China warns US over Dalai Lama meeting as Tibet talks hit another stalemate

China warned the US on Tuesday that a possible meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama would damage ties between the two countries.

Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee made the remark after a meeting between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys.

According to Zhu, little progress was made in the talks aimed at ironing out the differences between the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Chinese central government.

Responding to reports that President Obama was planning to meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader, Zhu said that if the meeting went ahead, “there would be corresponding action,” according to the BBC.

"If [the meeting] does happen we will take corresponding action to make relevant countries see their mistakes," he said.

Beijing, which is resolutely opposed to the Dalai Lama's calls for a high level of autonomy for the Himalayan region, maintains that the meeting would seriously undermine China-US political relations, the BBC says.

These comments come just a week after Beijing voiced its strong opposition to US sales of military equipment to Taiwan.

Beijing has held talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives on nine occasions since 2002, but there has been very little progress, the BBC says.

"The positions of the two sides are sharply divided. We have become accustomed to this - this has become a norm rather than an exception," the BBC quotes Zhu as saying.

According to the BBC, the Tibetan side continues to press Beijing to grant more autonomy to the region.

But Zhu said there was no possibility of the "slightest compromise" on the issue. In addition, he urged the Dalai Lama, who maintains that his demand for more autonomy for Tibet is in line with the Chinese constitution, to “correct his political position” if he wanted anything more to come out of the dialog.

But he also said the talks had been positive in that they helped each side to clarify their positions. In addition, the central government had promised to arrange trips for the Tibetan envoys to visit central Hunan Province to better understand the country and the ethnic autonomy policy, according to China.org.cn.

A spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile, Thubten Samphel, told VOANews that they were nevertheless encouraged that the talks, which had been suspended for more than a year after the meeting in November 2008, have resumed.

"The fact that this meeting took place, it's a positive indication. And, before the meeting there was this top-level conference presided over by President Hu Jintao on the issue of Tibet. So, from our side, we feel it is a positive signal being sent," VOANews quotes Samphell as saying.