Tibet’s quiet laments: Xi’s trip to Vietnam and the passing of a “rebel” Lama

A few days before Chinese president Xi Jinping departed for Vietnam, international media reported the ‘disappearance’ and then the death of a highly respected Tibetan Lama, Trulku Hungkar Dorjee, in the Southeast Asian nation
On April 13, before reaching Hanoi on a state visit to Vietnam, President Xi Jinping said that he expects that it will be “an opportunity to work with the Vietnamese side to draw up a new blueprint for the building of the China-Vietnam community with a shared future”.

Xi later pointed out that building a Sino-Vietnamese community of shared future is of great world significance: “The two countries have joined hands to follow the path of peaceful development, and more than 1.5 billion people will work together towards modernisation, which will effectively safeguard regional and even world peace and stability and promote common development. …The boat can withstand the stormy waves, and the boat can go steady and far. China and Vietnam are both beneficiaries of economic globalisation, and it is necessary to strengthen strategic efforts, jointly oppose unilateral bullying, and maintain the stability of the global free trade system and industrial supply chain.”

It sounds good, but the reality is vastly different.