China has officially expressed its strong displeasure with Slovenia for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Slovenia and meet its top leaders during his visit to the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao voiced this displeasure in Beijing Saturday, when asked to comment on the Dalai Lama's meeting with Slovenian leaders during his visit to Slovenia as guest of the University of Ljubljana.
Liu said Slovenia allowed the Dalai Lama to visit it and arranged its top leaders to meet him despite repeated offers of the Chinese side for negotiations.
As is widely known, the issue of Tibet is related to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Liu said. The Slovenian move has provided an arena for the Dalai Lama to peddle the "independence of Tibet," which boosts his arrogance for splitting the motherland, gravely impairs China's sovereignty, hurts the Chinese people's feelings and dignity, and harms Sino-Slovenian relations.
The Chinese side sternly asks the Slovenian side to take prompt measures, effectively observes the principle that Tibet is an integral part of China, and promise that any similar incident will never occur again in the future.
(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2002)
