China rejects Dalai Lama's succession plans

China said Monday that it has never been up to the Dalai Lama to pick his own successor and that Beijing will identify who is the next incarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The issue has become a key battleground between China's Communist government and the Dalai Lama and his supporters. China reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist and wants to pick a pro-Beijing successor.

The Dalai Lama insists he is only seeking increased autonomy for Tibet, not independence, and opposes Beijing's involvement in selecting its leaders.

The Dalai Lama and his 13 predecessors have wielded political and religious power over Tibetans for hundreds of years. Each dead Dalai Lama has been thought to be reincarnated in the body of a male child.

Beijing's plan to choose his successor has led the current Dalai Lama to contemplate ideas that break with that ancient system.

On Saturday, the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate said that if he is to be reincarnated he will leave clear written instructions about the process. He said in a statement that when he is "about 90" he will consult Buddhist scholars to evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue at all.

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news conference that Dalai Lamas have never decided on their own successors.

"I would like to point out the title of the Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is otherwise illegal. The 14th Dalai Lama was approved by the then republican government," Hong said. "There has never been a practice of the Dalai Lama identifying his own successor."

The Dalai Lama's statement followed a meeting with leaders of the four Tibetan Buddhist sects, his first since he transferred his political role in May to an elected prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Though he remains the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, his decision to abdicate as political leader is one of the biggest upheavals for the community since a Chinese crackdown led him to flee Tibet in 1959 into exile in India.

China has said that religious law requires that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama be born in a Tibetan area under Chinese control. The Dalai Lama has said his successor could be born in exile and has even floated the idea of choosing his own successor while still alive — perhaps even a woman.

In his statement Saturday, he said if the institution of the Dalai Lama were to continue, then he would leave behind "clear written instructions about it."

"Bear in mind that, apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China," he said.

The Dalai Lama has lived in the Indian hill town of Dharmsala since fleeing Tibet. China says Tibet has always been part of its territory, but many Tibetans say the region was virtually independent for centuries.

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