Forwarded by: ntaylor@cyberspace.org

New York Times, 13 November 1995

By Patrick E. Tyler

BEIJING, Monday, Nov. 13 -- In a step that sets up one of the most serious religious confrontations in Tibet in recent times, China's Communist Party leadership said on Sunday that it would not recognize the 6-year-old son of a herder as the reincarnation of Tibet's second most holy religious figure, the Panchen Lama, because the boy was selected by Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

The decision by the Communist leadership to exclude the boy, Gedhum Choekyi Nyima, who was proclaimed a living Buddha in May in an announcement from the Dalai Lama's headquarters in India, was announced on the official New China News Agency, which also carried statements by President Jiang Zemin and other senior Chinese leaders.

The exclusion of the boy chosen by the Dalai Lama, whose right to confirm the Panchen Lama's reincarnation is centuries old, is certain to draw international criticism over China's deepening intervention in Tibetan religious affairs.

Last week, the State Department's spokesman, Nicholas Burns, said the Clinton Administration was "discouraged and displeased" with Beijing's attempt to limit religious freedom there.

Beijing's announcement on Sunday followed a six-month standoff. On Wednesday, Communist Party officials in charge of religious affairs convened a secret meeting in Beijing of 75 Tibetan leaders and told them to prepare to select a new Panchen Lama from a list of three boys who had been among the 28 finalists.

The Dalai Lama's choice was not among them. The selection will be made by drawing lots from a golden urn at the Tashilunpo monastery in the Tibetan town of Shigatse, and the selection will be presented to Prime Minister Li Peng for approval by China's State Council.

The 10th Panchen Lama die in January 1989. A committee of religious figures headed by Abbot Chadrel Rinpoche carried out a six-year search for the successor. It is believed that the search committee clandestinely recommended finalists to the Dalai Lama, who announced his choice on May 14.

The abbot was detained and then, in September, he was removed as head of the search committee.

Chinese leaders, including President Jiang and senior member of the party Politburo were quoted as condemning the Dalai Lama for "interfering" in the search for the reincarnated Panchen Lama and for "his vicious intention of disrupting Tibet's stability and undermining China's national unity through religious means."

The Chinese leaders said that therefore, they "would not recognize the reincarnated boy for Panchen Lama chosen by the Dalai Lama."

In remarks that seemed to reflect Beijing's determination to challenge every attempt by the Dalai Lama to assert his authority over Tibetan affairs, Li Ruihan, a member of the Politburo's standing committee, told the assembled Tibetan leaders last week: "The central authorities have always given Dalai a way out and have shown the utmost tolerance and patience towards him.

"So long as the Dalai Lama recognizes that Tibet is an inseparable part of China and completely abandons his proposition of independence of Tibet and stops engaging in activities to split the motherland, we can negotiate with him and he is welcome to return to the motherland to do some good things for the Tibetan people in his later years."