New Delhi: In a rare disclosure, China’s ruling Communist Party said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to him.
According to a PTI report from Beijing which quoted the state-run Global Times, a senior discipline inspection official has lambasted some party officials for allegedly donating money to the 14th Dalai Lama, saying such behaviour severely undermines the party’s “fight against separatism”.
Some party officials have neglected important political issues and the country’s anti-separatist struggle, Wang Yongjun, head of the discipline watchdog in Tibet, which is officially called the Tibet Autonomous Region, was quoted as saying.
The Global Times, a tabloid publication attached with the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), also quoted a 2016 report issued by Tibet’s discipline watchdog linking “15 party officials to alleged illegal overseas separatist organisations in 2014 who provided intelligence to the Dalai Lama clique and funded secessionist activities”, PTI reported.
It, however, did not reveal the names or the designations of the officials.
According to PTI, this is the first time the Chinese official media has come out with a disclosure of Chinese officials’ links with the Dalai Lama after he fled from China to India in 1959.
A few party officials are failing to “uphold their political integrity” and are “completely ignoring political discipline,” Wang was quoted as saying.
China considers the 14th Dalai Lama as a political exile who has attempted to split Tibet from China under the guise of religion.
China has been carrying out a systematic crackdown in Tibet and associated prefectures with Tibetan population to eliminate the influence of the Dalai Lama, who is revered and regarded as a spiritual leader heading Tibetan Buddhism.
In recent years, over 120 Tibetans, mostly monks, have committed self-immolations in different parts, calling for the return of the 81-year-old leader.
His recent visit to Arunachal Pradesh which China calls ‘South Tibet’ soured the relations between India and China further as Beijing lodged a diplomatic protest and announced Chinese “standardised” named for six places in Arunachal Pradesh in retaliation.
Source: News18