TOKYO—Tibet has become an international issue, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda told visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Friday, challenging Beijing's repeated assertions that it is a domestic matter.
Asked during his visit about recent riots in the region and the subsequent clampdown by the Chinese regime, Yang has repeatedly said it is a domestic matter and blamed the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader, for the lack of dialogue.
Yang said he wanted Fukuda to understand the true nature of the Dalai Lama, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement about the meeting.
"Prime Minister Fukuda stated our country's position and said it was necessary to face the fact that it had become an international problem and that he wanted China to do all in its power to make sure it does not affect the Olympics," the statement said.
Fukuda added that Japanese police would guard the Olympic flame carefully during the torch relay set for April 26 in the city of Nagano, the statement said."
The relay has descended into chaos in some countries as pro-Tibet demonstrators tried to put out the flame.
No Welcome for Chinese Paramilitary
Japan has already made clear it will not welcome the blue-clad Chinese paramilitary guards who have been criticised elsewhere as being heavy-handed in their guarding of the torch.
Yang thanked Fukuda for his support of the Beijing Olympics. He added that the Chinese regime was open to talks with the Dalai Lama if he abandoned separatism, violence and efforts to disrupt the Olympics, the ministry's statement said.
Yang's visit is intended to pave the way for a trip by Hu Jintao next month, which will be the first to Japan by a Chinese leader in a decade, but it has been overshadowed by the issue of Tibet.
Yang complained in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura on Thursday that Japan was the only Asian country to make demands on the issue, domestic media quoted Komura as saying.
The Buddhist Zenkoji temple in Nagano on Friday said it had decided not to host the start of the city's Olympic relay, partly because it had received many messages of concern about Tibet, an official said.
Edited by The Epoch Times
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