>> NARRATOR: With questions about succession, as the Dalai Lama approaches his 90th birthday.

>> If they mishandle the death of the Dalai Lama, they could face a calamitous pushback from the Tibetan population.

>> NARRATOR: An investigation into China’s rule.

>> Anyone really caring for Tibetan well-being should care about Tibet being part of China.

>> Surveillance is at the heart of this process of subjugating the Tibetan people.

>> People who respected the Dalai Lama are deemed to be enemies.

>> NARRATOR: With undercover footage.

>> NARRATOR: And first-hand accounts.

>> NARRATOR: The struggle over the future of the region.

>> For the Chinese nation, the thing is very simple.

There is only one China and Tibet is part of China.

We need to defend China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity very fiercely.

>> China believes in order to continue controlling Tibet is to have their own Dalai Lama.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, Battle for Tibet.

>> It’s a momentous struggle between a communist party and Tibetan civilization.

♪ ♪ >> (speaking Tibetan): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In 2023, after protesting Chinese rule, Namkyi fled her home in Tibet, making a perilous journey across the Himalayas.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (singer trilling) >> This is Tibet, China, the roof of the world.

Its cultural heritage is well protected.

Freedom of religion is fully guaranteed.

(group speaking in unison) >> (in Tibetan): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Namkyi is part of a struggle that has raged for 75 years, since China, which has long claimed Tibet, invaded the mountain territory.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> Ladies and gentlemen, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

(applause) >> NARRATOR: At the center of the struggle, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who, for the past six decades, has been the living symbol of resistance to China.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: As a child, Namkyi watched as protests against China escalated.

(men shouting) >> (speaking Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: In 2008, protests by monks led to widespread demonstrations that were violently put down by Chinese authorities.

(people shouting) >> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: After the crackdown, some Tibetans resorted to extreme acts of protest.

(people screaming) Human rights organizations say around 160 Tibetans have burned themselves alive since 2009.

Despite China's tight control, occasionally footage of these protests has surfaced.

This one, from 2012, shows 22-year-old Ngawang Norphel and his friend.

>> (speaking Tibetan): ♪ ♪ >> NAMKYI: >> NARRATOR: In 2015, she started her own protest outside a monastery in the town of Ngawa.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The protest was filmed and later posted online.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: She was 15 at the time.

The police arrested her, and she was charged with "separatist acts against the nation."

>> NAMKYI: >> NARRATOR: During her time in prison, she says a Communist party official subjected her to political re-education sessions.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: After her release, she says she was under relentless police surveillance.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Eventually, she made the painful decision to flee to India, knowing she might never see her family again.

>> NAMKYI: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: India has become the de facto refuge for many Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama has remained there since his own exile in 1959, living in a heavily guarded compound in Dharamshala.

Approaching 90, he now rarely grants interviews, but he has repeatedly said he is no longer seeking Tibetan independence and would accept self-rule within China.

>> NARRATOR: Nevertheless, China has continued to call the Dalai Lama an anti-China separatist... ...and taken a hardline stance on him.

Professor Robert Barnett is a renowned expert on Tibet, where he's worked and lived.

In 1994, he obtained China's internal policy documents on Tibet and the Dalai Lama.

>> Among those documents was a little booklet, and it was called "A Golden Bridge Leading into a New Era."

We gradually realized this is extraordinary, this is exceptional.

This was directly saying what policies were going to be, and they were new policies.

This is what seems to be a major turning point from a, shall we say, a soft policy towards the Dalai Lama, slightly cooperative, to a hard policy.

This paragraph says "The focal point in our region's fight "to oppose separatism is to oppose the Dalai clique.

"As the saying goes, "to kill a serpent, "we must first chop off its head.

"If we don't do that, we cannot succeed in the struggle against separatism."

Clearly, the decision here is that he's the enemy.

They're saying, we must treat him as a hypocrite, as someone who's always lying, who is someone who's always trying to get independence whatever he says.

We can only destroy that movement by eliminating the Dalai Lama's strength, by destroying him as a political force.

And their method of destroying him was the demonization of the Dalai Lama.

(Tibetan throat singing) All Chinese policy since 1994 has been based on that decision-- demonize the Dalai Lama, blame him for everything as an individual.

>> NARRATOR: The Chinese government wouldn't agree to an interview.

But in written responses, it repeated its position that the Dalai Lama is a separatist working "under the cloak of religion."

It said Tibet has been part of China since ancient times.

>> For China, it's a life or death issue.

Any attempt to push for Tibetan independence will be crushed with force.

And anyone trying to agitate for Tibetan independence, either at home in China or abroad, will end up with miserable failure.

>> NARRATOR: Victor Gao is a well-known defender of China and advocate of its rule in Tibet.

He runs a think tank in Beijing.

>> For the Chinese government, for the Chinese nation, the thing is very simple.

There is only one China, and Tibet is part of China.

We need to defend China's sovereignty and territorial integrity very fiercely.

And China is always ready to defend China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, regardless of whoever who wants to instigate some crisis or confrontation.

We are all one family, and the Tibetans are our brothers and sisters.

They are an integral part of the Chinese nation.

♪ ♪ (insects buzzing) >> NARRATOR: China heavily restricts the international media's access to Tibet.

But we worked with a journalist who agreed to travel there and film undercover.

>> REPORTER (in Mandarin): >> NARRATOR: For his safety, we're concealing his identity.

The Tibetan population lives in what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region, and parts of neighboring Chinese provinces.

The region makes up about a quarter of modern China.

It is a sparsely populated and rugged territory.

♪ ♪ >> REPORTER: >> NARRATOR: Our colleague is on his way to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

>> REPORTER: (camera audio feedback) >> NARRATOR: In the city center, he estimates there are police posts every 500 meters.

>> REPORTER: >> (in Mandarin): (chiming) >> NARRATOR: In another city, a Chinese man who moved to Tibet says that protests against Chinese rule continue, despite the surveillance.

>> MAN (in Mandarin): >> REPORTER: >> MAN: (camera audio stops) >> NARRATOR: Tibet's monasteries have historically been at the heart of resistance to Chinese rule.

The security is tight for worshippers and visitors alike.

>> REPORTER: >> NARRATOR: Inside, there are surveillance cameras throughout the monasteries.

(indistinct chatter) In a café near one monastery, a Tibetan official says that Tibetans working for the Chinese government are prohibited from even going into monasteries.

>> REPORTER: >> (in Mandarin): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In its responses, the Chinese government did not address its use of surveillance, but insisted that Tibetans' religious freedoms are being protected, and that human rights are at their "historical best."

>> The Chinese government has no interest in doing surveillance of religious practices.

What the Chinese government is interested in is preventing anyone from misusing or abusing religion as a pretext to launch terrorist attacks.

>> Surveillance is at the heart of this process of subjugating the Tibetan people.

Live face recognition systems, scanning systems that will monitor your mobile phone signal.

Internet surveillance, in terms of what people are browsing.

>> NARRATOR: Greg Walton is a surveillance expert who has studied the systems China is using.

>> Digital surveillance in the monasteries is supplemented, augmented with perhaps 6,000 or 7,000... party officials installed in the monasteries.

The desire to control... to instill a sense of fear... very deliberately create a chilling effect society-wide.

(birds chirping) (camera audio rustling) >> REPORTER: (indistinct chatter) >> NARRATOR: Our colleague filmed at the Potala Palace in Lhasa, a World Heritage Site from where the Dalai Lama once ruled Tibet.

But there are no pictures or mention of the Dalai Lama there today.

(car door closes) >> REPORTER: >> DRIVER (in Mandarin): >> REPORTER: >> DRIVER: >> REPORTER: >> DRIVER: >> REPORTER (voiceover): >> NARRATOR: Images of Chinese President Xi Jinping hang over the streets.

The taxi driver says that communist officials are stationed in Tibetan villages and neighborhoods.

>> REPORTER: >> DRIVER: >> REPORTER: >> DRIVER: ♪ ♪ >> You can see why communist officials would be really very uncomfortable about a charismatic leader like the Dalai Lama.

They think that loyalty should be to the Party, especially under Xi Jinping.

They're gradually reducing the content of the religion, but not eliminating it.

This is what they call Sinicization of religion, so that it becomes less Tibetan.

♪ ♪ >> CHILD (singing Mandarin): >> TSERING DAWA (singing in Mandarin): (in Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: Tsering Dawa fled Tibet in 2020.

He says he drew the attention of the Chinese authorities when he sent voice messages to a Tibetan rights group in India.

>> DAWA: >> NARRATOR: He says the police who arrested him had a printout of his messages.

>> DAWA: >> NARRATOR: He admitted to sending the messages, but refused to confess to campaigning for Tibetan independence-- a charge that can lead to a 20-year prison sentence.

>> DAWA: >> NARRATOR: In the years after being released, he began providing information to a foreign news outlet about conditions in Tibet.

But he eventually feared he'd be arrested again, and fled.

>> DAWA: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: China's efforts to maintain control over Tibet are playing out in other ways.

It has long been pursuing a campaign to choose the next Dalai Lama.

>> ARJIA RINPOCHE (speaking Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: Arjia Rinpoche now runs a monastery in the United States.

But until 1998, he lived under Chinese rule in Tibet, holding senior positions within Tibetan Buddhism.

>> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: He says he was at the heart of a power struggle to decide who would select the next Dalai Lama.

>> RINPOCHE: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Arjia Rinpoche became a top aide to the Panchen Lama, the Buddhist leader tasked with identifying the successor to the Dalai Lama when he dies.

But suddenly, in 1989, the Panchen Lama died.

>> One of Tibet's most senior religious leaders, the Panchen Lama, has died of a heart attack.

He was second only to the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India for 30 years.

>> NARRATOR: It would be a crucial moment for China's influence on the Tibetan hierarchy.

>> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: Chinese authorities placed Arjia Rinpoche on a committee to select the next Panchen Lama.

Behind closed doors, he says the authorities made it clear they were in charge.

>> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: According to Tibetan Buddhists, when a Dalai Lama or Panchen Lama dies, he is reincarnated into a new person.

The committee searched for boys who might be the Panchen Lama's reincarnation.

Secretly, the head of the search committee sent their names to the Dalai Lama in India.

He made his choice-- without consulting the Chinese government.

>> Welcome to the Voice of America in Tibetan.

>> MAN (speaking Tibetan): >> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: Within days, the six-year-old boy the Dalai Lama had selected was taken away by Chinese authorities, along with his family.

His whereabouts have remained a mystery.

>> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: Chinese soldiers surrounded the monastery of the monks who identified the boy, after they refused to denounce the Dalai Lama's choice.

We spoke to one of the monks, who now lives in exile.

He asked that his identity be concealed.

>> MONK (speaking Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: The monastery's abbot, Chadrel Rinpoche, had led the search committee.

He was arrested and detained and never publicly seen again.

Arjia Rinpoche and the remaining members of the search committee were summoned to Beijing.

>> RINPOCHE: (light applause) >> NARRATOR: The committee was ordered to start a new search.

>> (speaking Mandarin): >> NARRATOR: As ordered, new candidates were found.

>> On November 29, 1995, a Golden Urn lot-drawing ceremony in line with religious rituals and respecting historical customs was solemnly held in front of the statue of Shakyamuni at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa.

>> NARRATOR: The Chinese government provided this video.

They said it shows that the process followed Buddhist traditions.

>> The sealed names were placed in the Golden Urn by Monk Tshering of Tashilhunpo Monastery.

(monks chanting on iPad) >> RINPOCHE: >> NARRATOR: Arjia Rinpoche says he and other Buddhist officials were taken there late at night.

The temple was surrounded by soldiers.

>> RINPOCHE (in Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: The selection of the boy who would become the Panchen Lama was broadcast on China state TV.

>> (speaking Tibetan): (cheers and applause) >> RINPOCHE: >> (speaking Mandarin): >> NARRATOR: Gyaltsen Norbu, the son of two communist party members, was now the Chinese-approved 11th Panchen Lama-- the figure who, according to Tibetan Buddhism, could one day determine the next Dalai Lama.

>> RINPOCHE: ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Arjia Rinpoche says he was asked to tutor the new Panchen Lama.

But instead, he fled abroad.

>> RINPOCHE: ♪ ♪ (applause) >> NARRATOR: The boy went on to be educated in Beijing, and as he has grown up, has publicly advocated for Chinese rule in Tibet.

>> (speaking Mandarin): ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: We obtained undercover footage from a remote part of Tibet.

Lhari, where the missing Panchen Lama was born.

We were told police subject visitors to extensive checks, including facial recognition.

Chinese flags and party slogans were visible on the streets.

But there was no sign of the boy's life there.

>> The issue of the Panchen Lama is treated as a matter of national security.

And that's tied to the survival and legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.

So, the stakes couldn't be higher.

So that means, if you even talk about the disappearance, if you even, um, have some sort of tiny little picture of him as a child in your home, all of that can be penalized.

Seriously penalized.

>> NARRATOR: Kate Saunders has done extensive research on the story of the Panchen Lama.

(keys clacking) She tracked down a rare photo of the missing boy.

>> The Tibetan script reads, "photograph of a family reunion."

It seems to show Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.

He's got a toy helicopter, he's sitting on his father's lap.

He could be around ten, around 11.

This looks as though it's in some sort of official compound.

And it does show us that the family was still together at that point.

I believe it's genuine, but we still haven't been able to fully confirm that.

It shows how successfully China has been able to disappear not only the child, but also, also his entire family, and to exclude them from any sort of public gaze whatsoever.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: The Chinese government told us the the "so-called reincarnated child "is an ordinary Chinese citizen, living a normal life.

He and his family do not want to be disturbed."

♪ ♪ >> Poverty here is a thing of the past.

>> NARRATOR: The Chinese government also stressed to us that because of its rule, life in Tibet is "significantly better" for the people.

>> Tibet's children now enjoy 15 years of public-funded education.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: But inside Tibet, our reporter meets a mother who says ever since her children went to school, they've stopped speaking Tibetan.

>> REPORTER: >> MOTHER (speaking Mandarin): >> REPORTER: >> MOTHER: (both chuckling) (both chuckling) ♪ ♪ (applause) (crowd chanting) >> (speaking Mandarin): >> NARRATOR: Chinese President Xi Jinping's government has placed around 800,000 Tibetan children into boarding schools, where they are taught in Mandarin.

>> (speaking Mandarin): >> NARRATOR: The government told us the boarding schools are important in a region with a highly-scattered population, and are examples of "human rights and cultural heritage protection."

In recent years, the program has expanded to include children as young as four.

>> I hope every Tibetan will speak both Tibetan language as well as Mandarin.

Why?

Because if you do not speak Mandarin, then it will be more difficult for you to find a more meaningful job.

You will be more handicapped in communicating with the rest of the country.

>> The Xi Jinping mission is to say, "We have to start from childhood."

So now the policy is to have kindergartens teaching in Chinese language, to get them speaking Chinese, and basically only Chinese, when they're in a kindergarten.

They're all gonna become more Chinese.

♪ ♪ >> GYAL LO (speaking Tibetan): >> NARRATOR: Gyal Lo is a sociologist and advocate who was born in Tibet.

In 2016, he was living in one of the Chinese provinces, when his brother called him concerned about his grandchildren.

♪ ♪ >> LO: >> NARRATOR: Gyal Lo set out to investigate what was happening in schools across Tibet.

>> LO: (papers rustling) >> NARRATOR: Keeping a low profile, he visited more than 50 kindergarten boarding schools for Tibetan children.

He says he discovered that despite official claims, there was often little teaching of Tibetan language or culture.

>> LO: Yeah.

>> NARRATOR: There have also been concerns raised about episodes of abuse at schools.

Like in this video from one boarding school.

And this CCTV footage that prompted Chinese authorities to suspend the teacher.

(girl speaking Mandarin) >> NARRATOR: In this video, uploaded on Chinese social media, as part of a boarding school assignment, a young Tibetan girl has a message for other children.

>> (speaking Mandarin): >> (speaking Tibetan): >> (speaking Mandarin): >> (speaking Mandarin): >> LO: >> NARRATOR: Gyal Lo became outspoken about the need to preserve Tibetan language and culture.

But he says he eventually lost his university teaching job, and was worried he might be arrested.

In 2020, he fled to Canada.

>> LO: ♪ ♪ (men singing) >> NARRATOR: As the Dalai Lama approaches his 90th birthday in July 2025, Tibet is at a critical juncture.

He has said he will soon decide how his successor should be chosen after his death-- or even, whether to end the institution of the Dalai Lama.

China insists whatever happens must follow its laws, and it must have the final say.

>> If they mishandle the death of the Dalai Lama, the critical juncture which they're been planning for, for years, they could face a calamitous pushback from the Tibetan population.

>> NARRATOR: In a new book, the Dalai Lama criticizes China for oppressive policies enforced through state of the art surveillance and control.

But he says he still holds out hope for a peaceful resolution to Tibetans' long struggle for freedom.

Chinese officials have recently suggested he could finally return to Tibet, if he recognizes China's right to rule.

>> I'm fully aware of these very intimate backchannels of discussions with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and people around him.

The Dalai Lama himself mentioned on many occasions that he would not call for independence of Tibet.

That's a very good starting point.

(singing continues) China's door should remain open.

On one condition, and one condition only... ...that is, there is only one China, and Tibet is part of China.

>> Will the Chinese win?

Will that eradicate Tibetan local knowledge?

Tradition?

Affiliation?

Sentiment?

Probably not, but it might.

It might.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline to see more of our reporting on China.

>> For the Chinese nation, the thing is very simple.

There is only one China and Tibet is part of China.

>> NARRATOR: Including the rise of its leader, President Xi Jinping.

Visit the FRONTLINE archive where you can stream more than 300 documentaries.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook, Instagram, and X and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube or pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "Battle for Tibet" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪