China warns of attempt by pro-Dalai forces to incite Tibetans

The public security bureau in Tibet has released details on how the public can provide tips on activities of "criminal gangs" connected to the "separatist forces of the Dalai Lama", the state-run Global Times reported.

An official circular "warned" local people to be on the lookout for "evil forces" of the Dalai Lama that might use temples and religious control "to confuse and incite" people against the party and the government, the report said.

The bureau is asking people to report activities of "foreign hostile forces" that may seek financial support for the 82-year-old Dalai Lama.

The circular listed 22 illegal activities the bureau wants people to report, three of which directly mentioned the Dalai group.

"The Dalai Lama has been in exile for decades but still holds ambition to split China's Tibet from the Chinese territory," the report said.

"The Dalai group always interferes in national affairs by controlling temples, including lamas and living Buddhas, and by spreading a kind of 'middle way' to the world, which actually advocates separatism and emphasises the separation of sovereignty and governing rights," Wang Xiaobin, a scholar at the Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Centre told the daily.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in his Himalayan homeland. He has been living in India in exile ever since.

China routinely protests world leaders meeting the Dalai Lama. It also makes it mandatory for all foreign governments to recognise Tibet as part of China to have diplomatic relations with Beijing.