BERLIN, May 30 – Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer reaffirmed Germany’s “One-China” policy Friday during a meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic, a spokesman said.
“The German government considers, like its European Union partners, that Tibet is part of the state of China,” foreign ministry spokesman Walter Lindner said.
He said however that Fischer had assured the Tibetan spiritual leader that Germany supported “Tibetan demands for religious and cultural autonomy.”
The Dalai Lama and his followers fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and set up base in Dharamsala, a hill station in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
He won the Nobel Peace Prize three decades later for his non-violent opposition to Beijing’s presence in Tibet.
He is now seeking Tibetan autonomy within China rather than independence and has been publicly supportive of re-engaging with Beijing.
China, which has occupied Tibet since 1951, has been accused of trying to wipe out Tibet’s Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression and a flood of ethnic Chinese immigration.
The Dalai Lama is in Berlin to take part in the ecumenical festival bringing together Germany’s Protestant and Catholic churches for the first time.
China is Germany’s most important export market.
