China has reacted angrily to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with a senior representative of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in New Delhi, saying it is a violation of Washington’s commitment acknowledging Tibet as part of China and not to support Tibetan independence.
Blinken , as reported by PTI, during his two- day India visit met Ngodup Dongchung, an official in the Tibetan government-in-exile and representative of the Dalai Lama, in a clear signal to China about the Biden administration’s continued support to the Tibetan cause.
In the meeting, Dongchung thanked Blinken for the continued support by the US to the Tibetan movement. When asked, a spokesperson of the US State Department told PTI, “Secretary Blinken had an opportunity to meet briefly this morning in New Delhi with a representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Central Tibetan Administration Representative Ngodup Dongchung.” Separately, another Tibetan representative, Geshe Dorjee Damdul, attended a roundtable Blinken held with around seven civil society members.
Asked for his reaction by the official media here at a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, “Tibetan affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that allow no foreign interference. “The 14th Dalai Lama is by no means just a religious person but rather a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities attempting to split Tibet from China,” he said.
