Dharamsala Nov.27 — China said a planned meeting between the Dalai Lama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has forced it to pull out of an upcoming China-European Union summit.
Sarkozy’s decision had “deprived the EU-China summit of the required good atmosphere and made it impossible for it to obtain the anticipated result,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.
“We resolutely oppose the Dalai traveling to other countries in any capacity to carry out activities aimed at splitting China. We resolutely oppose foreign leaders having any form of contact with the Dalai,” Qin said.
The cancellation, first announced Wednesday by the would-be summit host France, was a dramatic example of the extent to which Beijing can go to try to internationally isolate the 1989 Nobel laureate.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had been due to attend the EU-China summit that was scheduled for Monday in the French city of Lyon.
French government spokesman Luc Chatel said Wednesday that the meeting between the Tibetan leader and the French President will go ahead despite China’s anger.
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to split Tibet from China, which sent military troops to occupy the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan country in 1949, and has routinely protested against countries that agree to visits by him.
The Dalai Lama remains deeply revered among Tibetans in exile as well as those in Tibet despite Beijing’s relentless attempts to vilify him.
