'Dalai Lama can't deny China's right to confirm his successor'

China today said the Dalai Lama cannot deny it the right to confirm his successor through incarnation system, even as the government denounced his demand for "high degree of autonomy" in Tibet as an obstruction for progress in the sensitive Himalayan region.
"No matter what the Dalai Lama says or does, he can't deny the central government's right to confirm the new incarnation," said Norbu Dondup, member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee.
The government attaches great importance to the reincarnation system, which since the Qing Dynasty has been affirmed and regulated by the central government, Dondup was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

The current regulation on the reincarnation system is clearly outlined in a document issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs in 2007, he added.
The official was responding to an interview by the New York Times with the 14th Dalai Lama, who said "the CPC is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than Dalai Lama."
Dondup also accused the Dalai Lama of violating historical conventions by designating boy Panchen Lama at will in 1995 and by designating a small boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as a successor to 10th Panchen Lama who passed away.

China has rejected the designation as "illegal and invalid".

"Currently, this so-called 'soul boy' designated by Dalai Lama is receiving education and living normally. He does not want to be disturbed by anyone," he said.
China has appointed its own nominee Bainqen Erdini Gyaincain Norbu, who is now 25-years-old. He is trying to establish his spiritual authority with the help of the Chinese government.
Meanwhile, a white paper issued by the Chinese government today denounced Dalai Lama's demand for "high degree of autonomy" as an obstruction for progress.
"Over the years, the 14th Dalai Lama clique, in plotting towards 'Tibetan independence,' has constantly peddled the concept of a "Greater Tibet," and lobbied for "a high degree of autonomy," so negating regional ethnic autonomy and its contribution to Tibet's progress," said a Chinese government's white paper on Tibet released today.

"Dalai group's separatist activities violate the Constitution of China and greatly damage the fundamental interests of all ethnic groups in Tibet," the paper said.
Chinese officials in the past have termed the Dalai Lama's demand for greater Tibet, incorporating all Tibetan prefectures bifurcated after China's takeover of the Himalayan region in 1950, as "a garb" to gain independence.