CHINA yesterday condemned a decision by Paris city councilors to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of the French capital, saying the move had hurt relations.

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the honor, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a press conference yesterday.

“This interferes rudely with China’s internal affairs and seriously harms the Sino-French relationship, and in particular the existing friendly ties between Paris and Beijing.”

The reaction came a day after Paris councilors voted to award honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama, a proposal tabled by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe.

In her statement, Jiang singled out anti-Chinese protests during the Paris leg of the torch relay, saying those tumultuous scenes had “hurt the Chinese people’s feelings.”

“The fact that this moment the Paris city council decides to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen can only be seen as a serious challenge to 1.3 billion Chinese including Tibetans,” she said.

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“China requires that France immediately take effective steps to remove the severely negative impact of its erroneous action.”

She said France must “immediately stop supporting ‘Tibet independence’ and immediately stop interfering in China’s internal affairs and take real action to safeguard Sino-French relations.”

She added that the Dalai Lama’s words and actions over the past decades demonstrated he that he was not really a religious figure, but a political exile engaged in the separatist activities under the disguise of religion.

The Dalai clique is the organizer, plotter and instigator of the March 14 violence in Lhasa and other areas of the country, she said.

Recently, Jiang said, some French people and media have continued to make negative reports and remarks about China.

Jiang said that the two nations should continue considering bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term point of view.

(SD-Xinhua)