A fuming China summoned a top US diplomat late on Friday night to register its protest against President Barack Obama’s meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader and Noble laureate, the India-based Dalai Lama, saying Washington was interfering in Beijing’s internal domestic affairs.
Zhang Yesui, vice-foreign minister, told Daniel Kritenbrink, charge d’affaires of US embassy in China, in no uncertain terms that the meeting was “wrong move” and it “gravely interfered in China’s internal affairs, seriously violated the US commitment of not supporting the ‘Tibetan independence'” movement.
It, “…gravely violated basic norms violating international relations, and seriously undermined China-US relations,” Zhang was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying.
“China expresses strong indignation and firm opposition,” Zhang told Kritenbrink.
On Thursday, as information about the impending meeting was released by the White House, Beijing had lost no time in issuing statements and releasing an official commentary criticising the US move and asked Obama to scrap the meeting
Obama anyway went ahead with the meeting in White House’s Map Room. Soon after, under directions from the top leadership of the government, Zhang summoned Kritenbrink; it was late in the night according to China time.
“Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory,” Zhang said, adding: “The Tibetan issue is the domestic affair of China and the United States bears no right to interfere.”
“Nobody can shake the will and determination of the Chinese government and people to oppose outside interference and to safeguard the national sovereignty and unification,” he said.
