China pledges "fight to the death" with Dalai Lama

A Beijing official has announced that China's communist government wants to end the "cult" of the Dalai Lama, and will expand crackdown measures throughout Tibet. This seems a significant escalation, and an intensity of tone not evident since the early 1990s. Snip from the Times of London:

China’s new top official in Tibet has embarked on a fierce campaign to crush loyalty to the exiled Dalai Lama and to extinguish religious beliefs among government officials.

Zhang Qingli, was appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in May. An ally of Hu Jintao, China’s President, Mr Zhang, 55, has moved swiftly to tighten his grip over this deeply Buddhist region. (...)

In May Mr Zhang told senior party officials in the region that they were engaged in a “fight to the death” against the Dalai Lama. Since then he has implemented several new policies to try to erode the influence of the 71-year-old monk who China’s rulers believe is waging a covert campaign to win independence for his Himalayan homeland.

Ethnic Tibetan civil servants of all ranks, from the lowliest of government employees to senior officials, have been banned from attending any religious ceremony or from entering a temple or monastery. Previously only party members were required to be atheist, but many of them quietly retained their Buddhist beliefs. Patriotic education campaigns in the monasteries that have been in the vanguard of anti-Chinese protests have been expanded.

Ethnic Tibetan officials in Lhasa as well as in surrounding rural counties have been required to write criticisms of the Dalai Lama. Senior civil servants must produce 10,000-word essays while those in junior posts need only write 5,000-character condemnations. Even retired officials are not exempt.

Link to story. Image: HH Dalai Lama, shot by Lobsang Wangyal in Dharamshala, India, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Uprising of Tibetans in Lhasa. (thanks, David Ahrendts)

Technorati Tags: China, Dharamshala, Tibet