This week it was rumoured that the Tibetan youth appointed by China’s atheist Communist Party as the 11th Panchen Lama is about to become China’s youngest official holding a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister.

Tibetans regard the Communist Party appointed Panchen Lama as a sham and will often refer to him in private as ‘Panchen Zuma’ - literally ‘fake Panchen’.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

Beijing continues to deny accusations it has placed the boy appointed by the Dalai Lama under house arrest and instead claims he and his family simply do not want to be disturbed.

Fake Panchen Turns Eighteen And Becomes A Minister
Beijing’s choice, Gyaltsen Norbu, turned 18 on Wednesday. “He is now an adult. He can vote and be voted for,” a source told the news agency Reuters.

A second source told Reuters that: “He is likely to become a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress as early as next month.” Experts predict that any such appointment is bound to draw Western condemnation.

“That won’t go down well,” Robbie Barnett, a Tibetologist at Columbia University in New York, told Reuters.

“That will look like over-management unless they allow [Gyaltsen Norbu] space to develop his own character and political style to indicate that he has the real interests of Tibetans at heart … not the ones that China decides are Tibetan interests.”

Wait A Minute - Didn’t Mao Say Religion Is Poison?
Gyaltsen Norbu met Wu Bangguo, chairman of the parliament, last month. Wu reportedly requested that he endeavour to “uphold patriotic Tibetan Buddhism … and safeguard the unity of the motherland and national unity.”

The cynical reference to “patriotic Tibetan Buddhism” clearly highlights the continuing lack of true freedom of religion that exists in China. The reference to “safeguarding … national unity” is also an attempt to discredit the Dalai Lama, who the Chinese authorities like to call a ‘splittist’.