Tibetan official warns Hong Kong stars Faye Wong, Tony Leung against fraternising with ‘splittist’ Dalai Lama
The two leading Hong Kong celebrities as well as mainland Chinese actor Hu Jun earn rebuke from Tibetan official for attending event honouring revered late Buddhist leader
Hong Kong celebrities were warned on Monday to stay away from Dalai Lama and his staff by a senior official of Tibet.
Renowned singer Faye Wong, actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai as well as mainland actor Hu Jun were pictured attending a Buddhist assembly in India with members of the Tibetan government-in-exile last month.
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Wu Yingjie, deputy party secretary of Tibet (西藏), described the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader in exile as a “defector, separatist, and [one who is] jeopardising Tibet’s stable development” to reporters during the annual parliamentary session.
The 14th Dalai Lama fled to India when he was 23 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and has since lived there. His followers formed a self-claimed Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, which is accused by Beijing of trying to split Tibet from the mainland.
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“We firmly oppose all celebrities, however influential they are, and whatever purpose they have, to make any contact with the 14th Dalai clique, or even help him spread his ideas,” said Wu on the sideline of the National People’s Congress.
