Okay, I'm Confused

I just read an article that has me shaking my head to try to clear it - but I'm still utterly confused. It's from March 11 but being as I only just found it, it's current news to me.

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/world/asia/chinas-tensions-with-dalai-lama-spill-into-the-afterlife.html?_r=0

Is it just me or does there seem to be something inherently mixed up about an atheist government appointing the next Dalai Lama, a religious leader?

I'm not a Buddhist and I'm not an atheist; I'm a Christian little old gramma lady who lives in the middle of nowhere smack in the middle of the North American continent, a very long way from China and Tibet. So what does it matter to me?

I'm not really sure.

Maybe it's the apparent absence of logic here.

I don't know a lot about reincarnation, and have a feeling that Dalai Lama is trying to make a point that may or may not have anything actually to do with whether or not he will reincarnate ... is it up to him? ... and/or is the whole succession thing a way to ensure a religious leader 'recognized' ahead of time by the 'out-going' one ... ? 

Lots of questions my education to date leaves me unqualified to even take a wild guess about.

But one question that's simple common sense is: Why would an atheist government think for one minute it ought to be the least bit interested in anything that has to do with religion, let alone be qualified to choose a religious leader? 

I get that there are agendas going on that I have no way of comprehending ... and I get that if a government wants to control a population it might want to install that population's nominal 'leader' - but I personally wouldn't want to be that nominal appointee ... I'd have no followers. So what's the point? All it's liable to do is tick off said population.

Oh.

And then said government has to, just has to, step in to restore order in that ticked off population. 

What the heck.

I'm not even all that smart.

I think, even with my not-smart brain, that Dalai Lama might be telling his people that any one person, no matter how prestigious, revered, or wise, is not the be all and end all - that they ought to look inside themselves as individuals for the guidance I'm pretty sure they already know is there ... they just have to use it. Themselves. They might think they need a figurehead, but do they really? And if by chance this Dalai Lama doesn't reincarnate, they're still gonna be okay. And if it really isn't up to him to choose and he does reincarnate, they have to trust their guts when it comes to recognizing the new one who shows up.

Just sayin' ... faith is a personal thing. People who don't have any ought not to try to interfere with those who do because what could they possibly know about it?