China-India tensions: Nun investigated for ‘spying’ on Dalai Lama

Daily Telegraph UK
By Joe Wallen
30 Dec, 2022


The Dalai Lama, in a yellow ceremonial hat, earlier this year when he watched a welcome dance performed in India. Photo / AP

A Chinese agent masqueraded as a Buddhist nun to spy on the Dalai Lama, Indian authorities claim amid rising tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

Indian police arrested Song Xialolan, 50, at an important Buddhist pilgrimage site where the spiritual leader and figurehead of the Tibetan independence movement is delivering sermons until December 31.

India has increased security around the Dalai Lama, 87, as a result of the investigation into the surveillance, local media reported. The accusations come just weeks after soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat in a contested part of the Himalayas.

India has hosted the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile since 1959 to the anger of the Chinese authorities who argue that Delhi is encouraging the Tibetan separatist movement to flourish close to the border.

As the Dalai Lama grows old, China is also said to be watching with keen interest to see who will be appointed as his successor and what stance they will take towards Tibetan independence.

Indian authorities allege that Xialolan first attended a series of the Dalai Lama’s sermons in the city of Kangra in 2019 and then remained in the country throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, following the Buddhist spiritual leader around the city of Dharamsala.

Earlier this month, exiled Tibetans performed a traditional dance as they marked the anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in India. Photo / A

When Xialolan, who was in India on an expired tourist visa, made plans to trail the Dalai Lama to Bodh Gaya last week, a manhunt was launched for the suspected spy.

“Local police have received input about a Chinese woman who has been living in Bodh Gaya. We were getting inputs on her for the last two years. In view of this, an alert has been given and searches are underway,” said a police spokesperson in the state of Bihar.

“There is no information at present about the location of the Chinese woman. We cannot rule out suspicion of her being a Chinese spy.”

Xialolan was then traced to a guest house in Bodh Gaya, an important Buddhist pilgrimage site in the northern Indian state of Bihar, on Thursday morning and has been taken for further questioning, the Indian authorities confirmed.

Tibet ‘functionally independent’

In 2018, the Indian police discovered two bombs had been planted at the Mahabodhi Temple Complex in Bodh Gaya ahead of a planned sermon by the Dalai Lama, while five people were injured after a series of explosives were detonated in the same place in 2013.

In his recent sermons at the temple, the Dalai Lama appealed to people across the world to “collectively take a stand against weapons of mass destruction”.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, although backers of the exiled Dalai Lama say it was functionally independent for most of that time.

Communist forces invaded in 1950 and China has ruled the Himalayan region with an iron fist ever since, imposing ever stricter surveillance and travel restrictions since the last uprising against Beijing’s rule in 2008. Lengthy prison sentences in dire conditions are imposed for acts of defiance, including defending the region’s unique language and Buddhist culture from attempts at assimilation.

The Dalai Lama will live to 113, according to his own visions. Buddhist leaders have ruled that only the Dalai Lama himself can decide on his reincarnation. China, however, says the decision lies with Beijing.

Buddhist high priests have recently denied that the Dalai Lama is planning to refuse to declare his reincarnation to save Tibetan Buddhism from attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to control who becomes the religion’s next spiritual leader.

India allows the Dalai Lama freedom to travel and preach in the country despite protestations from China.

Violent clashes on shared border

The detention of Xialolan is the latest flashpoint in rising tensions between nuclear superpowers, with a succession of recent, violent clashes along the country’s shared border.

Following the clash between unarmed soldiers, India announced that it would build a new frontier road along more than 1600km of its border, so that it could more rapidly deploy troops and equipment to combat increasing Chinese aggression.

Delhi also successfully tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile off its eastern coast, in what was seen as a show of strength to Beijing.

China last week sanctioned two US citizens in retaliation for action taken by Washington over human rights abuses in Tibet amid an ongoing standoff between the sides over Beijing’s treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Todd Stein and Miles Yu Maochun, along with their close family members, would be banned from entering China. Any assets they had in China would be frozen and they would be barred from contact with people or organisations within China.