International experts condemn Chinese government and Chinese medical institutions for sale of vital human organs, extracted from prisoned Uyghurs, Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, Christians and poor Chinese citizens

News Report by VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, Washington DC, Dharamshala:  18 Dec

As the business of selling human organs, extracted from live and illegally detained prisoners by the Chinese government is going on unchecked, it is the moral duty of medical practitioners across the world, governments and universal bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) to put a stop to this inhuman and disgusting practice. Also, there should be an international law to declare it illegal and action be taken against those medical practitioners and institutions who refer their patients to China for organ transplant. Experts in an international webinar on “Forcible Harvesting of Human Organs in China” also warned the world community that while this gory practice in China had been so far limited to extracting human organs from Falun Gang, Uyghur, Tibetan and Christian prisoners, the ever growing business competition among Chinese medical institutions and the greed of Chinese officials is now giving rise to a new crime of kidnapping teenagers from poor Chinese families and killing them for organ extraction.

This webinar was held on late evening Saturday 17 December and was organized jointly by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC). The experts were Dr. Enver Tohti Bughda, a former medical doctor from Urumchi of Xinjiang in China; Ms. Jennifer Zeng, a former Falun Gong practitioner and a researcher at a leading Chinese institute; and Ethan Gutmann who is an American writer and a senior researcher who has authored two books on this subject. Vijay Kranti, an Indian Tibetologist and Chairman of CHASE moderated the discussion.

All three experts expressed surprise over the fact that while patients in other countries have to wait for months and years and have to spend huge money to get transplant of their heart, kidney, lungs, cornea or other organs like pancreas and spleen, they can get these organs at a short notice and that too at a much lower price in China. The growth history of this ‘business’ in China, as discussed by the participants in their respective presentations, shows that till late 1980s the practice was limited only to extracting organs from the bodies of freshly executed convicts and prisoners of conscience. But it gained the real momentum in 1999 when President Jiang Zemin started a countrywide crack down on Falun Gong, a highly popular organization whose members believed in living a simple and healthy life through meditation, Yoga-like physical exercise and total abstention from smoking and drinking alcohol.

Recalling her own one year long detention in a labour camp of Falun Gong followers, Jennifer Zeng, now a popular TV anchor in USA said, “Detailed medical history and blood profile of each of about two million Falun Gong prisoners was conducted and a national data base was prepared for the use of hospitals with organ transplant facilities.” According to Ethan Gutmann, “By 2002 it had become a common practice that patients from rich countries like Germany could fly into Shanghai and get their liver transplanted within four hours with a fresh liver of perfectly matching blood profile. This simply means that the victims, identified through the blood profile data from the data bank, were picked up from detention centres and supplied to the hospital for organ harvesting.” Referring to the communist government’s ‘supply-on-order’ system he said, “Our research shows that in many cases, live Uyghur ‘donors’ from western China were flown out to some Gulf countries to supply ‘fresh’ and ‘halal’ organs for rich Sheikhs.”

Giving details of results of satellite imaging of Uyghur detention camps and first hand witnesses from the region, Gutman said, “In 2018 the Chinese authorities established nine new crematoriums attached to each such camp which were manned by 50 Chinese guards each at an unusually high monthly salaries equivalent to US$ 1200.I wonder why they needed crematoriums for their Muslim subjects who are supposed to be only buried after death? It only shows that after extracting the organs the Chinese authorities burn the bodies to wipe out any trace of the killings,” he said.

Dr. Enver Tohti recalled his days as a doctor in Xinjiang where criminals on death row were executed by the Chinese police. “When the liver and kidneys of the executed person were taken out I used to think that it was ‘normal’ and ‘good’ that these organs were extracted so save life of some patients. But only after migrating to Britain I realized that it was a crime against humanity. When I started going through official sites of some Chinese hospitals I was shocked to see their way of advertising their services for patients from other countries. They would offer any organ, matching with the patient’s blood profile, within one week. For liver transplant some of them offered matching liver within four hours of your arrival. In many cases their offers were ‘buy one, get one free’ like ordinary consumer goods. I know as a medical practitioner that no human organ can survive out of the body for a long time. So it means that they had enough stock of live humans of different blood profiles. It was just like the restaurants offering you fish of your choice among ones swimming in their glass tank.”

Dr. Tohti recalled, “In Urumchi when the local Uyghurs found that a doctor who was an Uyghur and who spoke their own language then many of them would quietly bring their teenage child to me and ask me to check if any of his organ was taken out during the child’s detention in the Chinese camp. Out of about one hundred such cases, brought to me, I was shocked to discover that in three such cases the boy had surgery marks on his belly and one of his kidneys was missing.” Sharing results of his research and study of the Chinese medical system in past few years, he said that small Chinese airports have come up near some Uyghur detention centres in Xinjiang. “These airports are proving handy for delivering freshly harvested organs on demand from various Chinese hospitals in distant cities. Many times live ‘donors’ are flown out to other countries for delivery of ‘fresh’ organs,” he said.

Jennifer Zeng, who now hosts her own China focused YouTube channel “Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng” and her blogpost ‘jenniferzengblog.com’ from America, said that she started practicing Falun Gang exercises and meditation regularly in Sichuan. She found it very useful after she discovered that her health had improved in a big way and she could come out of complications of Hepatitis cause by bad blood transfusion at the time she give birth to her baby. “But in 1999 the CCP realized that with 70 to 100 million practitioners across China, Falun Gong was becoming more popular than the Party. Then President Jiang Zemin ordered a heavy crackdown on Falun Gong and millions of practitioners were arrested. I too was arrested and lived in a labour camp with about 900 inmates for about a year. We were made to work hard in production which, sometimes would go on non-stop for 24 hours because the products were to be delivered next day for a flight. Once I was taken to a hospital for health checkup, blood test and X-Ray scanning of lungs along with many other inmates. They did not tell us about the results and no follow up was done either. May be my blood test was not good due to my old Hepatitis-C. I don’t know what happened to others.”

After Jennifer managed to escape to Australia in 2001 she could understand the severity of the organ business from other escapees. She said that Chinese government has been always avoiding mention of the real source of the human organs. Initially they used ‘dead prisoners’ as the source of organs. But to circumvent criticism later, they started claiming that all organs were from ‘voluntary’ donors. “However, the Chinese authorities cannot explain how can they supply so many organs every year on the strength of a very small number of registered volunteers? Since their hospitals offer organs belonging to any desired blood group and matching specifications in a very short time, that simply shows that millions of people have been killed over the years to run this dreaded business,” she said.

“In initial years when Falun Gang raised this issue then some medical practitioners from China and other countries blamed it for ‘tarnishing the image’ of transplant profession and the professionals. But soon many doctors in the West started realizing the truth. I know of one doctor in USA whose patient, who was asked to wait for a year for his turn for heart transplant, came to inform him that he was going to Shanghai for transplant where his appointment was fixed on a coming day. The doctor was shocked because the human heart cannot survive beyond a four or six hours. Then how could the Chinese doctors be so sure about the date and time unless it was going to be taken out of a live donor?” said Jennifer.

Jennifer pointed out to a new alarming trend in China which is finding roots in the human organ trade. She referred to a recent case in which two high school boys suddenly disappeared and there has been no trace of them. In another case a mother in Sichuan province sent her teenage son to drop garbage downstairs but he did not return for days. Finally his mutilated dead body with vital organs missing was discovered a few kilometers away from home. “The news about disappearance of school children and university students are common now. It appears that in view of business competition and greed for money some Chinese hospitals have started hiring individual criminals and mafia gangs to kidnap young boys and children,” she said.

During the question-answer session the experts were of the opinion that it is high time that world governments, especially the WHO should seriously investigate the reality of organ transplant business in China and take strong remedial measures.

TIBET’S STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM CHINA IS ALSO FOR NATIONAL SECURITY FOR INDIA AND PEACE FOR THE WORLD

International experts, China observers and advocacy groups review China’s colonialism in Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia

Report by : VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, Dharamshala, Washington DC, Bern, Singapore – 15 Feb                  While people of Tibet and other colonies of China are struggling for freedom of their countries from Chinese occupation, their struggle is also aimed at ensuring national security of countries surrounding China, especially for India, and peace for the rest of world from a belligerent China. This was a common observation of experts and advocacy groups who shared a common platform to commemorate the 110^th anniversary of the ‘Declaration of Independence of Tibet’ by the 13^th Dalai Lama in 1913.

The webinar was organized jointly by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on the evening of Monday 13^th February. The experts who presented their perspectives were Mr. Bhuchung Tsering, Interim President of International Campaign for Tibet who participated from Washington DC; Dr. Uwe Meha member of the Board of Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association GSTF who participated from Switzerland; Ms. Youdon Aukatsang, Member of Tibetan Parliament who participated from Singapore; Ms. Tenzyin Zochbauer, Executive Director of Tibet Initiative Deutschland (TID) who participated from Berlin; and Gonpo Dhundup, President TYC who joined in from Dharamshala.

Bhuchung Tsering dwelt upon all the five points emphasized by the 13^th Dalai Lama in his Declaration. He said that the Declaration not only reiterated the independent status of Tibet but it also presented a much larger vision of the Dalai Lama about the future of Tibet. “While the point-4 declared that Tibet had regained its independence after a short spell of Manchu army’s invasion of Tibet, points-1 and 2 emphasized over preserving and promotion of Tibetan national identity. Similarly points-3 and 5 explained how the Tibetan officials should govern Tibet and work for social welfare of Tibetan masses”, he said.

He said the historic declaration of 1913 becomes far more significant when considered along with the Shimla Agreement between Tibet and British India and his 1932 prophecy about future of Tibet. During the Shimla convention between Tibet, China and British India the representatives of China refused to sign the treaty because Tibet had raised the issue of those areas of Eastern Tibet which China had occupied and Tibet demanded their return. In his 1932 prophecy the 13^th Dalai Lama had warned the people of Tibet about the lurking danger from the Chinese communists and carelessness of Tibetan officials about governance and the national interests.

Dr. Uwe Meya in his presentation underlined the danger of world community borrowing the Chinese narrative on Tibet without examining or challenging it. He said, “In the media, and also in political debates, ‘Tibet’ is mostly referred to, if at all, as ‘TAR’. Even worse, many media use official Chinese language when reporting on Tibet and just call it ‘a region in southwestern China’. They are unaware that with this, they implicitly and unknowingly acknowledge that Tibet has been part of China for all the time. Moving to politics, we notice that most governments now do not challenge China’s “one-China” standpoint and thereby fall into the trap of accepting to treat Tibet as China’s “internal affair” and thereby weakening the Tibetan position in negotiations. Moreover, Beijing uses these statements as ‘evidence’ for its claim and uses the international community’s statements as substitute for legitimacy to rule over Tibet. The other trap that the Western world – politicians, the media and general public – falls into is calling the Tibetans a ‘minority’ and using euphemisms such as ‘the Tibet issue’. We must realize that Tibetans were made a minority only by the Chinese occupation.”

Ms. Youdon Aukatsang reminded the people that when the 13^th Dalai Lama declared Tibet’s independence it was after defeating the Manchu army which was not ‘Chinese’. She said that over the history the relations between the Manchu kings and Tibet were of patron and the priest and did not mean that the Manchus were the rulers of Tibet. This simply means that this was a friendly relation. Giving modern example of Bhutan and India relations she said that although Bhutan is a protectorate of India but both countries respect each other as independent countries.  She said although China claims that it ‘liberated’ Tibet but the reality is that Tibet is an occupied country.

Ms. Tenzing Zochbauer said that this day would be celebrated in the best way if the Tibetans use it to counter the Chinese propaganda and inform the world that Tibet was never a part of China. She emphasized the need of educating and training the young Tibetan generation about the true history of Tibet. She spoke about the campaign of her organization TID which has been successful in enrolling more than 450 German city councils to hoist Tibetan flag on their office buildings every year on 10^th March. She said that Tibetans and Tibet supporters are working towards a day when the flag of free Tibet will be hoisted on Potala palace and the Dalia Lama will return to a free and independent Tibet.

Gonpo Dondup in his presentation and his vote of thanks said, “TYC and all Tibetans are celebrating this historic day which very clearly underlines that Tibet has been always an independent country and that the Chinese occupation of Tibet is illegal. China is using its propaganda machinery to establish a false narrative in the international discourse against the truth of independent status of Tibet. It is therefore the duty of every Tibetan, whether in exile or those living under the colonial occupation of Tibet, to fight back this Chinese propaganda. While people of Tibet are struggling for a Free-Tibet they are actually fighting for the national security of India and other countries surrounding China and also for the restoration of peace for the rest of world.”, he said.

NEW HOPES EMERGING FOR THE PEOPLE OF TIBET IN THE CHANGING WORLD NERVOUS COMMUNIST REGIME, GROWING SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE IN CHINA AND CHANGING INTERNATIONAL MOOD GIVE NEW HOPE TO THE COLONIZED PEOPLE OF TIBET. AN INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR DISCUSSES “HOPES AND POSSIBILITIES FOR A FREE TIBET IN THE PRESENT INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO?”

In an international webinar, human rights experts discuss China’s colonial practices in Tibet and their incumbent danger to the Tibetan civilization

News Report by: VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, Milan, London, Dharamshala – 31 March                    Raising serious concerns about the ever deteriorating human rights situation in Chinese occupied Tibet, experts from different parts of the world appealed to the G7 world leaders, who are going to meet at Hiroshima on 19-21 May, to ask Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop his ongoing project of colonial boarding schools in Tibet. Deliberating on subject “China’s Colonial Practices and Threat to the Cultural Identity of Tibet” in an international webinar discussed in details various human rights issues raised recently by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (CESCR).

The webinar was held on 31^st March evening and was jointly organized by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC). The experts who participated in this webinar included John Jones, Policy and Research Manager of ‘Free-Tibet’ of United Kingdom; Marco Respinti, a senior Italian journalist and Director-in-Charge of ‘Bitter Winter’ which is a multi-language newspaper on religion from Milan; and Ms. Rinzin Choedon, National Director of ‘Students for a Free Tibet India’ from Dharamshala. Tsering Chomphel, Joint Secretary of TYC and co-host of the webinar presented the vote of thanks and Prof (Ms) Aaayushi Ketkar of the Special Centre for National Security Studies at JNU and a scholar in international relations and security handled the question-answer session. Vijay Kranti, a veteran Tibetologist and Chairman of CHASE moderated the webinar.

Rinzin Choedon especially focused on the ongoing Chinese campaign of forcibly pushing Tibetan children into a chain of residential schools which are established and run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) across Tibet. “These schools are being systematically run by the Chinese Communist Party to brainwash the entire new generation of Tibet with the aim of eradicating the very identity of Tibet. Already more than one million Tibetan Children have been forcibly taken away from their families and lodged in these schools. This is a matter of concern not only for the people of Tibet but for entire humanity because it has the potential of completely wiping out a rich culture which belongs to the whole world,” she said. Taking note of the international concerns being raised on some platforms of the United Nations and some parliaments she added, “We Tibetans and supporters of Tibet have been raising this issue on various forums for some time. It is a matter of satisfaction that some human rights bodies associated with the UN have now started raising this issue.”

Rinzin pointed out that the process of wiping out Tibetan identity has gained special momentum since President Xi Jinping has come to power, “The process of destroying Tibetan culture and identity has been already going on since decades in Tibet. But unfortunately this campaign has become more tense under President Xi’s rule.”

Marco Respinti presented a detailed analysis of the recent report of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations (CESCR) which was published during its recent and 73^rd session on March 6^th. He pointed out many serious issues raised by the CESCR like forcible resettlement of Tibetan nomadic herders; closure of ongoing Tibetan language schools run voluntarily by the Tibetan society; large scale campaign to eradicate Tibetan culture and language; Sinicization of Tibetan society, especially by enforcing the coerced boarding school system on Tibetan children; and suppression of other human rights of Tibetan people. Commenting on the denial of these charges of CESCR by the Chinese regime by calling these accusations as ‘lies’ he said, “Over the last few years, the CCP’s position has in fact become quite indefensible even for the most pro-PRC partisan. It is in fact impossible to hide the CCP’s misdeeds. Even the CCP changed its own narrative on its own crimes a number of times. But the impossibility of hiding hard facts has also heavily influenced PRC’s reactions. Bullying its adversaries, as well as its victims, today the PRC substantially responds to accusations by saying ‘so what?’ And this is quite alarming”.

Underlining the adamant attitude of the Chinese regime towards such findings of world bodies Marco said, “The CCP will continue its threat to and persecution of Tibet’s cultural identity unless the world has a means to stop it. As an observer, I am not in the position to suggest which means the world should have to adopt to compel the PRC to a more humane behavior. I can only suggest that until the world judges more convenient to trade with the PRC’s power or cherish the CCP’s hybris, Tibetans and other peoples will continue walking theirs paths of sorrow.

John Jones who is a long term China watcher and keeps a close watch on the human rights situation in Tibet, made a special reference to the ongoing blood testing and DNA sampling of Tibetan population by the Chinese police in Tibet. He explained how his group ‘Free-Tibet’ in Britain and many other Tibet support groups across Europe and USA are running a campaign to stop the American company Thermo Fisher Scientific from supplying DNA testing kits to the Chinese police department. “We are now directly approaching and sensitizing the staff of this company about the dangers involved for the Tibetan population in this kind of mass profiling. Our campaign is aimed at raising the conscience of the staff and persuading this company from becoming a tool in this inhuman act of Chinese government,” he said.

John referred to the experience of Dr. Gyal Lo who is a leading Tibetan advocacy expert. Narrating Dr. Gyal Lo’s experience he said, “He saw in his own family how within three months of being sent to boarding preschool, children began to speak to each other only in Chinese, even though they had been raised speaking Tibetan. When the children went home on weekends, they stayed silent in the house, almost acting like guests.” Expressing relief over the issue of China’s colonial boarding schools in Tibet being discussed now on international platforms he said, “It is heartening to see that news magazines like Time and Newsweek and UN bodies have started taking up this issue.” The participants supported John’s appeal to the world leaders who are going to participate in forthcoming G-7 summit to ask the Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop these colonial boarding schools in Tibet.

XI JINPING AND CCP TO PAY HEAVY PRICE FOR OPAQUENESS ON COVID-19

Experts from Europe and Tibet discuss the consequences of Xi Jinping’s failure on Wuhan virus

By VIJAY KRANTI

Paris, Milano, Toronto and New Delhi – 15 January                      One common observation of the speakers in an international webinar on “Consequences of Xi Jinping’s Failure on Covid-19 Front” was that because of total opaqueness of Xi Jinping government about the causes, severity  and other issues related to Wuhan virus, ordinary Chinese citizens have lost faith in their communist government and its leaders. Another consequence which the speakers underlined was that the international community too has finally realized that the reality in context of China is far different from what the Chinese government claims or boasts about. And yet another consequence which China is going to face because of the outbreak of Covid-19 is on its economy and business fronts. As a result of loss of faith in Chinese government before the international community, Beijing is bound to lose a substantial chunk of its international business which may start reflecting in the form of sharp fall in the GDP, economic growth and international business in very near future.

The webinar was organized jointly by Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on Sunday, 15^th January 2023. Main speakers in the webinar were Pierre Antoine Donnet from Paris who is an internationally acclaimed expert and researcher on China and has been a correspondent in the Beijing bureau of French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). He has already authored two books, one on Tibet and other on China and his three more books are in the process of publication. Second speaker was Marco Repinti from Milano in Italy who is a veteran observer of the situation of human rights and religious liberty in China. He is Director-in-charge of ‘Bitter Winter’ which is published daily in many languages including English, Chinese, Italian, French and German. The third speaker was Chemi Lhamo, a young Tibetan activist from Canada. She is currently the Canada representative in the steering committee of International Tibetan Network (ITN) which is a leading communication organization that reports regularly on developments inside Tibet and other colonies of China like East Turkistan (Xinjiang) and Southern Mongolia. Vijay Kranti, Chairman CHASE, journalist and a veteran Tibetologist, moderated the discussion. The question-answer session of the webinar was handled by Dr. Aayushi Ketkar who specializes in international relations and security and is an Associate Professor at the Special Centre for National Security Studies at JNU in New Delhi. Tsering Choephel, Join Secretary of TYC delivered the vote of Thanks.

Pierre Donnet, who has been a keen observer of Chinese system for over five decades, was of the opinion that it has become clear by now that President Xi and his government did not use ‘Zero-Covid’ policy to protect the life of Chinese citizens. Rather, they used it to further strengthen their grip on power and for increased surveillance of ordinary citizens and political opponents within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Referring to the shockwaves which the tragic fire incident at a housing complex in Urumchi (Xinjiang) sent to ordinary Chinese citizens in the mainland China, he said that a common public expression “We all are Uyghurs” which was noticed among the Chinese citizens and across the social media clearly reflects the loss of people’s faith in Xi and his government.

Talking about the economic fallout of mishandling Covid-19 by the Beijing government Donnet said, “Most international monitory institutions are of the opinion that even though economic growth in China has been running in double digits for nearly three decades, it may not even achieve Beijing’s own expectation of 5 pc and can go below 3pc this time.” Talking about the loss of face by President Xi and CCP he said that Covid-9 has significantly hurt their credibility. “CCP may not fall in the imminent future but the position of Xi is quite fragile now as he has lost faith among a good section within the party as well as among common Chinese people,” he added.

Marco Respinti said, “Despite three year long suffering and millions of deaths across the world, we are still at a loss to understanding the origin and the spread of the Wuhan virus. By refusing to share correct information, Chinese government has made it a mystery. But the story of handling Covid within China has further made it a mystery within a mystery.” He regretted that China made things still worse by crushing all attempts by its own doctors and citizens who wanted to inform and warn their own people and the world about the spread of virus. Terming Covid-19 as ‘CCP-Virus’ Marco said that in addition to holding information about the failure of its efforts in stopping the spread of virus, Beijing government misguided the world by influencing WHO and making fake claims about its useless vaccines and exporting it to many gullible countries.

Chemi Lhamo was of the opinion that instead of sharing information and helping the world to control the spread of its virus the Chinese government rather first tried to weaponize this tragedy by letting it spread and play havoc in countries across the world and then by making fake claims about the efficacy of its vaccines. ”But this policy of President Xi has only helped in exposing himself and his government before the world community and his own Chinese people. People of China have now seen through his falsehood and have now lost faith in their own government and the CCP whom they used to believe since decades,” she said.

Lhamo gave example of one such demonstration in Canada where Tibetans and Chinese were demonstrating against Xi and CCP’s Covid-a9 policies in China. “As we were shouting slogans, an international Chinese student came to me and said to me ‘I love my country China. Until recently I had always believed what our communist leaders and the government would tell us. But now I realize that we have been fed with lies. I want to know about Tibet from you.’ In another demonstration at Columbia University the Chinese students joined us and started shouting ‘Free Tibet’ slogans,” she said. “I think one of the biggest consequences of this Covid-19 episode is that the CCP and its leaders have lost faith of their own people in China,” she added.

Communist regime of Xi Jinping is neither omnipotent nor invincible: Experts

VIJAY KRANTI 

13 DECEMBER 2022

New Delhi – In an international webinar that analyzed the ongoing uprising of Chinese people against President Xi Jinping’s ‘Zero Covid’ policy, one common observation was that the commonly dreaded communist regime of China is not omnipotent as commonly believed and hence is not invincible.

Another common observation was that this unusual uprising across China has given a good chance to the ordinary Han people of China to realize what kind of suppression the colonized peoples of Tibet, East Turkistan (Xinjiang), and Southern Mongolia have been undergoing under communist rule.

The webinar, titled “Human Rights of China’s Colonies in the Context of Ongoing People’s Uprising in China” and held on the evening of 12th December, was jointly organised by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC). The participants included Kai Mueller, the Executive Director of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Germany who participated from Berlin. Enghebatu Togochog, the Director of the South Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre (SMHRIC) joined from New York and Tenzin Lekdhen, Campaigns Director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) participated from Dharamshala. Vijay Kranti, a senior journalist and Chairman of CHASE, moderated the discussion from New Delhi. Prof. AayushiKetkar of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an expert on international and security matters handled the question-answer session and vote of thanks.

Referring to the Chinese government’s decision to roll back many restrictions in response to Chinese people’s demonstrations across China, Kai Mueller said that this development has shown to the Chinese people and the world community that the communist regime of Xi Jinping is not invincible. Widespread mass quarantine and resulting demonstrations against President Xi’s ‘Zero Covid’ policy too have proven Beijing’s claims about the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine against Covid-19 as false. Kai said that public demonstrations in the so called ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ have been quite revealing. Referring to the news about public demonstrations in Lhasa against the ‘Zero Covid’ policy, he said that unusual traffic jams were caused by the decision of a large number of Han settlers from Lhasa to return to their own home towns to escape from the ‘Zero Covid’ policy. “But the extraordinarily long prohibitive order, issued by the local Chinese administration, proves that the public anger was not limited only to the Han settlers. The 28th point in the 44-point long order clearly warned the Tibetan people against ‘separatism.’ This proves that the Tibetan people too stood up against the Chinese government”, he said.

Enghebatu Togochog of Southern Mongolia said that events related to the ongoing uprising in China have shown that despite the absence of any centralized leadership, the people of China have risen up against the Chinese communist regime with courage just like what has been happening in Southern Mongolia and other colonies like Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong since decades. “But the commonality between the current Covid related uprising in China and ones in the occupied colonies of China ends here. In my country, despite strong and inhuman suppression faced at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese regime, our Mongolian people are bravely struggling for restoration of independence of their occupied country,” he said.

Enghebatu referred to the last Mongolian uprising of August 2020 which resulted in the arrest of about 8000 to 10000 Mongols who are still suffering in Chinese jails. “We are not fighting simply for our political rights and our human rights. Our fight is for the restoration of our Mongol national identity, collective dignity, and our national pride which the colonial communist regime of China is trying to kill forever,” he said.

The Mongolian expert had a word of praise for the ordinary Han Chinese people who have collectively stood up against President Xi’s dictatorial regime. “Over history, the Han people have been used to repression of their rulers and are known for falling in the discipline. Many people have come to believe that the Chinese people of the present People’s Republic of China will tolerate government oppression until all of their rights are taken away from them. But the way ordinary Chinese citizens have risen up this time against President Xi’s communist regime shows that there is a limit to their tolerance and they are not as timid as some people believe,” he added.

Youthful Tenzin Lekdhen of SFT said that it is not the first time that people have stood up against the suppression of the communist regime of China. He gave examples of Tibetan uprisings in 1959, 1987, 1989, and 2008, the 1999 uprising of Falun Gang, and many such uprisings in Xinjiang and S. Mongolia when people stood up against their colonial master the CCP. “This time it was different because the Han Chinese population too has shown the courage of standing up and challenging their communist rulers. This was the first time that the Chinese citizens of many Chinese cities and towns showed the guts to call for President Xi’s resignation and called for democracy in China,” he said.

Lekdhenreferred to some public demonstrations by Chinese immigrants in the USA against the Covid restrictions in China and to express their solidarity with their fellow Chinese inside China. “At some places in the USA where Tibetan people, holding flags of Tibet, were demonstrating against the Chinese communist regime, the Chinese too joined them and shouted ‘Free Tibet’ to express their solidarity with the fellow Tibetan people. The Covid inspired uprising in China has given an opportunity to the ordinary people of China to realize what kind of repression the people of Chinese colonies have been undergoing for decades,” added Lekdhen.