The Dalai Lama on Tuesday sought to defuse a diplomatic controversy caused by a new book which said the Tibetan spiritual leader and China's President Xi Jinping had agreed to meet in 2014 but India refused to host the event.

In "Defining India - Through Their Eyes", author Sonia Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government scuttled a proposed meeting between the Buddhist leader and Xi in New Delhi out of concern for its relations with China.

The author said that in a 2014 interview, the Dalai Lama explained that Xi had agreed to a meeting but "the Indian government... was a little cautious".

But on Tuesday, the Dalai Lama's office rejected that version of events.

"Although we had proposed a meeting between His Holiness and President Xi Jinping during his visit to India in 2014, the Chinese authorities had not given a definite response," said Chhime R. Chhoekyapa, secretary in the office of the Dalai Lama.

"Therefore, there was no basis for the government of India being cautious of the initiative," he said in a statement.

The 83-year-old Dalai Lama has made India his home since fleeing Tibet in 1959, and has been a thorn in Beijing's side ever since.

India, which gave the Dalai Lama asylum in 1959, has supported the Tibetan leader but has recently been more distant, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

The Dalai Lama no longer advocates independence for Tibet but calls for more autonomy instead.

He has drawn the fury of an increasingly assertive Beijing, which brands him a "wolf in a monk's robe" and accuses him of trying to split China.

Pompeo, meeting Hong Kong democrat, airs concerns on extraditions
Washington (AFP) May 17, 2019 - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday voiced concern over Hong Kong's plans to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland as he met with the city's pre-eminent pro-democracy leader.

The top US diplomat discussed the controversial extradition bill during talks in Washington with a delegation headed by Martin Lee, a founder of Hong Kong's opposition Democratic Party.

Pompeo "expressed concern about the Hong Kong government's proposed amendments to the Fugitive Ordinance law, which threaten Hong Kong's rule of law," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement after the meeting.

"He also expressed support for Hong Kong's longstanding protections of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values, which are guaranteed under the Basic Law," she said.

She was referring to the law that came into effect when Britain handed control of its colony in 1997 to China, which promised a separate political system in the international financial hub that includes greater freedoms.

The extradition plan recently led to scuffles inside Hong Kong's legislature, with critics saying it would mark a significant blow to the city's semi-autonomous status and make it less attractive to foreign investors.

Hong Kong's government is pushing the bill that would allow case-by-case extraditions to any jurisdictions with which it does not already have an agreed treaty -- including mainland China, Macau and Taiwan.

Historically Hong Kong has balked at mainland extraditions because of the opacity of China's criminal justice system and its liberal use of the death penalty.

Lee has frequently taken his message overseas. In 2014, China voiced anger after then US vice president Joe Biden met Lee and reiterated US "longstanding support for democracy in Hong Kong."

In an opinion piece this week in The Washington Post, Lee warned that the extradition law could make Americans and other foreigners "potential hostages to extradition claims driven by the political agenda of Beijing."

"The time for the world to act to protect Hong Kong's free society and legal system is now -- not when Hong Kong people and others are taken to be jailed in China," he wrote.

A recent report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory body set up by the US Congress, warned that the extradition bill posed "serious" security risks to the estimated 85,000 US citizens in Hong Kong.

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Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong sent back to jail
Hong Kong (AFP) May 16, 2019
Prominent Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong was sent back to prison Thursday after he lost an attempt to quash a jail sentence over his leadership of huge democracy protests five years ago. Wong, 22, became one of the most recognisable faces of the "Umbrella Movement" in 2014 which paralysed key intersections of the financial hub for more than two months. Protesters were demanding a greater say in how the city is run, including the right for Hong Kongers to directly elect the city's leader. ... read more