The Dalai Lama said Wednesday there will be a successor after his death. But China insists that it alone has the authority to approve the next religious leader.

The Dalai Lama has become one of the world’s most recognizable figures while leading a Tibetan diaspora through their struggle for autonomy and opposition of China’s control of Tibet. He has not named a successor, but he says they will be born in the “free world” — outside China.