China opposes US lawmakers' meeting with Dalai

BEIJING - China's National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislative body, on Friday voiced strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition after some US lawmakers met with the Dalai Lama in Washington one day earlier.

"The meeting went against the United States' commitment that it does not support 'Tibet independence' and constituted a severe interference into China's internal affairs," said a statement issued by the NPC's Foreign Affairs Committee.

Tibet has been an inseparable part of the Chinese territory since ancient times and the Tibetan people are always important members of the family of the multi-ethnic Chinese nation, said the statement.

Recalling the history of Tibet, the statement said some one million serfs were not liberated until 1959, when the feudal serfdom was abolished through democratic reform.

Prior to that, Tibet was a society of feudal serfdom under theocratic rule, a society characterized by a combination of political and religious powers.

In March of 1959, a group of high-ranking feudal serf owners in Tibet started an armed rebellion in an attempt to preserve the feudal serfdom. After they failed, the Dalai Lama and his followers escaped overseas and started their secessionist agenda.

Since then, a new chapter for Tibet's development has come, said the statement.

Freedom of religious belief has been fully ensured among the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, said the statement, adding that the traditional culture has been preserved and developed, and the people's living conditions have been greatly improved over the decades.

However, the 14th Dalai Lama has never given up his advocacy for "Tibet independence," said the statement.

"His real purpose is to split the country and destroy national unity as he preaches the so-called 'middle way' and peddles the 'true autonomy of the Greater Tibet' under the cloak of religion and in the name of human rights," said the statement.

The committee said the Tibet issue is a purely domestic affair of China and that the Chinese government and people strongly oppose any country's permission for the Dalai Lama to visit, any politician's meeting with him in any form, and any person's attempt to interfere in China's internal affairs or harm China's sovereignty and unity.

"The Chinese National People's Congress strongly urges the US legislature to take seriously China's solemn concern, sincerely honor its commitment to recognizing Tibet as part of China and not supporting 'Tibet independence,' stop using the Tibet issue to interfere in China's internal affairs and do more work conducive to the friendship between the two peoples and the development of the China-US relationship," said the statement.