The Dalai Lama’s Succession: Strategic Realities of the Tibet Question

The Post-Dalai Era, according to Chinese analysts, will begin immediately after the 14th Dalai Lama dies. Public statements by Chinese officials are vague about the risks they expect to face at the time of his death: Officials speak in public only in general terms about the overriding importance at that time of “safeguarding the unity of the motherland, strengthening national unity, and carrying out the anti-secession struggle”,36 and of the urgent need at that “critical moment” to win “the battle ... to ensure sustained social stability, long-term stability, [and] comprehensive stability”.37 The main step being taken to prepare for this moment, and the enormous expenditure that it involves, however, suggests a highly unusual, indeed unique, level of concern.

Read more