WHY IS THE CCP SO OBSESSED WITH “CONTROLLING” THE NEXT DALAI LAMA?

YIBAO

The answer is not merely religion — it is the ultimate contest over power, legitimacy, and national identity

By: LIN XI (Independent Chinese Scholar and Private Entrepreneur) - May 26, 2026

This year, the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 91st birthday. At last year’s 90th birthday celebrations, during the opening ceremony of an important religious conference held in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama spoke via video and once again made clear: “The institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” and “no one has the right to interfere in this matter.”

These words sounded calm, yet nearly every one of them was directed squarely at Beijing.

For it is the Chinese Communist Party — and only the CCP — that has spent decades attempting to intervene in, and even seize control of, the Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation system.

In fact, Beijing has been laying the groundwork on the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation for many years. Through law, propaganda, historical research, ideological remodeling, religious control, and the shaping of international opinion, the CCP is attempting to accomplish something entirely unprecedented: enabling an avowedly atheist communist regime to claim the authority to determine the “reincarnated soul” of Tibetan Buddhism’s highest spiritual leader.

This is not only one of the most absurd power grabs in modern political history — it is also a long-term strategy aimed at reshaping the future of Tibet.

And at the heart of that strategy lies not religion itself, but the question of who owns Tibet.

Over the past decade or more, the Dalai Lama has publicly stated on multiple occasions that the institution of the Dalai Lama might one day come to an end.

As early as September 24, 2011, he issued a formal statement proposing that “whether the Dalai Lama institution continues should be decided by the Tibetan people.” In subsequent interviews in 2014, 2019, and 2024, he again suggested that “this institution may no longer be necessary.”

Many have wondered: why would a religious leader representing over six hundred years of tradition seriously consider voluntarily ending his own reincarnation lineage? The reason is not complicated. The Dalai Lama fears that the CCP will exploit the reincarnation system to install a “fake Dalai Lama,” thereby controlling Tibetan Buddhism and, through it, Tibet itself. This concern is far from paranoia — because Beijing has already done exactly this, once before..... [Continue Reading]

Source: https://www.yibao.net/2026/05/26/why-is-the-ccp-so-obsessed-with-controlling-the-next-dalai-lama/