Dalai Lama criticises China over its Nobel opposition

The Dalai Lama has criticised China's opposition to the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said the Chinese government did "not appreciate different opinionsm," reports BBC News.

Building an open society was "the only way to save all people of China," he told Japanese media.

Mr Liu was a key figure in the protests. He was also involved in drafting Charter 08 two years ago - a document which called for multi-party democracy and respect for human rights in China.

In 2009 he was jailed for 11 years for "inciting subversion".

The Dalai Lama, who won the peace prize in 1989, said China's government "must change." He made his comments to Kyodo news agency, while passing through Tokyo's airport on his way to the US from India.

Meanwhile, human rights groups say that Mr Liu's wife, Liu Xia, has been placed under house arrest. Freedom Now, a US group, said she had not been able to leave her home since visiting her husband in jail on Sunday.

Journalists outside her home have not been allowed to speak to her, and her phone also appears to have been cut off.

There are also reports that more political activists in Beijing have had their movements restricted, including Zhou Duo, who was with Mr Liu during the Tiananmen Square protests.