DHARAMSALA, 22 November - China's constant tampering with the religious sentiments of the Tibetan people will backfire, warned a senior exile Tibetan official.

"China is playing with fire," said Mr. Tempa Tsering, the Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Tibetan Administration headed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

He said China's last battle against Buddhist Tibet and the Dalai Lama bodes ill for both Tibet and China.

Mr. Tempa Tsering was responding to the latest escalation of tension in Chinese-occupied Tibet and the campaign to eradicate Buddhist influence and the influence of the Dalai Lama from all monasteries in Tibet.

The US Secretary of State's visit to China to improve relations with Beijing comes in the wake of the worsening religious crackdown in Tibet where China's misrule of the country has contributed to engulfing Tibet in a continuous state of turmoil.

"With the excuse of uprooting so-called splittism, Beijing's term for Tibetan nationalism, China is forcing the closure of many monasteries and restricting religious practice, thus striking at the root of the cultural and spiritual identity of the Tibetan people," said Mr. Tempa Tsering.

Such religious crackdown is also contributing to the continuing wave of Tibetan refugees fleeing Chinese-occupied Tibet. In November, about 105 Tibetans fleeing Tibetans were caught at the Tibet-Nepal border by Nepalese police. But they were released by the Nepalese authorities because of intervention by the UNHCR officials and the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

In China the same campaign is conducted to promote what the Chinese President calls "spiritual civilization". In contrast, in Tibet, the very same campaign is conducted to wage a relentless war against the culture and spiritual heritage of Tibet which has sustained the Tibetan people for more than two thousand years.

In Tibet, the campaign is an attempt by the authorities to root out the influence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, stifle Tibetan nationalism and independent thinking.

China has been planning for this in Tibet for a long time. As far back as this July, Chen Kuiyuan, the Chinese communist viceroy in Tibet, told a gathering of top officials in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, "In the course of our spiritual civilization drive, we regularly counter the Dalai clique's disturbances. Politically, the Dalai clique has long been overthrown .

However, it is still having impact ideologically. At times its impact is even spreading and becoming rampant because our exposure, criticism and struggles have been inadequate. At present, our struggles against the Dalai clique involve many aspects and spiritual field is the main battlefield."

In the second week of November Chen Kuiyuan told another gathering of officials that China would eradicate the influence of the Dalai Lama from every level in society.

"Hostile forces at home and abroad, in schools and society at large, are using illegal measures to seize our youngsters away from us," Chen Kuiyuan said.

The issue in the current virulent religious crackdown in Tibet is the issue of who holds sway over the minds of the people of Tibet: His Holiness the Dalai Lama or the Chinese Communist Party which has been occupying Tibet for more than three decades.

"A proof of China's anger as shown in the current religious crackdown is fueled by the reality that though Tibet might be physically ruled by Beijing, it is the Dalai Lama who rules Tibet by his spiritual standing and increasing moral authority," said Mr. Tempa Tsering.

"And this issue cannot be solved by stamping out all the physical manifestations of the Tibetans' devotion to His Holiness the Dalai Lama," the official said.

Department of Information and International Relations

Central Tibetan Administration

Dharamsala - India