An article in Global Times on March 20, 2017, by Liu Caiyu reported the Chinese Foreign Ministry's strong opposition to the Dalai Lama's participation in a Buddhism conference in India last week. It quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying as saying on March 20, that "We urge the Indian side to clearly recognize the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai clique, abide by its promises on the Tibet question, respect China's core interests and avoid further disturbances and harm to China-India relations. Recently, India ignored China's solemn representations and strong opposition and insisted on inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to attend an international Buddhist conference organized by the Indian government." Hua Chunying added that the Dalai Lama and Indian Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma inaugurated the conference on March 17, and that the Dalai Lama shared the stage with Indian government officials and gave a speech. Describing it as a "provocation", Wang Dehua, Director of the Institute for Southern and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, told Global Times that "in doing so, India is asking for trouble, worsening the bilateral relations and impeding normal bilateral discussion." Hu Shisheng, Director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies, told Global Times that India deliberately used the Dalai Lama as a "legal excuse" to claim the disputed (Arunachal Pradesh) region. He said India has been bolder to follow the US, considering that its rhetoric on the Tibet question is increasingly intensifying when many Western countries are playing it down.
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