EFE: China assures that Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama “will damage” their relationship

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US President Barack Obama at the White House this Tuesday 14 June 2016. EFE

Beijing, 16 jun (EFE).- The Chinese Government today showed its displeasure over the private meeting of the US president., Barack Obama, con el dalái lama y aseguró que este encuentro "dañará la confianza y cooperación mutuas" between Beijing and Washington.

"Urgimos a EEUU a dejar de entrometerse en los asuntos domésticos de China usando al Tíbet y a los asuntos relacionados con el Tíbet", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, Lu Kang, In a press conference in Beijing.

Obama received the spiritual leader of the Tibetans this Wednesday for the fourth time since he occupied the White House, a pesar de la "firme oposición" expressed by the Chinese Government hours before.

Although the White House made clear the personal nature of the meeting and that the US. still does not support the independence of Tibet, el portavoz chino volvió a protestar hoy por un encuentro que tachó de "interferencia" in his domestic policy.

"Independientemente de la forma en que el líder estadounidense se reunió con el dalái lama, the meeting violated US promises. de reconocer el Tíbet como parte de China y no apoyar la independencia del Tíbet y las actividades separatistas", pointed out Lu.

"Esa reunión dañará la confianza y cooperación mutuas entre China y EE.UU", stressed the foreign spokesperson of the Asian giant.

Lu afirmó que el dalái lama "no es una figura puramente religiosa" and insisted on defining it, as he already did this Wednesday, como "un exiliado político que hace tiempo que está implicado en actividades separatistas y antichinas amparado por la religión".

Beijing considers Tibet an inseparable part of the country and accuses the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, of being a leader of the Tibetan independence movement.

China assures that Tibet has been an inseparable part of its territory for centuries, while many Tibetans argue that the region was long virtually independent until it was occupied by communist troops in 1951.

Lu defended that the economic and social development experienced in recent decades by Tibet, which has the administrative status of an autonomous region for China, es "un hecho que no puede ser negado".