U.S. honor for Dalai Lama angers China

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China has offered harsh criticism of U.S. plans to honor the Dalai Lama with a Congressional medal on Wednesday in a Washington ceremony.

"U.S. leaders meeting the Dalai (Lama) seriously violate the basic principles of international relations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement. Lui called Tibet "an inalienable part of China" and a matter for the country's internal affairs.

According to White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, U.S. President George W. Bush will deliver "brief" remarks and bestow the Congressional Gold Medal -- the nation's highest civilian honor -- upon Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama, during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

The medal, one of four awarded by Congress, is presented for singular acts of exceptional service and for lifetime achievement. The Dalai Lama is also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Wednesday's ceremony comes a day after Bush met privately with the exiled spiritual leader in the White House residence. It was his fourth meeting with him, Perino said.

The visit -- which the administration has worked to downplay -- has nevertheless drawn the ire of Chinese leaders, who call it an interference into internal state matters. Watch why he's considered a threat to China »

In an earlier statement, Perino told reporters she predicted that the events would not seriously affect U.S.-Sino relations.

"We in no way want to stir the pot and make China feel that we are poking a stick in their eyes," she said.

The Dalai Lama also dismissed China's anger. "That always happens," he told reporters with a laugh outside his Washington hotel, according to The Associated Press.

Anticipating the negative reaction, Bush told Chinese President Hu Jintao of his plans last month at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference meeting in Sydney, Perino said.

The People's Republic of China claims to be the rightful and legitimate government of Tibet after China's 1951 invasion. However, ongoing sovereignty disputes have called into question the legitimacy of that claim based on international law.

"As I understand it," Perino said, the Dalai Lama is not calling for independence from China but for Tibetans to have the freedom to practice their religion.

Lui on Wednesday said the Dalai Lama's work was part of "separatist activities."

"The words and deeds of the Dalai Lama in the past decades show he is a political refugee engaging in secessionist activities under the cloak of religion," he said.

Zhang Quingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, was more forceful in his criticism of the Dalai Lama, who has been based in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. "He is a person who has tried to split the motherland, who lacks love for his home country," he told reporters in Beijing.

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has said he advocates autonomy for Tibet, and is not calling for it to be a separate country.

Last month, the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, met the Dalai Lama, in Berlin.

Last week, China announced that, for technical reasons, it was canceling a planned meeting on human rights with German officials. E-mail to a friend

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