Weeks before the Dalai Lama ruled out China's role in choosing his successor, President Xi Jinping met a Tibetan Buddhist monk installed three decades ago by Beijing as the faith's No. 2 leader, the Panchen Lama.

While the world debates the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, the fate of the Panchen Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s second-most important figure, stands as a chilling precedent of China’s plan. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima,