating against the Bush-Dalai meeting as well as the granting of the award to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, China had cancelled participating in the international strategy session on Iran, citing technical reasons.

China had also recently cancelled human rights talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel after she met the Dalai Lama last month.