Some overseas Chinese have criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington on Thursday. They said splitting Tibet from China is the Dalai Lama's real intention for the meeting.

Du Ping is a Singaporean expert on international relations. He told Xinhua News Agency the Dalai Lama has made a point of meeting Western political leaders. Du said the real intention is to keep the "Tibetan issue" in the news, raising funds and seek more room to maneuver.

Du said without support from the West, the Dalai Lama's personal influence will be greatly weakened.

He also said the meetings between successive U.S. presidents and the Dalai Lama lack international moral basis and common sense.

Criticism has also been launched in an open letter to the U.S. Embassy in Madrid. Representatives of more than 20 ethnic Chinese organizations in Spain said the Dalai Lama has never ceased his activities to split China since fleeing abroad in 1959.

The letter urges people in Western countries not to be misled by the Dalai Lama, nor to fail to see through his real motive of secession.

(CCTV.com February 21, 2010)