Tibetan activists said Friday that foreigners have been barred from a county in northwestern China and security has been stepped up ahead of an expected visit by a government-appointed Tibetan religious leader.

The International Campaign for Tibet said this week that Chinese troops have surrounded the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe county, Gansu province.

The ICT called the visit an imposition, and said the Tibetan people would not welcome Panchen Lama Gyaltsen Norbu.

The Panchen Lama is the second ranking spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism. But many Tibetans reject the current lama because of the way he was chosen.

The Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, originally selected another young man, Gendun Choekyi Nyima, to become the 11th Panchen Lama. But the youth was arrested by Chinese police in 1995 at the age of 6 and has not been heard from since.