Dalai Lama Washington DCF Peace. China warned the United States not to interfere in its internal affairs after senior U.S. politicians met in Washington exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a man Beijing reviles as a separatist."The affairs of Tibet are a purely Chinese internal matter, and China resolutely opposes any country or any person interfering in China's internal affairs on the issue of Tibet," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

"The words and actions of the Dalai Lama over the last decades shows that he is not purely a religious figure, but is a political exile who has long engaged in activities to split China under the pretext of religion," Hong added.

"China urges relevant U.S. lawmakers to stop conniving in and supporting the Dalai clique's anti-Chinese splitist activities," he said, in a short statement carried on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn).

The U.S. State Department said the Dalai Lama met on Wednesday with Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero, but that it remained to be decided whether he would have any meetings at higher levels.

On Thursday, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other senior U.S. lawmakers also met the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Prize laureate.

The Dalai Lama met U.S. President Barack Obama last year, drawing strong denunciation from Beijing.

China reviles the Dalai Lama, saying he supports the use of violence to establish an independent Tibet. He strongly denies either accusation, insisting he seeks only true autonomy for the remote Himalayan region.

Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and have ruled with an iron fist ever since.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising.

Source: reuters