Dalai Lama not religious leader: official

The Dalai Lama was not a religious leader after he betrayed his country, a senior official from the Tibet Autonomous Region said in Beijing on Monday, which experts believe is a reconsideration by the central government of the status. "He was no longer a religious leader after he defected his country and betrayed its people," Baima Chilin, deputy Party chief of the autonomous region, told the press at the fourth Session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC). "If the Dalai Lama wants to return to China, he must give up 'Tibet independence,' and must publicly acknowledge Tibet and Taiwan are inseparable parts of China and that the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government" said Baima Chilin. Xiong Kunxin, an ethnic studies professor at the Minzu University of China, told the Global Times that Baima Chilin's remarks show the central government's attitude towards the Dalai Lama's identity, who had long been considered a religious leader. "The reconsideration came about after the central government realized the Dalai Lama's commitment to oppose the Chinese government, and his support of separatism was unlikely to change," Zhang Yun, a researcher at the Research Center on Tibetology, told the Global Times. The legitimacy of the Dalai Lama's status as a religious leader was no longer acknowledged by the central government as he has failed to fulfill his obligation to inherit and spread Buddhism and continued his separatist activities, said Xiong. Also at the meeting, Wu Yingjie, deputy Party chief of Tibet, said contact between entertainment celebrities and the Dalai Lama and his clique is unacceptable, adding that they need to take responsibility for their behavior. A report on tibet.cn in February said mainland actor Hu Jun attended religious activities in northeastern India, where two major members of the Tibetan government-in-exile were seen in the same picture with them. At the meeting, delegates from Tibet wore badges of portraits of China's leaders, including Chairman Mao Zedong and President Xi Jinping. Another Tibet official explained that it has been their habit after the 50th anniversary of the founding of the autonomous region in 2015.