US should stop meddling: China on exiled Tibetan leader's visit to state dept

China says the United States must immediately stop interfering in its internal affairs, after the leader of the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile met a US State Department official in Washington.

It was the first time that the head of the Tibetan Central Administration (CTA) had been received at the State Department.

Lobsang Sangay, the president of the CTA, met the new US special coordinator on Tibet last week.

Relations between the two world powers are at their lowest point in decades over a range of issues, including trade, Taiwan, human rights, the South China Sea and the coronavirus.

"China will take all necessary measures to protect its interests," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said during a daily news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

The meeting "sent a seriously wrong signal to Tibetan independence forces," he said, adding, "the US should immediately stop using the Tibet issue to interfere in China`s internal affairs."

Describing Sangay as an anti-China separatist, Zhao said the United States should cease any official contact with him.

China seized control over Tibet in 1950. International human rights groups and exiles have since condemned what they call China's oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.

Since its formation in 1959, the Tibetan government-in-exile has been based in Dharamshala in northern India. 

China's relations with India became fraught in recent months following a bloody clash between troops stationed on the disputed Himalayan border.

(with inputs)