The recent high-profile meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Gyaltsen Norbu, Beijing’s appointed Panchen Lama, after a decade-long hiatus, underscores China’s aggressive campaign to dictate the future of Tibetan Buddhism.

With the 14th Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday approaching on July 6, 2025, China is intensifying its efforts to legitimise its control over the succession narrative, particularly by misrepresenting the role of the Panchen Lama.

However, a close examination of Tibetan Buddhist tradition reveals that Beijing’s claims of an essential and decisive role for its Panchen Lama are not only historically unfounded but also legally and spiritually invalid.

Historically, the Panchen Lama holds the second-highest spiritual authority in Tibetan Buddhism, traditionally playing a significant role in identifying the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, and vice-versa. Yet, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propagates a distorted narrative—that the Panchen Lama’s involvement is “essential and decisive"—to position itself as the ultimate authority in determining the next Dalai Lama.

Crucially, the provided information explicitly states that the Panchen Lama’s involvement in confirming the next Dalai Lama, while significant, “is not mandatory according to Tibetan Buddhist principles." The recognition process is described as a “complex process of spiritual signs,........

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