Prince Charles no show at Beijing Olympics

London, Jan 28 (UNI) Prince Charles has snubbed the Chinese government by refusing to attend the Olympic Games this summer.

The Prince made his decision known to campaigners for a free Tibet, who had been calling on him to show solidarity with those who believe the Games risk obscuring China's human rights record, the Daily Telegraph reported today.

''You asked if the Prince of Wales would be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His Royal Highness will not be attending the ceremony,'' a letter, written to the Free Tibet Campaign said.

Separately, the Prince's staff have made clear he will not be attending the Games at any stage during the summer.

However, the Prince neither gave any reason for his decision nor did he say whether he had received a formal invitation.

The Prince of Wales has long had a frosty relationship with the Chinese, culminating in the leak of diaries written at the time of the Hong Kong handover in 1997 in which he referred to senior officials participating as ''appalling old waxworks''.

He is an admirer of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' spiritual leader who has been in exile since an uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959.

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