China calls Obama-Dalai Lama meeting 'violation of norms'

Beijing, (IANS) China Friday called the meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama "a gross violation of norms governing the international relations".

"The US act grossly violated the norms governing the international relations, and ran counter to the principles set forth in the three China-US joint communiques and the China-US joint statement," Xinhua reported quoting Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

He said the meeting also went against the repeated commitments by the US government that the it recognizes Tibet as part of China and gives no support to "Tibet independence".

Ma said the US should stop interfering in China's internal affairs and make concrete actions to maintain healthy and steady growth of China-US relations.

Obama held a long awaited meeting with the Dalai Lama Thursday defying warnings from Beijing that it could further strain US-China relations amid tension over American arms sales to Taiwan and claims of Chinese cyber-spying.