China warns US to drop Dalai Lama award

China today demanded America drop a ceremony to honour the Dalai Lama.

The fierce critic of China’s rule in Tibet will meet President . Bush at the White House today, before a public ceremony tomorrow to award him the Congressional Gold Medal.

“We solemnly demand that the US cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jieche said.

“It seriously violates the norm of international relations and has seriously wounded the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China’s internal affairs.”

A spokesman said honouring the Dalai Lama would “seriously damage China-US relations.”

He added that China hoped the US would “correct its mistakes and cancel relevant arrangements and stop interfering in the internal affairs of China by any means.”

The Dalai Lama has been based in India since fleeing his Himalayan homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese.

He remains immensely popular among Tibetans, despite persistent efforts to demonise him by Beijing, which claims he is seeking to destroy China’s sovereignty by pushing for independence for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama insists he wants “real autonomy,” not independence for the region, which the mainland claims has been its territory for centuries.

The comments by the Chinese officials were the latest in a string of protests about the award.

“The Chinese have raised the issue with the ambassador on several occasions,” said Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Beijing.

The planned ceremony for the Dalai Lama comes at a sensitive time in Chinese politics. More than 2,000 of the country’s top Communists have gathered in Beijing for a once-every-five-years meeting to decide the country’s policy agenda and elect top leaders.