Beijing ? The Dalai Lama tried to hold a rare direct conversation with people inside China on Friday, answering questions live on Twitter about the fate of long-tense Tibet.

The hourlong session with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had been requested by Wang Lixiong, a Chinese writer and convert to Tibetan Buddhism who lives in Beijing. The two met for Friday’s online conversation in a hotel room in New York, where the Dalai Lama is visiting.

Through a Chinese interpreter, the Dalai Lama tweeted messages of criticism about the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and words of welcome to Chinese citizens.

“The government made these tensions, not the people,” he said.

It wasn’t clear how many people inside China were reading his comments. Twitter is blocked in China, but the service has become popular with thousands of Chinese, especially activists, who find a way around controls. Wang’s Twitter feed, where the conversation was posted, had more than 8,000 followers as of Friday night.