WASHINGTON, D.C.: US Ambassador to China Gary Locke urged Beijing on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) to re-examine policies toward Tibetans as he acknowledged that he had quietly visited monasteries during a spate of self-immolation protests.

Speaking from Beijing to an online forum in the United States, Locke said that he had stopped at monasteries last month in the flashpoint Aba prefecture to “get an appreciation of Tibetan culture and the way of life.”

Aba, an ethnically Tibetan area of China’s Sichuan province, has been a hotbed of protests against Beijing’s rule. Some 60 ethnic Tibetans, many of them monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire since February 2009 in Sichuan and Tibet.

“We implore the Chinese to really meet with the representatives of the Tibetan people to address and re-examine some of the policies that have led to some of the restrictions and the violence and the self-immolations,” Locke said.

“We have very serious concerns about the violence, of the self-immolations, that have occurred over the last several years,” he added, calling the incidents “very deplorable.”

“Nobody wants that type of action, or of people having to resort to that type of action. Too many deaths,” the envoy said, and called on China to show respect for the Tibetans’ religion, culture and language.

The United States has repeatedly urged China to address Tibetan grievances, but it is very rare for foreign officials or the media to visit Tibetan areas on unsupervised trips.

In previous statements, Washington has urged China’s leaders to resume dialogue with Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 and enjoys strong public support in the United States.

China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday re-jected what it called foreign interference and repeated its claim that the “Dalai group” is responsible for “instigating and masterminding” self-immolations.

“At the same time I want to point out that Tibetan affairs are China’s internal affairs,” said spokesman Hong Lei. “We oppose any country or any person interfering in China’s internal affairs in any form.”

Promote human rights
The details of Locke’s visit emerged as US President Barack Obama’s administration looks for new ways to promote human rights in China, which regularly lashes out at Wa-shington’s condemnation of its record.

Obama has faced election-year criticism from Republican rivals, who have urged him to be more outspoken on Beijing’s human rights record and its trade and currency practices.

But US officials cite as a success the quiet diplomacy in May that led China to allow dissident Chen Guangcheng to move to New York City.

Locke, who was responding to a question as part of a “China Town Hall” with citizens in 60 cities across the United States, said that he visited Aba prefecture after a trip to the major cities in Sichuan, where he promoted US businesses.

Seven self-immolation protests were reported last week alone among Tibetans, many of whom accuse China of suppressing their culture. Few of the Tibetans who have set themselves on fire are believed to have survived.

The US State Department’s annual human rights reports say that China has denied the political and religious rights of Tibetans. China rejects the charges and says that it has brought investment and modernization to Tibet.