The Chinese government has criticized the Dalai Lama’s visit today to the monastery town of Tawang in northern India, the Los Angeles Times reports:
China has accused the spiritual leader of making the trip to further the movement for an independent Tibet, a region that accounts for about one-sixth of Chinese territory.
“He is always involved in activities that undermine the relations between China and other countries as well as ethnic separatist activities,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a regular news briefing this month in Beijing. “The Dalai Lama is a liar.”
Although Beijing has leveled similar accusations for decades, its charges have become more pointed since deadly anti-government riots broke out in March 2008 across the Tibetan plateau.
Past visits by the Dalai Lama to Tawang have merited little response from China, said Vijay Kranti, editor of Tibbat Desh, a newspaper for the Tibetan exile community in India. China’s reaction this time has made it into a bigger deal than it otherwise would be, he said. “The Dalai Lama’s best advertising agency is Beijing,” Kranti said.
