BEIJING - China has blasted a State Department report that criticized its controls on religion, saying Thursday that the document was prejudiced and an attempt to meddle in domestic affairs.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry's condemnation of the International Religious Freedom Report released this week was predictable -- and the latest reminder of how human rights issues remain a chronic irritant between Washington and Beijing.

The annual report issued Monday found a "marked deterioration" in state respect for religious freedom in China in 2011, and cited tighter restrictions on religion, especially in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei adamantly disagreed.

"Chinese people of every ethnicity enjoy full freedom of religion and faith," Hong said in comments issued on the ministry's website.

"The U.S. side should abandon its prejudices," he said.

"Stop exploiting religious issues to meddle in China's internal affairs, and don't do things that harm Sino-American relations and mutual trust and cooperation," he added.

A stressed relationship
Tension between China and the United States spans issues such as the U.S. trade deficit, American arms sales to Taiwan, and mutual wariness over regional intentions and military plans.

Behind the Wall: Full coverage of China on NBCNews.com

U.S. criticism in the report included a claim that "official interference in the practice of these religious traditions exacerbated grievances and contributed to at least 12 self-immolations by Tibetans in 2011."

Since March 2011, there have been more than 40 self-immolations by Tibetans, including Buddhist monks and nuns, reflecting anger over Chinese controls.

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The Chinese government faces challenges by Buddhist Tibetans, who revere the Dalai Lama and support Tibetan independence; members of the Islamic Uighur minority in northwest Xinjiang Province who protest Chinese rule; the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual sect, which authorities accuse of practicing a dangerous cult in the guise of promoting health exercises; and the many underground house churches and religious believers, including Catholics who recognize the authority of the Vatican, who are not part of the officially-sanctioned churches.

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The rift between Beijing and the Vatican was dramatized again last month when a Shanghai bishop, ordained with the Vatican's approval, was taken away by officials after he declared he was quitting the Communist-led Patriotic Catholic Association, according to reports.

After a meeting on human rights in late July, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner said Beijing was moving in the wrong direction on human rights.

Read the full State Department International Religious Freedom Report for 2011

NBC News staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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BEIJING - Hundreds of Tibetans in Lhasa have been detained by Chinese security officers after two self-immolation protests against Chinese rule over Tibet, according to U.S.-funded broadcaster, stoking concerns of spreading unrest among Tibetans in China.

Locals detained are being held in detention centers in and around Lhasa while many of those from outside the Tibet Autonomous Region have been expelled, Radio Free Asia said.

On Sunday, two Tibetan men set themselves on fire in Lhasa, state news agency Xinhua said, the first time in four years of a major Tibetan protest against Chinese rule. One of the men died.

China has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and criminals and has blamed exiled Tibetans and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting them.

Protesters set themselves on fire near temple popular with tourists in Tibet capital

At least 35 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against China's six-decade rule over Tibet, according to Tibetan rights groups. At least 27 have died.

Hao Peng, head of the Communist Party's Commission for Political and Legal Affairs in the Tibet Autonomous Region, has urged authorities to tighten their grip on the Internet and mobile text messaging, reflecting government fears about unrest during a month-long Buddhist festival which started last week.

The move is the latest in a series of measures the government says are intended to maintain stability.

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Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a separatist. The Dalai Lama says he merely seeks greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Two men engulfed themselves in flames outside a temple popular with tourists in Lhasa – the first time such protests at Chinese rule have reached the tightly-guarded Tibetan capital.

The self-immolations are thought to be the first in Lhasa and the second inside Tibet, the BBC reported Monday.

One of the men died and the other was hospitalized after they set themselves on fire Sunday outside the Jokhang Temple, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

From March: Tibetan man sets himself on fire

At least 34 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 in protest against China's six-decade rule over Tibet, according to Tibetan rights groups. At least 24 have died, Reuters reported.

Turmoil builds in Tibet

China has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and criminals and has blamed exiled Tibetans and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting them.

Grisly videos of the self-immolation are regularly posted on activist websites such as Free Tibet.

Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a separatist. The Dalai Lama says he merely seeks greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

Slideshow: The Dalai Lama

Harish Tyagi / EPA

See images of the life of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14 Dalai Lama and exiled spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists.

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China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries until Chinese troops invaded in the 1950s.

Protests have become rare in remote Tibet and Lhasa in particular because of tight police security that has blanketed the area since anti-government riots erupted in Lhasa in 2008, the Associated Press reported.

China struggles to contain wave of defiance in Tibet

Chinese authorities have confirmed some of the self-immolations over the past year but not all.

The twin immolations in the heart of Tibetan capital are certain to embarrass the region's communist leadership, who have pledged to make social stability and ethnic unity top priorities. That mandate is especially pressing this year as China prepares for a once-a-decade leadership transition in the fall and doesn't want the occasion undermined.

U.S.-funded radio broadcaster Voice of America said the two men worked at a Lhasa restaurant called Nyima Ling. It identified one of the men as 19-year-old Dorjee Tseten but was unable to give the name or age of the other.

Dalai Lama donates $1.7 million prize to charity

"This was the first time it has happened in Lhasa — and right in the middle of Lhasa," said Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan poet and one of the most prominent activists living in India.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The Dalai Lama received the 2012 Templeton Prize for his work linking science and wider questions of faith and religion.

The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader was awarded the prize, which comes with $1.7 million, Monday at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

About $1.4 million will go to Save the Children in India, with about $200,000 set aside for The Minds and Life Institute, a non-profit that researches the partnership between modern science and Buddhism.

Dalai Lama receives 2012 Templeton Prize, gives away $1.7 million award

"We are honored to accept this generous humanitarian gift, which will be used to save the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable children," Save the Children's chief executive Justin Forsyth said in a statement.

According to Forsyth, the funds will be used for programs tackling malnutrition in India.

"This donation will be used practically, to help many more children survive, grow and, as the Dalai Lama said, realize their full potential," Forsyth said.

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The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, has won $1.7 million after being awarded the 2012 Templeton Prize for his work linking science and wider questions of faith and religion.

Tenzin Gyatso, 76, the 14th Dalai Lama, will be presented with his award at a ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London in May.

The Tibetan monk, believed by his followers to be the reincarnation of an ancient Buddhist leader, has not yet said how intends to spend the cash.

The prize comes at a time of heightened tension between Tibetans and Chinese authorities.

China boosts security in Tibet following protests

In a video response on the John Templeton Foundation website, he described the award as recognition of his “little service to humanity."

John Templeton Jr., son of the late prize founder, said the Dalai Lama “offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centers on every single human being."

Q&A: The Dalai Lama, Tibet and China

The foundation said the prize is the world's largest annual monetary award given to an individual.

The Dalai Lama, who has both a Facebook and a Twitter account, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

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A Tibetan man died when detonating a bomb in a government building in western China over the weekend, Radio Free Asia reported.

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The man identified as Tashi, 32, part of the large Tibetan minority population concentrated in the western province of Sichuan, targeted a building used to monitor local residents, the report on Monday said, citing India-based Tibetans with contacts in the area.

"He died in the explosion that also damaged the building. The extent of damage on the government building is not clear," an India-based friend of Tashi told RFA.

The report did not say whether there were other people or casualties in the building at the time, nor report the extent of the damage to the building.

The state-controlled media in China normally does not report on ethnic unrest, so reports like this one typically get out by word of mouth. Radio Free Asia is a U.S. government broadcaster that beams news into undemocratic countries in the region.

Such acts of violence are rare in Tibet and Tibetan-populated areas, though the conflict with the Han Chinese authorities has been more severe since 2008, when a series of protests and demonstrations spread from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to other Tibetan areas and descended into rioting. The violence was largely aimed at Han civilians and was harshly suppressed by China’s paramilitary. The clashes left at least 10 dead officially and dozens more wounded — though some Tibet watchers say that the casualties were many times higher and that thousands of Tibetans have been arrested.

A more common form of protest among Tibetans has been self-immolation. According to records kept by The International Campaign for Tibet, a group advocating for human rights and democracy in Tibet, 10 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the months of January and February alone.

China severely represses actions or expressions of support for Tibetan independence. The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetans, fled in the early days of China’s Communist rule, where he has lived in exile ever since.

Ethnic tensions have increased in the past decade with Beijing’s "Open up the West" economic development campaign which has systematically increased the population Han Chinese living in traditionally Tibetan and other minority areas.

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