Beijing, Jul 18 (IANS): US President Barack Obama's weekend meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has undermined the US's status as a major world power, a state-run Chinese daily has said.

People's Daily newspaper said in an opinion piece published in its Monday edition that Obama's weekend meeting with the Dalai Lama was an "unscrupulous trick of pragmatism" and that the move has undermined the US's status as a major world power, reported Xinhua.

After the Dalai Lama met Obama Saturday, the White House said the US "encourages direct dialogue to resolve long-standing differences and that a dialogue that produces positive results for China and Tibetans".

The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959, lives in India.

The article cited by Xinhua said that Obama's meeting with the Dalai Lama has grossly interfered in China's internal affairs.

It added that by objecting to the US president's meeting with the Dalai Lama, China is not only safeguarding its own core interests, but is also respecting the principle of non-interference in each other's domestic affairs, a basic norm of international relations.

"Tibet's peaceful liberation and democratic reform was a major historic event, with significance comparable to the liberation of black slaves in America, the abolition of slavery in Europe and the end of the apartheid system in South Africa," the article said.

It went on to say that those who are knowledgeable of history know that the old Tibet, as it was ruled under the Dalai Lama, used a feudal serf system that wasn't abolished until the 1950s.

The article also said that "American pragmatists" are using the meeting as a political tool, failing to see the great progress that Tibet has made since its peaceful liberation and democratic reform.