China has warned that ties with the US would be undermined if US President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama. There is speculation that Mr Obama will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader in Washington later this month, but no date has been confirmed. Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun said such a meeting would "threaten trust and co-operation" between Beijing and Washington. The dispute is the latest of several strains on the countries' relations.
China, which took over Tibet in 1950, considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and tries to isolate the spiritual leader by asking foreign leaders not to see him. Last year Mr Obama passed up the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama when he visited the US, but a White House spokesman said last month the two men intended to meet when the Tibetan monk visited Washington later in February.
"If the US leader chooses to meet with the Dalai Lama at this time, it will certainly threaten trust and co-operation between China and the United States," said Mr Zhu, executive deputy minister of the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department. He said that if a meeting did take place, China would "take corresponding action to make relevant countries see their mistakes". "We oppose any attempt by foreign forces to interfere in China's internal affairs using the Dalai Lama as an excuse," he said. "If they [the US] don't recognise that Tibet is part of China, it will seriously undermine the political foundation of Sino-US relations." The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
