EXCUSE ME, BUT HOW FUCKED UP IS THIS CHINESE GOVERNMENT! :mad:
BEIJING, Aug 3 AFP - From next month, Tibetan living Buddhas will have to apply for reincarnation to the Chinese government.
The new rules are an important move to institutionalise the management of reincarnation of living Buddhas,'' the Xinhua news agency said. According to the regulations, which take effect on September 1, all reincarnation applications must be submitted to religious affairs officials for approval, Xinhua said. China is ruled by the Communist Party, which, despite being officially atheist, maintains strict controls over Tibetan Buddhism and all other religions. Living Buddhas are an important element in Tibetan Buddhism, forming a clergy of influential religious figures who are believed to be continuously reincarnated to take up their positions anew. Often there is more than one candidate competing to be recognised as the actual reincarnation, and the authority to decide who is the true claimant carries significant power. This is especially true in the case of the Panchen Lama, the second-most influential figure in Tibetan Buddhism behind the Dalai Lama. Chinese authorities detained the Dalai Lama's choice as the Panchen Lama in 1995 when the boy was six years old, and he has not been seen in public since. The Chinese government's choice as the Panchen Lama has, meanwhile, been paraded around the country in recent years to promote China's rule over his homeland. China sent troops in to liberate’’ Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama later fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala.
BEIJING, Aug 2 AFP - A leading human rights group today sharply criticised China for its 2008 Olympic preparations which it said had led to a severe crackdown on media freedom and civil liberties.
As China prepares to mark the one-year countdown to the Olympic Games on August 8 with a series of parties, the government is tightening its grip on activists, dissidents and the media, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
Instead of a pre-Olympic 'Beijing spring' of greater freedom and tolerance of dissent, we are seeing the gagging of dissidents, a crackdown on activists, and attempts to block independent media coverage,'' said Brad Adams, Asia director for the New York-based group. The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems.’’
Human Rights Watch said that preparations for next years’ Games, which will be staged between August 8 and 24, were leading to more forced evictions, abuses of the rights of migrant labourers as well as the increased use of house arrest to silence dissent.
The government is continuing its crackdown on lawyers, human rights defenders and activists who dedicate themselves to rule of law and activists and grassroots organisations working to stem China's HIV/AIDS epidemic,'' it said. Paranoia over China's national image being tarnished had prompted authorities to ban high-profile activists from leaving the country. The HRW report cited husband and wife rights defenders Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, who have been under house arrest since May. Meanwhile, Jiang Yanyong, who exposed China's cover-up of the SARS epidemic in 2003, was denied permission to travel to the United States to accept a human rights award. These sort of heavy-handed attempts to clamp down on people viewed as troublemakers’’ were not in keeping with a responsible power and Olympic host, Adams said.
``The Chinese government shouldn’t waste this unique opportunity to use the 2008 Games to demonstrate to the world it is serious about improving the rights situation in China,’’ he said.
Wonders never cease. A truly unbelievable story.
is there an application fee?
I just assumed there was! 
if its free make sure to count me in.