China will decide the successor to Dalai Lama: New White Paper claims

You have to hand it to China! Whenever, they feel that major issues whichaffect their status, prestige and security a White Paper is issued. This year is no different for they have issued (21 May 2021) another White Paper on Tibet titled “Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity”. The titl itself is a euphemism for propaganda and disinformation as the world is aware that all terms used are nowhere close to the reality of the process. Liberation it certainly wasn’t – Liberation from whom? And for what? Next, comes development, it is development for China, not for Tibet, development for the sake of harnessing Tibet’s natural resources and rivers for the Han people, not for Tibetans. Finally, prosperity. For whom? One may well ask. Definitely, not for the Tibetan people, who were once an independent nation, now living in a state of perpetual fear and under surveillance.
 

The May 2021 publication of the White Paper on Tibet is notable for having provided an overview of Tibet’s history, with ‘Chinese characteristics’ and informing us of the so-called religious and cultural freedom enjoyed by the
Tibetans. Socio-economic development in Tibet is highlighted in terms of the roads and railways constructed since 1951. Undoubtedly, these are world class facilities, but not meant for Tibetans, but for the rapid movement of
military forces from the mainland towards the Indian border as was witnessed last year when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) undertook an aggressive military posture.
 
Remarkably, the White Paper claims, contrary to known facts that by the end of 2019, “all the 628,000 registered poor and 74 designated poor counties in Tibet had risen from poverty, marking the end of absolute poverty in Tibet for the first time in history.” What the Chinese will not tell you is that they did this by “forced labour train and transfer” programmes. The underlying premise is that Tibetans are poor because their culture is backward and to advance, they must embrace Chinese culture and system. This colonial ‘civilizing’ mission is being carried out by an army of Communist Party cadres and security agents, including the PLA. Under this plan, more than two-thirds of the Tibetan population have been forcibly resettled and provided with a government subsidy to build a new house. But in many cases, the amount of money provided has not been enough to pay for the construction. Many impoverished Tibetans have thus been forced to go into debt.  

Many resettled farmers have lost their source of livelihood and are struggling to find other ways to earn a living. A lot of Tibetans are now completely dependent on government subsidies.
 
Face with incessant criticism from the West, particularly the US about the disappearance of the Tibetan culture and identity, the latest White Paper, states “The State respects and protects the rights of all ethnic groups in Tibet
to live and conduct social activities in accordance with traditional customs and habits”. Which is fair enough but conveniently discounts the large-scale destruction of monasteries in the 1950s and 1960s, control of monastic life through committees, monitoring and surveillance of religious life as introduced by Chen Quanguo. The newly elected Sikyong of the Tibetan government in exile, Penpa Tsering recently (22 May 2021) stated that there
is an urgent threat of “cultural genocide” in Tibet and warned that the international community must stand up to China before it hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics.
 
Fundamental to China’s way in Tibet is to establish control over culture, religion and Tibetan identity. That is why they are constantly attacking the Dalai Lama, who currently lives in India. The White Paper rubbishes the
“Middle Way” propagated by the Dalai Lama and accuses (historically correct) the US of supporting the Tibetans in their quest for freedom in the 1950s. The White Paper also claims that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other grand Living Buddhas has been subjected to approval by the central government since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), adding that by 2020, ninety- two reincarnated Living Buddhas had been identified and approved through traditional religious rituals and historical conventions.
 
The Qing dynasty ordinance stipulated that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other grand Living Buddhas had to follow the procedure of "drawing lots from the golden urn" and that the selected candidate would be subject to approval by the central government of China. This assertion clearly indicates that the Chinese government intends to select its own Dalai Lama, without waiting for the 14th Dalai Lama to select his successor. The Chinese way of doing these things is to plan ahead and, execute the same with deception.
 
Notably, in recent years, the US has enacted legislation that warns China with the threat of sanctions if it interfered in the selection of the next Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 passed by the US Congress makes it official US policy that decisions regarding the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama are exclusively within the authority of the current Dalai Lama, Tibetan
Buddhist leaders and the Tibetan people.
 
Therefore, it is but natural that China would take recourse to the White Paper route to make its claim to identification of the next Dalai Lama. What this indicates is China preparing to identify and announcing its own candidate to be the 15th Dalai Lama in the near future, probably even before the 14th Dalai Lama, chooses to announce his successor. Should the Dalai Lama decided to pick his successor or announce such a decision as he did in the case of the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995, then it is likely that China will then make public its own candidate.
 
China is thus not only signalling to its own people, but to the international community that it intends to do as it thinks appropriate in Tibet. The White Paper is really an articulation of this bravado that since 1951, it has Hanised, colonized and destroyed the cultural and religious identity of Tibet. By blaming the US and India for historically promoting separatism in Tibet, China has thrown the gauntlet on the battlefield. The question however, is whether the US and India are willing to pick up the gauntlet? The answer must remain shrouded in mystery till the two powers decided to cooperate again on Tibet!