China Livid at Dalai Lama Award

China called the US ambassador on the carpet today, saying that the US had "gravely undermined relations" when President Bush yesterday presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters that DC is "very aware of what steps it can take" to correct the rift and accused the Dalai Lama of "manipulating Tibetans."

Exiled from Tibet since 1959, the Dalai Lama told a packed Congressional auditorium yesterday that he simply sought improved relations with China leading to partial autonomy. Bush himself urged China to open talks with him—which elicited an icy response from the foreign ministry spokesman: "I do not find any sincerity in him." (More Dalai Lama stories.)