China is implementing a law that requires state permission for reincarnation.

It appears that this is all a cunning plan ^* by the Chinese government to game the system for finding a successor to the Dali Lama when he dies.

Then again, it could just be bureaucratic bloody-mindedness, something the Chinese quite literally invented over 3000 years ago.

^*A plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel!