Dalai Lama’s succession ‘internal affair’, China reiterates

China’s Ambassador to India Xu Feihong on Tuesday reiterated that the reincarnation and succession of the 14th Dalai Lama was strictly an internal matter of China.

In a post on X, Xu accused the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, of “deliberately promoting” the idea of reincarnating outside China and alleged that the spiritual leader was using religion as a political tool to divide the country. “This proves the Dalai Lama is a political exile who has long engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion,” Xu wrote.

He further claimed that Tibetan Buddhism originated on China’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and is mainly practised within China. “The lineage of the Dalai Lamas was formed and developed in China’s Tibet region. The conferment of their religious status and titles is the prerogative of China’s central government,” Xu said.

Echoing Xu’s remarks, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Yu Jing also posted on X, citing Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. “The so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ is in no position to represent the people of Xizang (China’s official name for Tibet), and certainly cannot decide the future of Xizang,” Mao Ning had said in a statement on Tuesday.

She added that the affairs of Xizang are purely China’s internal matters and “brook no interference” from external forces.

India