Chinese officials fund Dalai Lama

Beijing: China’s ruling Communist party for the first time has publicly said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to the 81-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, undermining the fight against “separatist” forces. A senior discipline inspection official has “lambasted” some party officials for allegedly donating money to the 14th Dalai Lama.

Beijing, May 2: In a rare disclosure, China’s ruling Communist Party has said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to him, undermining the fight against “separatist” forces.

A senior official has “lambasted some party officials for allegedly donating money to the 14th Dalai Lama, saying such behaviour severely undermines the party’s fight against separatism,” state-run Global Times reported.

Some party officials have neglected important political issues and the country’s anti-separatist struggle, Wang Yongjun, head of the discipline watchdog in Tibet, which is officially called the Tibet Autonomous Region, was quoted as saying.

The Global Times, a tabloid publication attached to the ruling Communist Party of China, also quoted a 2016 report issued by Tibet’s discipline watchdog linking “15 party officials to alleged illegal overseas separatist organisations in 2014 who provided intelligence to the Dalai Lama clique and funded secessionist activities.”

It did not reveal the names of the officials.

This is the first time official media here has come out with a disclosure of officials’ links with the Dalai Lama.