China has lodged a formal protest with Poland in response to Wednesday's meeting in Warsaw between President Lech Kaczynski and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing Liu Jianchao told reporters Thursday that China had warned Poland to avoid actions that harm Chinese-Polish relations. He said China has expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" with the meeting.
The complaint is similar to one directed at French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met with the Tibetan spiritual leader in Poland earlier in the week.
China warned France that the meeting would have a negative effect on multi-billion-dollar trade ties and long-term relations between the two countries.
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of advocating Tibet's separation from China. The Dalai Lama says he is seeking greater autonomy for Tibet, not independence.
The Dalai Lama and other Nobel laureates had gathered in the Polish city Gdansk on Friday to mark 25 years since former Polish president and trade union leader Lech Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize.
གཟའ་པ་སངས། ༢༠༢༤/༠༤/༢༦