(TibetanReview.net, Mar10’21) – The US State Department has on Mar 10 reaffirmed the Joe Biden Administration’s position that the Chinese government should have no role in the religious decision of who the reincarnation of the current Dalai Lama will be. Mar 10 marks the 62nd anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising against Chinese occupation rule.
“We believe that the Chinese government should have no role in the succession process of the Dalai Lama,” the PTI news agency Mar 10 quoted State Department Spokesperson Ned Price as telling reporters at his daily news conference.
“Beijing’s interference in the succession of the Panchen Lama more than 25 years ago, including by ‘disappearing’ the Panchen Lama as a child and attempting to replace him with a PRC (People’s Republic of China) government-chosen successor, it remains an outrageous abuse of religious freedom,” Price has said.
Earlier, Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump had in Dec 2020 signed into law a bill which called for establishing a US consulate in Tibet and building an international coalition to ensure that the next Dalai Lama is appointed solely by the Tibetan Buddhist community without China’s interference.
The law made it a policy of the United States to take all appropriate measures to hold accountable senior officials of the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party who directly interfere with the identification and installation of the future 15th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, successor to the 14th Dalai Lama.
