BEIJING - China on Wednesday expressed strong discontent with and firm opposition to US President George W. Bush's meeting with some anti-China persons, saying the move sent a "seriously wrong" message to anti-China forces.

    Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao made the remarks when asked by a journalist to respond to the report that Bush met on Tuesday with Rebiya Kadeer, Wei Jingsheng and some other anti-China persons.

    "These people have since long been engaged in anti-China splittism activities and hostile sabotage activities under the banner of so-called 'human rights and religion', which have harmed China's national security and social stability," said Liu.

    "By arranging such a meeting between its leader and these people and making irresponsible remarks on China's human rights and religious situation, the US side has rudely interfered in China's internal affairs and sent a seriously wrong message to the anti-China hostile forces," he said.

    "We expressed strong discontent with and firm opposition to this," he added.

    He said China urged the US side to strictly abide by the basic norms of international relations and stop interfering in China's internal affairs with the so-called "human rights" or "religious" issues by any means, and avoid damaging the China-US relations.