Chinese official warns against supporting Dalai Lama

BEIJING, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Chinese Communist Party members loyal to the Dalai Lama will be punished, a senior official warned Wednesday.

Internal party discipline watchdog Ye Dongsong, in the English-language Communist Party newspaper Global Times, said Tibetan authorities should focus on "neutralizing separatists and maintaining social stability."

The People's Daily, another state-run newspaper, quoted Chen Quanguo, party chief in Tibet, on Wednesday threatening followers of the 14th Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959.

"Party members, especially leading cadres, at all levels must safeguard the unity of the motherland. Cadres who harbor fantasies about the 14th Dalai Group, follow the 14th Dalai Group, and participate in supporting separatist infiltration sabotage activities, will be strictly and severely punished according to the law and party disciplinary measures."

The warnings came after reports of adherence to the religious leader came from the watchdog agency Central Commission for Discipline Inspection after inspectors visited Tibet, the People's Daily said.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is regarded as a terrorist by the Beijing government. Over 130 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 in suicide protests against Chinese rule and what they regard as government suppression of religion.