China-appointed Panchen Lama vows to make religion more Chinese in meeting with Xi Jinping

Hong Kong CNN —

A young Tibetan controversially appointed by China’s atheist Communist Party as the second-highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism has pledged to make the religion more Chinese.

Gyaltsen Norbu was installed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 in defiance of the religion’s highest authority the Dalai Lama, whose pick for the role — a six-year-old boy — has since vanished from public view. China has yet to reveal any information on the whereabouts of the missing boy.

In a rare meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, Gyaltsen Norbu vowed to make his own contributions to promoting ethnic unity and systematically advancing “the sinicization of religion,” state news agency Xinhua reported.

The remarks refer to a sweeping campaign unleashe