Following Lady Gaga’s meeting with him, the Communist party’s mysterious propaganda department issued “an important instruction” banning her entire repertoire from mainland China, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily reported on Monday.
The video of the meeting sparked an angry reaction from Beijing, which has attacked the spiritual leader as a “wolf in monk’s robes”.
Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in March 1959, insists he is merely seeking greater autonomy from Chinese rule for Tibetans.
Chinese websites and media organisations according to reports have been ordered to stop uploading or distributing her songs as a sign of Beijing’s irritation at the meeting between the pair.
The communist party have also issued orders for party-controlled news outlets such as state broadcaster CCTV and newspapers the People’s Daily and the Global Times to condemn the meeting as they see Dalai Lama as one who is just trying to promote his proposal for Tibetan independence and is conspiring to split the Himalayan region from China in order to establish theocratic rule there.
Some people suggested the American singer would have gone into her meeting with the spiritual leader with her eyes wide open as to the consequences.
“Lady Gaga knew how Beijing would react,” Bill Bishop, who runs the Sinocism newsletter, wrote on Twitter. “Good for her to show some courage, unlike most celebrities who are scared of bullying Beijing now.”
