Peking Scolds Congress on Tibet Status
Peking accused the U.S. Congress today of “wanton interference” in China’s internal affairs by passing an amendment to the Export-Import Bank Act listing Tibet as a separate country.
“We express indignation at this,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yu Zhizhong at a press briefing.
“Recently the Senate and the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress went so far as to disregard the well-known facts and listed Tibet separately as a country” in an amendment to the 1945 Export-Import Bank Act, Yu said.
“This constitutes a wanton interference in the internal affairs of China,” he said.
The spokesman noted, however, that when President Reagan signed the amendment last week, he said in a statement that Washington recognizes the remote Himalayan region as part of China.
“We hope that in the future there will be no recurrence of such incidents of interference in the internal affairs of China and hurting the feelings of the Chinese people,” Yu said.
Tibet has been a sensitive region since 1950, when Chinese forces moved in a few months after establishing their rule in Peking. In 1959, Chinese troops suppressed a bloody uprising by Tibetans, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee to India.
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