Senior US senator demands apology from Chinese paper for threatening UC San Diego Chancellor

By Lobsang Tenchoe

DHARAMSALA, June 23: A senior US senator has condemned a Chinese state-run tabloid for threatening University of California, San Diego and its chancellor for hosting His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“I find it unconscionable that a reporter for the Global Times, a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, would threaten UC San Diego and its chancellor and students for inviting the Dalai Lama to speak,” India Today quoted California Senator Dianne Feinstein as saying in its report.

Global Times ran an editorial on June 20, threatening the Chancellor and the university’s exchanges with China for hosting the Dalai Lama, who the Chinese government considers as a ‘separatist’ and ‘anti-China’ and ‘supporting Tibet’s independence’.

Senator Feinstein has further demanded that the tabloid immediately apologize and retract the article, and called the newspapers portrayal of the Dalai Lama as an ‘anti-China separatist’ as patently false, the report added.

The Dalai lama talked on a range of topics – role of peace, compassion, diversity and dialogues – at the UC San Diego as the key note speaker at the university’s commencement ceremony.

“The Dalai Lama’s desire to end religious persecution for his people doesn’t make him a separatist, it makes him a peaceful leader who should serve as an inspiration to all students,” the senator said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein considers herself as a friend of both the Dalai Lama and China and has long maintained that the Tibetan issue can only be resolved through dialogue and reconciliation.