China should respect democracy: Australia

Canberra, June 13: Australia demanded that China respect its democracy and said Tibet's Dalai Lama was welcome in the country any time, despite a dressing down from Beijing over the exiled spiritual leader's current visit.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Dalai Lama, who is on a 11-day visit, was a significant religious figure and it was up to Australians to decide which world figures they met.

Prime Minister John Howard is scheduled to meet the Buddhist leader in Sydney on Friday.

''China has a very different political system from Australia.

I've asked the Chinese to respect the way our culture and our political system works,'' Downer told Australian television.

''It's just not a proposition for us to refuse to give someone like the Dalai Lama a visa to visit Australia.'' The Chinese Foreign Ministry said yesteday that the Dalai Lama's Australian tour could harm bilateral ties. China is now Canberra's biggest trading partner and commodity export customer.

Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the Dalai Lama was not a purely religious figure, but a long-term political exile who engages in separatism and ethnic sabotage of Chinese unity.

''We express our strong dissatisfaction and stern representations over Australia ignoring China and insisting on allowing the Dalai to engage in activities in Australia,'' Qin said.

Downer said that while the Dalai Lama was always welcome in Australia, it did not mean that Australia failed to recognise Chinese sovereignty over Tibet or other political issues.

''Obviously, while he's in our country we'll make up our own minds who meets with him. It's simply a matter of us in a liberal democracy meeting people who are of broad international significance as religious leaders,'' he said.

On Tuesday the Dalai Lama warned major nations not to try to contain China's economic and military rise, and urged countries like Australia to use their trading clout to pressure Beijing on human rights.

Australia's statistics office said in May the nation's trade with China had hit A 52.7 billion dollar (44.3 billion dollar) in the year to March, surpassing bilateral exchanges with Japan as energy-hungry China's demand for Australian resources continued.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, fled into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule.

Reuters>