PARIS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Alain Destrem, a councillor, on Tuesday criticized the Paris City Council's motion to hang a Tibetan flag in front of the City Hall, which he said would harm China-French relations.

    In January 2006, the council adopted a motion to hang a Tibetan flag every March 10.

Paris councillor Alain Destrem (2nd R) speaks in front of the City Hall in Paris, March 10, 2009. Destrem condemned on Tuesday the hanging of the so-called "Tibet independence" flag in front of the Paris City Hall on March 10 every year, which rampantly intervenes in China's internal affairs and hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.(Xinhua/Zhang Yuwei) Photo Gallery>>>

    "The motion could only end in two results: hurting the Chinese people's feelings and feeding the French press," Destrem, who is also vice president of the ruling UMP party, said during a council debate.

    The Tibetan region is an integral part of China, he said. "What will you say if Chinese authorities constantly interfere in France's internal political affairs? What will you think if, for example, the Chinese government constantly tells France how to handle a crisis in its overseas territories?"

    He asked the council to remove the Tibetan flag, which is a "provocation" to the Chinese.

    Hours later, two people of Chinese origin arrived in front of the City Hall, and tore down the Tibetan flag in order to express their indignation toward the City Council's interference in China's internal affairs.

    Destrem was pleased with the act. "I will file, in the name of myself and in the name of an elected Parisian, an anti-motion of the January 2006 one, because such useless provocations should be abolished," he said.

    On March 10, 1959, the Dalai Lama and his supporters launched an armed rebellion in Tibet to block reform of the feudal serfdom there and split the region from China, but the Chinese central government swiftly foiled the attempt.

What a hell of Dalai Lama's crisis management? 

     BEIJING, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Enjoying celebrity like a Hollywood star, the Dalai Lama can by no means be too patient for only one day to the negligence of world media which are occupied by economic concerns since the global financial crisis.

     His time to shine comes in March, an eventful month in Tibetan history. The aura around him captured limelight again when on Tuesday he, with his supernatural power as a divine monk, turned a happy land into "hell on earth." Full story

For whom is Tibet a "hell on earth"?

     LHASA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Tuesday is a special date for Tibetans. For the 2.8 million residents in the southwest China autonomous region, it marks 50 years since feudal serfdom was abolished; but for the 14th Dalai Lama and his "government-in-exile," it marks five decades of futile attempts at independence.

     Fifty years after he fled China and having failed time and again to foment widespread unrest in Tibet and other Tibetan communities in western China, the Dalai Lama is apparently at his wit's end. Full story

Dalai Lama is not qualified for talking about human rights

    BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- As the most unstable element for Tibet and representative of serf owners, the Dalai Lama is not qualified for talking about human rights, said a senior official here Friday afternoon.

    "There is no historical evidence or present ground for the so called 'Greater Tibet' and 'high degree of autonomy', which are also against the will of the Tibetan people," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told a press conference on sideline with the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC).

Dalai Lama group's sabotage biggest obstacle to Tibet's development

    BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Sabotage from the Dalai Lama group remains the biggest obstacle in the way of Tibet's development, Lhasa Mayor Doje Cezhug said Friday.

    Doje made the remarks at a panel discussion of lawmakers from Tibet.

China says door for talks open to Dalai Lama

    BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday reiterated that its policy on the Dalai Lama was consistent and clear, saying the door for talks remains open.

    "As an effort to accommodate the requests of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese central government held three rounds of talks with private envoys of the Dalai Lama last year," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told the regular briefing.