08. May 2009
Beijing objects to Paris honouring Dalai Lama
(AFP; Le Monde; UPI; Xinhua) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu has said that the decision made in 2008 by the city council of Paris to confer honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama, due to visit Paris in June 2009, is interference in "China's internal affairs", and that "the Paris side" should "make no further errors on the Tibet-related issue". He said he hoped France and China could work together on the issue "to remove obstacles and promote ties between the two countries in a sound and stable way".