LONDON, May 27 – Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama began a visit to Britain by holding talks with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, a meeting that took place despite vehement and vocal opposition from China.
The 68-year-old saw Straw at his parliamentary office in central London, and was due later at a reception at the London palace of Prince Charles, heir to the British throne and a noted supporter of the Tibetan cause.
On Friday, he was also due to meet the leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, Michael Howard.
Earlier Thursday, China’s foreign office expressed its “regret and dissatisfaction” at the contacts with the Dalai Lama, who Beijing reviles for attempting to split Tibet from the rest of China.
However Britain’s Foreign Office stressed that the Dalai Lama was visiting in his capacity as a religious leader, and that his talks with Straw implied no change to Britain’s official acceptance that Tibet is part of China.
“They will be talking about the situation in Tibet, of course, but there is no change to British policy,” a spokesman told AFP.
“We have some concerns about the human rights situation in Tibet, but these have been expressed to China before.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he would not be seeing the Dalai Lama during the current visit, but stressed that this was in no way a snub and that he would be “very happy to meet him” in the future.
Beijing has a policy of protesting at any official contact with the Dalai Lama, and even attempted to persuade a British university where he opened his visit with a lecture on ethics earlier Thursday to call off the event.
“The Chinese authorities asked us not to go through with the meeting,” said the vice-chairman of Liverpool John Moores University in northwest England, Professor Michael Brown.
Following another speaking engagement in London on Friday, the Dalai Lama will head to Scotland for several more days of lectures.
China has occupied Tibet since 1951 and has been accused of trying to wipe out its Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression and a flood of ethnic Chinese immigration. Beijing insists Tibet is an integral part of the Chinese nation.
The Dalai Lama, who led Tibet’s hereditary theocratic regime ahead of the occupation, fled Tibet after an abortive uprising in 1959 and established a government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Wednesday that Beijing condemned the Dalai Lama and his followers “for engaging in splittist activities in the international arena, and we also oppose any officials meeting the Dalai Lama”.
“We expressed our regret and dissatisfaction with the British side in meeting the Dalai Lama despite Chinese representation,” Liu added.
