CHINA has reacted angrily to yesterday's award by the European Parliament of the 1996 Sakharov prize for freedom of thought to the imprisoned Chinese dissident, Wei Jingsheng.
The EU ambassador to China, Mr Endymion Wilkinson, was called in by the Foreign Ministry to hear an angry denunciation of the award, and of a meeting between EU officials and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, diplomatic sources said.
Wei Jingsheng has spent most of the last 20 years in prison for speaking out on human rights and last December was given a further 14 year sentence.
The 15,000 ecu (c.£10,000)
prize, named after the Soviet dissident, Andrei Sakharov, will be awarded in Strasbourg in December.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a rising against China, told a news conference in Strasbourg he was not seeking independence from China but constructive engagement.
Three European Parliament Socialist group members, including the Irish Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, will arrive in China tomorrow and are expected to visit Tibet.