China’s Panchen Lama pledges loyalty to the Communist Party in a meeting with Xi

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The man picked by Beijing as the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism pledged adherence to the ruling Communist Party’s dictates Friday during a rare face-to-face meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, state media reported.

Gyaltsen Norbu, who is rarely seen in public, met behind closed doors with Xi Jinping in Zhongnanhai, the government compound in the center of Beijing, about 3,700 kilometers (about 2,300 miles) from his home monastery of Tashilhumpo, high on the Tibetan steppe.

Gyaltsen Norbu, 35, said he would “firmly support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and resolutely safeguard the unity of the motherland and national unity,” the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Chinese government appointed Gyaltsen Norbu as the Panchen Lama of Tibetan Buddhism in 1995 at age 5 after followers of the Dalai Lama recognized a different boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, as the Panchen’s incarnation.

That boy and his family disappeared in 1995 in what the U.S. government has alleged was an abduction by the Chinese government, and the Dalai Lama, 89, has refused to recognize the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama.

The Chinese government says Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is now a college graduate living a private life and working at a stable job, while producing no evidence.

The Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama was quoted Friday by Xinhua as saying that he would “contribute to promoting national unity and progress, systematically promote the sinicization of religion in China, and promote the modernization of Tibet.”

Xi’s government uses the term “sinicization” to mean that all religions including Christianity and Islam must take their orders from the Communist Party, reduce their non-Chinese aspects and limit their role in society.

Xi was quoted as telling the Chinese government’s Panchen that he should continue Tibetan Buddhism’s “strong sense of community for the Chinese nation, systematically advancing the sinicization of religion in China, and promoting the modernization of Tibet.”

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement marking the 30th anniversary of the disappearance of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, saying he and his family had been abducted by the Chinese government.

“Chinese authorities should release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima immediately and stop persecuting Tibetans for their religious beliefs,” Rubio’s statement read.

The position of Panchen Lama is especially sensitive since he is expected to take part in the recognition of a new Dalai Lama and serve as his tutor, a religious process that the officially atheist Communist Party is determined to control.

The meeting Friday also reflected Xi’s focus on economic and political stability within China’s borders, where an economic slump has raised concerns of anti-government outbursts and control over minority groups is an overwhelming obsession.

China claims Tibet has been part of China for centuries, but many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for much of that time and that Beijing is now seeking to destroy their human rights, language and Buddhist culture.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese forces and has long been vilified by Beijing as a separatist. The government denies his traditional right to recognize reincarnated lamas.