A report claims that China launched a smear campaign against the Dalai Lama on social media. The campaign started after a video surfaced in April where the Dalai Lama was seen kissing a child on the lips and subsequently requesting the child to “suck his tongue”. Chinese propaganda officers made an edited video out of the incident to make it look like the Dalai Lama wanted to kiss the 8-year-old boy. The edited clip was sent out with the slur “Pedo-Dalai Lama”. The video went viral through linked bot accounts and networks of trusted pro-regime people globally. The video received millions of hits within days and lots of memes kept piling on.
The Dalai Lama issued an official apology saying he regrets the incident and that he often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras. It further said that Dalai Lama wishes to apologise to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world. The report said that the Chinese trick succeeded among millions in the United States, Europe, and across the world, due to their prior prejudice and self-righteous tendency and widespread ignorance about Tibet.
The report further claimed that it is customary in Tibet to feed one’s children by mouth, particularly in the Dalai Lama’s old home district Amdo. “When they have run out of treats or sweets to give their grandchild: They’ll stick out their tongue, and say to the child, “You may eat my tongue, for I have nothing else left.” That the Dalai Lama said “suck” instead of “eat” was perhaps because he was thinking of candy, not food – the original Tibetan wording is che le sa, literally “eat my tongue,”” the report said.
The Tibetan exile activist Lhadon Tethong claims that the goal was also to distract the world from the new dramatic oppression inside Chinese-occupied Tibet. The Beijing propaganda come even as UN human rights experts warned that Chinese authorities have been detaining large numbers of children and adults in Tibet, to erase their culture and turn them into Chinese-speaking laborers along with the parallel genocide against the Uyghurs Muslims.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since 1959, when he was forced to flee his homeland during Mao’s reign in Beijing. The Chinese authorities have made it a criminal offense even to have a photo of him. And ever since 1959, Chinese officials have been vilifying him in every medium possible.
