Beijing escalates hostility towards Dalai Lama

China’s Tibet policy has hardened into a doctrine of hostility, one that treats the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan diaspora not as spiritual or cultural actors but as existential threats to state sovereignty.

- KHEDROOB THONDUP

This hostility is not incidental—it is strategic, rooted in Beijing's determination to monopolize legitimacy over Tibet's past, present, and future.

For Beijing, the Dalai Lama embodies an alternative source of authority that undermines the Party's claim to Tibet. His global stature—meeting heads of state, inspiring millions—contradicts China’s narrative that Tibet is a settled question.

The Tibetan government-in-exile, though lacking territorial control, symbolizes continuity of Tibetan political identity. In international law terms, it represents a counterclaim to sovereignty, however symbolic, and Beijing cannot tolerate even symbolic challenges.