Ahead of Jaishankar-Wang meeting, China warns India against using 'Tibet Card'

New Delhi: If India uses the ‘Tibet Card’ against China, it will end up shooting itself in the foot, Beijing warned New Delhi on Sunday, ahead of two high-level engagements between the two nations.

Beijing’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi posted on X that the issue of Tibet had been a ‘thorn’ in India-China relations and had now become a burden for India. The unusually blunt warning from China came about 10 days after the Tibetan spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, entrusted the full responsibility of selecting his reincarnation to the Gaden Phodrang Trust, which he had set up in India in 2011.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will attend the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Tianjin in China on Tuesday. He is likely to have a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. Wang is also expected to visit New Delhi soon to meet National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Doval and Wang double up as the special representatives of the Indian and Chinese governments for boundary negotiations.

“In reality, (the) Xizang-related (Tibet-related) issue is a thorn in China-India relations and has become a burden for India. Playing the ‘Xizang Card’ will definitely end up shooting oneself in the foot,” Yu Jing, the spokesperson of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in New Delhi, stated in a statement posted on X.

The statement was issued in response to some “improper remarks” on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama by some people from the strategic and academic communities, including former officials. Beijing’s diplomatic mission in New Delhi noted that the remarks had run contrary to the “public stance” of the Government of India. They should be fully cognizant of the sensitivity of issues related to Xizang (Tibet), and that the reincarnation and succession of the Dalai Lama is inherently an internal affair of China, and China would not brook any interference by any external forces, added Yu.

“The Indian government has made political commitments to China. It recognises that the Xizang Autonomous Region (Tibet Autonomous Region) is part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China,” Yun posted on X.

The 14th Dalai Lama, the icon of non-violent protest against China’s occupation of Tibet, on July 2, ahead of his 90th birthday, not only confirmed that the institution of the Dalai Lama would continue beyond his lifetime but also announced that no one else but the Gaden Phodrang Trust based in India, would have the sole authority to recognise his future reincarnation. He had earlier said that his reincarnation would be found in the ‘free world’, not in Tibet under the occupation of China.

Beijing strongly reacted to his statement from India, stating that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama and other great Tibetan ‘Living Buddhas’ must be chosen by the traditional practice of drawing lots from a ‘Golden Urn' and the choice must be approved by the central government of China.

The Dalai Lama’s move to resist Beijing’s bid to control the process of selecting his reincarnation came at a time when India and China were trying to add momentum to the bilateral relations, which had nosedived during the more-than-four-year-long military stand-off, which started in April-May 2020 along the disputed boundary between the two neighbours in eastern Ladakh and continued till October 2024.

Beijing recently lodged a protest with New Delhi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s greetings to the Dalai Lama on his birthday on July 6, as well as the presence of Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, at the celebrations on the occasion in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. Rijiju also tacitly acknowledged the existence of the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGiE), formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration, as well as the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE), in India, irking China. Rijiju had on July 3 said that no one else, but only the incumbent Dalai Lama, should decide on the process of selecting his reincarnation.