China today said French president Nicolas Sarkozy's planned meeting with the Dalai Lama forced it to postpone a China-EU summit.
France has said Mr Sarkozy will meet the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, condemned by China as a separatist, at a December 6th ceremony in Poland to honour former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.
Beijing's response has been vehement, even for an issue that always raises hackles there. It pulled out of a meeting scheduled for Monday in Paris that was to focus on ties between the two sides as they both confront the global financial crisis.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said his government did so because it was "strongly dissatisfied" with Sarkozy's decision to meet the 73-year-old Dalai Lama, who has long campaigned for self-determination for Tibet.
Asked if Mr Sarkozy's move would hurt French commercial stakes in China, Mr Qin did not answer directly. But he said Tibet was a key concern for Beijing and noted that France has major projects in China.
"Tibet issues concern China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, they concern China's core interests, and the Chinese government and people resolutely oppose...foreign leaders engaging in any form of contact with the Dalai Lama," Qin told a regular news conference.
"As it [France] has major interests in China, and the French government and leaders have repeatedly said they are an important partner of China, why they should do this is precisely what the Chinese people don't understand," he later added.
China's withdrawal from the summit could make it harder for the two sides to cooperate on a host of pressing global issues and spill over into a tricky bilateral trade relationship.
"It's a shame because China is a fundamental partner for Europe and Europe is a fundamental partner for China," EU Economic Affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who would have taken part in the summit, told French television channel Canal+.
Asked whether Mr Sarkozy should decline to meet the Dalai Lama, Mr Almunia said: "It's important to have a clean and clear policy on human rights. We can't accept prohibitions or restrictions from our partners on which individuals, which leaders, which parties, which interlocutors we host in Europe."
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said it was disappointed Beijing would make such a move at a time of global financial turmoil and slowing economic growth.
"This is a lost opportunity," the group said in a statement.
"The European Chamber hopes that this will not lead to the rise of economic nationalism in terms of antagonistic and protectionist actions. Consultations in the spirit of respect and openness are needed now more than ever."
China's anger with Mr Sarkozy is the latest dip in an unsteady relationship. Last year, he helped secure the biggest commercial nuclear power contract on record for France's Areva, which agreed to sell China two reactors and to provide atomic fuel for nearly two decades in a deal worth €8 billion.
But earlier this year Mr Sarkozy was the target of widespread Chinese anger after he said his attendance at the Beijing Olympic Games hinged on how China handled unrest that had erupted across Tibean areas. Ties later improved and he attended the Games.
Spokesman Mr Qin said China still wants to work with the EU in addressing global challenges, including the financial crisis and climate change. But he said it was up to France to mend ties by taking "genuine steps" to create a "healthy atmosphere." He would not specify what those steps are.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in the mountainous region, occupied by Chinese troops from 1950. China calls him a "splittist", but the Dalai Lama says he is merely seeking autonomy.
A senior European diplomat in Beijing said Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, at a dinner with former Commission president Romano Prodi on Tuesday, passed on the message that China wanted to remain on good terms with Europe despite the cancellation.
He said China took umbrage not at the meeting itself but the fact that Mr Sarkozy had announced it publicly. They had been "explicit and open" on that point, he said.
The diplomat said the EU had been told that the new "permanent dialogue" with the bloc would continue.