Mexico has received an official apology from China regarding language used by its envoy to Mexico in connection with a visit by the Dalai Lama last week, Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez said Tuesday.
Ernesto told a news conference that the government received a letter of apology from Beijing.
Chinese Ambassador to Mexico Ren Jingyu told the local daily Reforma on Friday that Mexican lawmakers who met Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader are “ignorant” about Tibetan issues and know nothing of the Dalai Lama’s character.
Ren had protested the Dalai Lama’s visit, saying it is “an error” on the part of the Mexican government to allow him to come. The Chinese Embassy opened a photo exhibition in late September showing alleged torture of Chinese by Tibetans during the first half of the 20th century.
The Dalai Lama’s Oct. 3-9 visit sparked a controversy on whether he was here as a religious figure or political leader.
Interior Minister Santiago Creel declared before the visit that Mexico views the Dalai Lama as a religious leader and Nobel prize winner, not a political figure.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has been living in Dharamsala in the Indian Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh since he and his followers fled from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The Chinese government accuses him of seeking independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama has said he only wants more autonomy for the region.
A Foreign Ministry source said this is the first time for Mexico to have such a diplomatic issue with China.
The Dalai Lama visited Mexico on the last leg of a trip to the Americas covering the United States, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala. It was his second visit to Mexico after one in 1989.
