Dalai Lama's visit to Mongolia riles China

China today warned Mongolia of "serious repurcussions" to bilateral ties if it allowed the Dalai Lama to visit the country and allow the monk to engage in "separatist activities".
The 81-year-old monk is due to start a four-day visit to predominantly Buddhist Mongolia this evening as the resource rich Mongolia invited him defying China's strong objections to any country holding the Tibetan Buddhist monk.
The Dalai Lama is in a "political exile who has long been engaging in splitting China activities in the name of religion with the aim of alienating Tibet from China," ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media briefing here.

"We strongly urge Mongolia to act by keeping in mind the big picture of maintaining the stable development of bilateral relations and to keep their promises made on this issue," Geng said.
"Do not allow the Dalai Lama to visit. Do not support or facilitate the separatist activities of the Dalai clique," Geng said adding that Mongolia should stick to commitment given on Tibet related issues.
China regards Dalai Lama as separatist and routinely objects his visit to any country. Recently Beijing objected to India's permission to him to visit Arunachal Pradesh, which regards as southern Tibet.

However, the invitation to the Dalai Lamaby Mongolia whose source-centred economy is heavily dependent on China came a surprise as it is currently in negotiations for a USD 4.2 billion loan from Beijing to help pull it out of a deep recession.

Mongolian Buddhism is closely tied to Tibet's version of Mahayana Buddhism.
The Tibetan monk made the first of his eight visits to Mongolia in 1979.