Lodi Gyari, special envoy for the Dalai Lama said Chinese authorities have in the past few months stepped up attacks on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama. Zhang Qingli, who was appointed Communist Party head of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in May, urged senior party officials in a recent speech to engage in “a fight to the death” against the Dalai Lama, who is deeply loved and worshipped as a living god by Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism believers world-wide. Lodi Gyari, special envoy for the Dalai Lama, lamented Zhang’s outburst. “And such irresponsible remarks remind people of the bad policies the Communist Party exercised in Tibet in the past, and hurt the image of China which is seeking international respect in the world,” Lodi told the VOA Chinese.