The Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a separatist, has said it is too early to know whether his protest-hit Taiwan visit this week had hurt the self-ruled island's ties with rival China, Reuters reported.
The world-renowned Tibetan spiritual leader told government-run Taiwan Public Television on Wednesday that no one had "manipulated the visit" for political reasons.
Whether his visit had hurt Taiwan's recently improved ties with China was "too early to tell," and would take six to 12 months to find out, he said in a rare political comment on a trip focused mostly on religion.
His August 30-September 4 visit to Taiwan has focused on prayers for victims of a typhoon that killed up to 745 people last month.
Beijing has avoided criticizing Taiwan's president, who is friendly to China and permitted the Dalai Lama's visit only under pressure from opposition leaders, but has delayed some exchanges and canceled minor events with Taiwan.
Dozens of rowdy protesters from a coalition of political groups stood outside the Dalai Lama's Taipei hotel on Wednesday and Thursday demanding he leave early.
"There's definitely a negative impact on ties with China. How deep it goes we must wait to see," said protest organizer Wang Chuan-ping. "If there weren't voices calling for an independent Tibet and an independent Taiwan, we'd welcome the Dalai Lama."
China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
Taiwan has worked with China since mid-2008 to ease hostilities by establishing trade and transit links.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He has visited Taiwan twice before.
Beijing calls him a "splittist" who seeks to separate nearly a quarter of the land mass of the People's Republic of China. The Dalai Lama denies the charge and says he seeks greater rights, including religious freedom and autonomy, for Tibetans.
In a recent sign of China's sensitivity toward Tibet, Tibetan documentary maker Dhondup Wangchen is awaiting trial for "inciting separatism" in Qinghai province, which is partly ethnic Tibetan, according to a petition obtained by Reuters.
Chinese authorities have forced his lawyers to stop representing him, casting doubts over the fairness of his trial, the petition said.
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