China protests meeting between US official, Dalai Lama

China's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday protested a meeting between a U.S. official and the Dalai Lama as interference in its internal affairs.

The rebuke came one day after Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky met with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to discuss recent anti-government protests in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and in Tibetan communities in Western China.

"This is a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations and interference into our internal affairs," ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

"We urge the U.S. side to ... stop indulging and supporting the Dalai …