NEW YORK — China has once again protested the visit to Germany by Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday after talks here.
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi “once more voiced anger at the Dalai Lama’s reception in Germany,” said Steinmeier after his meeting with Yang.
Defying harsh warnings from Beijing, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday held a historic meeting with the Dalai Lama in Berlin, during which she gave support to his quest for greater cultural autonomy for his homeland.
In what has become a familiar pattern, China reacted angrily to the encounter, warning Germany that bilateral ties had been damaged and insisting the Dalai Lama was a dangerous figure who sought independence for Tibet.
Steinmeier said Friday that he hoped that ties between the two countries “would not be thrown into doubt in the long term by the current upset.”
Expressing his surprise at Yang’s reaction, Steinmeier said the Chinese minister voiced China’s disappointment at the Berlin talks and highlighted Beijing’s support for the reunification of Germany.
Yang accused Berlin of supporting “a separatist movement in China” by receiving the Dalai Lama, Steinmeier said.
Beijing had initially canceled the meeting between the two men as a sign of its fury, so Steinmeier said he “was grateful that it even took place.”
The German minister said he had stressed there was no change in Germany’s policy towards China and hoped “good relations would soon be restored.”
China has ruled Tibet since sending troops in to “liberate” the Himalayan region in 1950. The young Dalai Lama fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 and has since lived in exile in northern India.
China considers him a political exile, bent on establishing an independent Tibet, an accusation the 1989 Nobel Peace price winner has repeatedly denied.
