Protests in Tibet over Beijing's rule spread to neighbouring parts of China in March, after days of demonstrations and violence in Tibet's main city, Lhasa. Rights groups said several people had been killed in the clashes.

'We need better crisis management and media relations. We should respond rapidly and quickly when something happen', said the embassy's minister-counsellor and deputy head of mission Lirong Zhang.

Zhang was speaking at the IPRA Summit in London this week.

Referring to the recent protests in the Tibetan town of Lhasa, he said 'there was a few days interval between the official comment and the event.'

'An official response would have helped the outside world know better about what happened in Lhasa', he said.

But he also said the Western media 'should report according to the truth. They used some of the wrong pictures and their reporting didn’t coincide with fact'.