Dharamsala Nov. 25 – In its first reaction to the Special Meeting of the Tibetan exiles, China on Tuesday said it opposed what it termed as ‘splittist activities’ of the 73 year old Tibetan leader.
“China’s position is consistent and clear. We oppose the Dalai getting involved in activities overseas to split China, and we oppose any foreign leaders having any contact with the Dalai,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.
“We have talked about this issue many times in the past,” Qin said, referring to the exiles’ meeting but did not elaborate, according to Reuters.
The Nobel laureate had no role in the Special Meeting except calling it under article 59 of the Tibetan charter. He said he did not want to influence the meeting in anyway.
China has already rejected the Tibetan side’s demands for greater autonomy as a ‘disguised independence’ but the Special Meeting that just concluded vowed to continue the existing policy of Middle Way Approach of seeking autonomy under China.
China, some analysts say, may not be very pleased with the outcome of the Tibetan exiles’ meeting as it missed an opportunity to denigrate the Tibetan government’s call for autonomy as ‘disguised independence’.
