Lady Gaga and her songs banned from China

Lady Gaga, and all her songs, appear to have been banned from China after her recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.

The Communist Party’s propaganda department issued “an important instruction” banning her entire repertoire from mainland China, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily reported.

Chinese websites and media organisations were ordered to stop uploading or distributing her songs in a sign of Beijing’s irritation.

The propaganda department also issued orders for party-controlled news outlets such as state broadcaster CCTV and newspapers the People’s Daily and the Global Times to condemn the meeting.

China had warned people to be aware of what it said were nefarious motives of the Dalai Lama after he met with Gaga on a trip to the US and spoke about love and compassion.

“The purpose of his visits and activities in other countries is just to promote his proposal for Tibetan independence,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei.

Beijing regularly vilifies the Tibetans’ spiritual leader as a political figure who advocates splitting the Himalayan region of Tibet from the rest of China.

The Dalai Lama says he simply wants a higher degree of autonomy under Chinese rule.

The official website of the office of the Dalai Lama reported that Lady Gaga interviewed him in an exchange streamed live over Facebook.

The singer asked how to help young people with self-esteem issues or who harm themselves and he said: “Paying more attention to inner values like love and compassion are the right approach.”

Asked about the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Lady Gaga, Hong said: “We hope that people from the international community can be fully aware of his true colours and nature.”