In China, you need permission from the government to reincarnate. Yup, you read that right.
On August 3, 2007, China's State Administration for Religious Affairs issued a decree that all reincarnations must get government approval, otherwise they are "illegal or invalid". State Religious Affairs Bureau Order No. 5, officially named Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas, is an order that strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate.
It's "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation." In reality, it was intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s deeply Buddhist people.