Q: The Paris city council approved the proposal raised by Mayor Delanoe of awarding "honorary citizen of Paris" to Dalai on April 21. How do you comment on that?

A: On April 21, the Paris city council approved the proposal to make Dalai an "honorary citizen of Paris", which grossly interferes in China's internal affairs and severely undermines China-France relations, in particular the existing friendly cooperation between Beijing and Paris. We express strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition to that.

Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and Tibetan affairs are completely China's internal affairs. China strongly opposes any nation and individual using the Dalai issue to interfere in China's internal affairs. The words and deeds of Dalai over the past decades are self-evident that he is not just a religious figure, but a political exile bent on separatist activities under the disguise of religion. The Dalai clique has premeditated, organized and instigated the "March 14" criminal act of violence in Lhasa and other places.

Recently, some French people and media, ignoring the facts, have continuously made extremely negative remarks and reports concerning China. The Olympic Torch relay in Paris was severely disturbed and disrupted. These have seriously injured the feelings of the Chinese people and undermined China-France relations. The decision of the Paris city council to bestow "honorary citizen of Paris" on Dalai will only be seen as another severe provocative act against 1.3 billion Chinese people including the Tibetans, and further encourage the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan secessionists.

China urges France to take immediate and effective measures to eliminate the negative impact caused by its erroneous act, stop encouraging and supporting the separatist activities of Tibetan separatist forces and stop interfering in China's internal affairs, so as to safeguard China-France relations through concrete actions.