A top US senator has issued a warning towards the China for interfering in the Dalai Lama’s succession. With growing interest from Beijing authorities in appointing its own candidate to the succeed as the reincarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the traditional Tibetan religious process is being highly politicized by China.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama living in India has reached an advanced age as he will be celebrating his 85th birthday next month. As early as 2011, the Chinese foreign ministry declared that only the government in Beijing can appoint the next Dalai Lama and no other succession candidate would be given any recognition. This was unanimously opposed by the spiritual leader himself as well as leading governments such as US, UK, EU, etc.
On Wednesday, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho has slammed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for “seeking to interfere in the succession of the next Dalai Lama” which he warned would “undermine the religious freedoms of Buddhist practitioners around the world”. He has further added that the communist regime is targeting all religions.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) targets all religions. From destroying Christian houses of worship, to imprisoning millions of Uyghur Muslims, the CCP goes to great lengths to silence religious groups.” he said in the statement by adding that China is one of the most “egregious cases” of nations denying a citizen’s basic freedom to practice one’s religion, following the State Department’s release of its annual International Religious Freedom Report.
The annual report published on 10 June, features an exclusive 29-page review on the state of religious freedom in Tibet [2019] and long-festering issues such as the UFWD controlling the selection of Tibetan religious leaders and the state control over all aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, including religious venues, groups, personnel, and schools, according to the Tibet.net.
Senator Risch is chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Tibetan Policy and Support Act 2019, which will make it official US policy that only His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist community can determine his succession. If any Chinese officials try to name their own Dalai Lama in the future, they will face sanctions from the US government under the bill.
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