China has criticized the Dalai Lama's "separatist activities" in Japan and alleged collusion with Japanese right-wing forces in a new attack on the Tibetan spiritual leader.
"Dalai's poor performance again revealed his reactionary nature of betraying his motherland and splitting China apart under the disguise of religion," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Monday.
According to Xinhua, Hong was responding to reports of the Dalai Lama using "Senkaku", the Japanese name of the disputed Diaoyu Islands, at a news conference in Yokohama, Japan.
China and Japan are locked in a bitter row over the islands.
"To achieve his separatist goal, Dalai associated with the Japanese right-wing forces. Chinese people despise him for what he did," Hong said.
"China firmly opposes the provision of platforms by any country or any person to Dalai's separatist activities in any form."
The right-wing forces in Japan seek to win international support over its territorial stance through the Dalai Lama's visit, said Huo Jiangang, an expert on Japanese studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
"The double-faced Dalai always likes to say something nice to the international community to fake his peaceful image, but what he did is merely to boost his personal influence by meddling in the tension over the Diaoyu Islands," Xinhua quoted Huo as saying.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after Chinese Communist troops took control of the region. Since then, the Tibetan leader has lived in India in self-imposed exile.