to “severely punish” those who don’t share the government’s “beliefs and ideals”.

Although this message is nothing new for the repressive Chinese government, the threat

was particularly directed at followers of the Dalai Lama. Tensions between China and

the religious figure have long been the primary source of conflict in the Tibetan region.

So we wanted to know: just why does China hate the Dalai Lama?

Well, their main problem is that Tibet currently stands as an autonomous region of China. This

effectively means that it has some form of self-rule, but is ultimately under China’s

suzerainty [sue-zur-un-tee]. In 1965, their communist government officially established

this dependency, having forced Tibetan leaders to sign away the country’s independence

in exchange for guaranteed autonomy. But in the years since, this relationship has proven

incredibly tricky. Tibetans view themselves as culturally distinct from China, having

developed their own society over thousands of years. Even their language is more closely

related to that of neighboring Myanmar than it is to China. As a result, Tibet has long

demanded full independence.

The current Dalai Lama, according to Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, is the 14th incarnation

of the region’s spiritual and political leader. As such, he is considered to represent

the Tibetan Independence movement. This is despite the fact that he himself has rejected

the idea of full independence, and has simply advocated for greater self-autonomy. Unfortunately,

his ideas and massive following have not been taken lightly by China. In 1959, he was forced

into exile in India just a few years after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The Dalai

Lama’s pro-independence following is a massive problem for China, which sees any deviation

from government plans as disastrous.

This situation is all the more complicated by the Dalai Lama’s religious influence.

Although China’s constitution does guarantee religious freedom, their track record on the

topic has been fraught with human rights abuses. Just last year, numerous muslim ethnic minorities

living in another autonomous region were arrested and oppressed due to their beliefs. Unsurprisingly,

one of the tenets of China’s Communist Party is atheism.

The Dalai Lama also represents an east versus west divide, which has come to color many

of China’s anti-US sentiments. Much of the western world supports the Dalai Lama, who

has met with multiple US presidents, and was even awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Clearly, China hates the Dalai Lama because he threatens what China sees as their rightful

control over Tibet. Meanwhile, Tibet’s population has used the exiled spiritual leader as the

face of their independence movement. In China’s eyes, squashing the Dalai Lama and his followers

would end the movement. In fact, the PRC has claimed that ALL Tibetan independence movements

are actually Western backed imperialism attempting to destroy China. It seems unlikely that either

side is willing to compromise, and we may just see continued government oppression.

Tibet is not China’s only autonomous region. Find out more about the others in our video.

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