Counterspin: Levica’s Ismail claims the Dalai Lama was a “CIA agent” but ignores China’s occupation of Tibet

When the PRC occupied the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan state, he was only 15 years old, so he was not some “CIA guy” with clearly established pro-Western and anti-communist views, and cooperation with the CIA began later, which is understandable given what happened to him, and which MP Rexhep Ismail from Levica is silent about. And, ironically, the Dalai Lama even has some sympathy for the communist idea

 

Author: Vangel Bashevski

 

Left Party MP Rexhep Ismail, who spreads Moscow and Beijing’s propaganda, selectively presents some true facts, saying:

Spin: Not that this is any new or exclusive news, but it is a good reason to ask: which other contemporary world religious leaders are actually CIA agents?

This refers to the Tibetan religious and political leader, the Dalai Lama, who is shown in the photo illustrating this, and above it manipulative text in English has been added (in translation):

New declassified documents show that the Dalai Lama was on the CIA payroll.

During the two-decade Tibetan tensions, the Dalai Lama received subsidies amounting to $180,000 per year, and the Sino-Indian War of 1962 was part of a covert US strategy.

[Source: Facebook post by MP Rexhep Ismail, dated 23.11.2025]

Counterspin: Ismail’s suggestion that the Dalai Lama was a CIA mercenary is classic spin, i.e. metaphorically “flipping the coin” to show only his dark side. Granted, the fact that the Dalai Lama advocated for the liberation of Tibet from Chinese occupation with the help of the CIA is not a dark side, but Ismail suggests that it is. Objectively, the CIA played dirty games, especially in South America, where it helped military coups and right-wing dictatorships, but in Tibet it supported the struggle for freedom, and Ismail ignores that distinction and makes other manipulations.

Omitted: The PRC attacked the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan state

Tibet is a mountainous region in Asia, where the Tibetan Empire, which was a rival to the Chinese, existed from the 7th to the 9th centuries. It collapsed, and after many centuries and wars, the Tibetans managed to create their own state again, but only in Central Tibet, also known as Ü-Tsang, while the other parts of Tibet, Amdo, and Kham, largely fell under the Chinese.

That state was led by the Dalai Lama and was de facto independent, with its capital in Lhasa, but in 1950-51 it was attacked by the People’s Republic of China, which annexed its territory, so it is understandable that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan freedom fighters received assistance (in the form of money, weapons, or training) from the United States and the CIA, and they provided that assistance for their own anti-communist interests.

When the PRC attacked the Dalai Lama’s country, he was only 15 years old, so he was not some kind of “CIA guy” with clearly established pro-Western and anti-communist views, and cooperation with the CIA began later. It cannot be said that he was bribed to provoke that conflict or anything like that, and he received money from the CIA because circumstances forced him to do so.

In the photo in Ismail’s post, the Dalai Lama is holding a bottle of Coca-Cola , and although the photo is authentic and not a photomontage, it was tendentiously chosen to create the impression that he was a mercenary for the Americans, because Coca-Cola, after all, symbolizes their capitalism. There is no other explanation why this particular photo was chosen out of thousands of photos of the Dalai Lama.

It is a deliberate manipulation, and the photo on Ismail’s profile also contains the logo of RT (Russia Today), indicating that it comes from that propaganda outlet. Russia is currently building good relations with China, but this was not always the case, and the Russians even used the Tibetan issue against the Chinese. This does not fit at all with Ismail’s pro-Russian and pro-Chinese positions, but more on that later.

According to Ismail’s logic, it would appear that the Dalai Lama was a mercenary of China

Ironically, the Dalai Lama was left in power after his country was occupied, so by Ismail’s logic it would appear that the Dalai Lama was a mercenary of the PRC. In reality, he was forced into this position under pressure from the occupiers, who were trying to deceive the Tibetans with promises of a certain degree of autonomy.

The PRC also deceived the Dalai Lama, showing him only its positive sides (industrialization, literacy, etc.), which was impressive to him and he somewhat liked communism, so is that typical “CIA”? He avoided causing problems for it.

The PRC is notorious for its repression, but it created the illusion that Central Tibet was autonomous, so it was not as harsh there yet. But in Amdo and Kham it carried out forced collectivization, temple desecration, imprisonment, and killings, which led to uprisings.

Refugees from those Tibetan regions then came to Central Tibet, where they shared those experiences, which created fears that the same thing would happen there and that the Dalai Lama would be arrested, so on March 10, 1959, an uprising broke out in Lhasa, which was bloodily suppressed.

It is undeniable that the CIA aided the rebels, but the Dalai Lama was not their leader and was initially uninterested in cooperating with the CIA. However, realizing that he could not cooperate with the PRC and that he could be arrested, he fled to India, where he led a government in exile.

Only then did the CIA start funding him, and contrary to what is said in the picture on Ismail’s profile, the documents for this were not freshly declassified, but rather were done back in 1998.

In fact, the Dalai Lama did not lead the opposition, but circumstances made him an oppositionist, and also a “CIA guy”. His struggle for Tibet was then peaceful, Gandhian and publicistic, and he did not engage in armed actions sponsored by the CIA, but other Tibetan activists like his older brother. The Dalai Lama was not a typical “CIA guy” and he was no James Bond or Rambo.

The height of irony

History is not as black and white as Ismail presents it, and there were also surprises throughout. And so, the Dalai Lama’s cooperation with the CIA was terminated, and this is what happened.

Although both the Russians and the Chinese built socialism, they had differences, as well as a border dispute since the tsarist times, which in 1969 led to an armed conflict, so the United States warmed relations with the PRC to the detriment of the USSR who began to flirt with the Dalai Lama to the detriment of the PRC.

According to Ismail’s logic, it would now turn out that the Chinese have become mercenaries of the United States, and the Dalai Lama–of Moscow, but Ismail doesn’t say that because it doesn’t suit him.

It is interesting to add that the Russians had contact with the Tibetans to the detriment of the Chinese since imperial times, sending Buddhists from Buryatia, Kalmykia, and other parts of Russia to Tibet, which they even had ideas of conquering.

Moscow also helped India in its war against the People’s Republic of China in 1962. That war was provoked by Beijing, which usurped part of the disputed Aksai Chin region in the 1950s. This undermines the thesis in Ismail’s picture that the United States provoked that war. And although the United States did help India in that war, it did not do so to the same extent as the USSR.

The Chinese then occupied all of Aksai Chin (which is the size of Switzerland) and they also claim the Indian region of Arunachal Pradesh, so border incidents continue to occur.

Ismail praises BRICS, thereby spreading the narrative that the PRC has good relations with India and Russia, but those relations were once very bad, which sometimes resurfaces.

Cropped detail from the photo

In addition to the text added to the photo of the Dalai Lama on Ismail’s profile, there is another manipulation there, the right part of it has been cut off so that it is not clearly visible that an Indian politician is sitting there. This reminds us that it gave shelter to the Dalai Lama, which harms its relations with the PRC, with which, as noted, India is now a member of BRICS.

To avoid reminding us of the internal squabbles within BRICS, someone “elegantly” cut it off, perhaps the aforementioned RT, and it later somehow ended up with Ismail.

Conclusion

Literally everything in Ismail’s post is manipulation, even the way in which those facts are presented, which are indisputably true.

 

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