Dalai Lama's retirement is a trick, says China

Beijing accuses Tibetan spiritual leader of seeking to split the country, claiming he is using religion as a disguise

guardian.co.uk, Tania Branigan in Beijing, Thursday 10 March 2011

Dalai Lama: Tibetan exiles are keen to anticipate the moves Chinese
authorities are likely to make when he dies. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

China has attacked the Dalai Lama's announcement that he will cede his political role as a "trick".

"The Dalai Lama uses religion as a disguise and he is a political exile who has been carrying out separatist activities for a long time," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

"For years he has been expressing his intention to retire. We think these are tricks to deceive the international community."

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split the country, while he says he seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet rather than independence.

Whoever takes over the Dalai Lama's temporal functions, it is hard to imagine China's more than 5 million Tibetans developing the same attachment to a new political leader, particularly a secular one, as they have to him.

Woeser, a Beijing-based Tibetan poet and activist, said: "I think most Tibetan people can understand his decision. As long as he is always Tibetans' religious leader, now, in future and the next life, other things are not important."

Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet said he would continue to be regarded by the Tibetan people as their free spokesperson. "In a sense, the Dalai Lama cannot retire," she added.

The Tibetan emigré community is keen to anticipate the moves Chinese authorities are likely to make when the Dalai Lama dies.

Earlier this week, Qiangba Puncog, formerly the region's governor and now head of the National People's Congress, said the exiled leader retained religious but not political influence in the Tibet.

"Of course there will be some small shockwaves [when he dies] due to religious factors, but we will take that into consideration and will surely guarantee long-term political stability in Tibet," he said, speaking at the rubber-stamp parliament's annual meeting in Beijing.

Beijing insists it has the right to approve the reincarnations of the senior Tibetan monks and has said the next Dalai Lama will be born in China.

But the Dalai Lama has suggested that since he is likely to die in exile, he will also be reincarnated there. Many observers expect to see two individuals with competing claims to succeed him – one chosen by China, the other by the exiles - in a situation akin to the controversy over the Panchen Lama.

In 1995 the Dalai Lama identified a young boy in Tibet as the new incarnation, but Beijing rejected that and the child has not been seen since. Authorities announced a search committee had identified another boy, but many Tibetans refuse to recognise him.

The retirement also raises questions about what will happen to the dialogue between the Dalai Lama's private representatives and Chinese officials - the only form of engagement between the two sides.

The Dalai Lama's private envoys have had repeated and so far fruitless rounds of dialogue with the Chinese government.

But Beijing does not recognise him as speaking for the Tibetan community - and has no dealings with the Tibetan administration in exile.

Calls to the united front work department, which oversees discussions with his envoys, rang unanswered.

Supporters suggest the retirement may, paradoxically, increase the Dalai Lama's influence on behalf of his community. China has repeatedly warned leaders of other countries against meeting him.

"Up until now [foreign governments] have often sought to overcome the perception of dealing with him as a political leader ... There's a possibility that they may find it easier to have a formal relationship with him as an eminent religious leader," said Saunders.

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