For decades, diplomacy toward Tibet has rested on a single unstated premise: that the hardest question could be deferred indefinitely. Governments could criticize religious repression without contesting sovereignty, host the Dalai Lama without endorsing independence, raise cultural rights in Geneva (UN Human Rights Council) while avoiding the sovereignty question in New York (UN General Assembly).
This worked because it was cost-free: a set of positions that never had to resolve into one decision. The
succession of the 14th Dalai Lama will end that arrangement, because recognizing a reincarnation is not a statement of values but an act that confers legitimate religious-political authority on one person and delegitimizes any rival.
