After the Dalai Lama

By PETER LEE

The election of Harvard Law School fellow Lobsang Sangay as the Kalon Tripa, or prime minister, of the Tibetan government in exile has been framed as a much-needed repackaging of the Tibetan political agenda to meet the needs of the Tibetan struggle after the 14th Dalai Lama passes away.

However, an important new book, Tragedy in Crimson by Tim Johnson, McClatchy's Beijing bureau chief for six years, [1] questions the effect that the marginalized and impotent emigre government in India will have on the spiral of repression, anger, resistance, and more repression that characterizes the lot of many Tibetan monks and lay people inside the ethnic-Tibetan regions of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Johnson's book is an important contribution to what might be termed an "exit interview" genre of China correspondents.

On new assignment, and relieved of the worry of expulsion and conscious and self-conscious self-censorship, Western journalists can be frank in their choice of subjects and conclusions while writing their China books.