XI JINPING’S NEW LAW ON RELIGION IS NOTHING BUT ‘COMMUNISTIZATION’ OF RELIGION

International experts call upon world community to stop Chinese government from implementing new law on religion before it is too late

By- VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, New York, London, Taipei : October 2 A group of leading international experts
on China has drawn the attention of world community to stop Chinese President Xi Jinping from
imposing a new law which is aimed at eradicating all religious faiths like Buddhism, Christianity and
Islam in China. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims that this law, titled as ‘Order-19’, is
aimed at “standardizing the management of places of religious activity” but in actual practice it is
nothing short of what they termed as the ‘communistization’ of religion. Since this law is going to
severely hurt the sentiments of millions of Chinese citizens as well as those belonging to occupied and

colonized countries like Tibet, East Turkistan (Xinjiang) and Southern Mongolia the world institutions
should act before it is too late.
The webinar, jointly organized by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and
Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC).The experts who participated were Dr. Chienyu Shi of Taiwan Institute for
National Defence and Security Research from Taipei; Dr. Chin Jin, Chairperson of Federation for a
Democratic China from Sydney; Dr. Enver Bughda, a prominent Uyghur activist and medical surgeon
from London who exposed the ongoing racket of organ harvesting in China; and Mr. Enghebatu
Togochog, a Mongol writer and editor of ‘Southern Mongolia Watch” from New York. Mr. Sonam
Tsering, General Secretary of TYC and Co-host of the webinar gave vote of thanks while Prof. (Ms.)
Aayushi Ketkar, of Special Centre for National Security Studies JNU handled the question-answer
session. Vijay Kranti, a senior journalist, Tibetologist and Chairman CHASE hosted the event as
moderator.
Dr. Chin Jin said that ‘Order-19’ which Beijing claims to strengthen the regulation and management of
religious venues is in reality adding further restrictions on religious freedom. He said that it is
unfortunate that even some high ranking religious leaders, living in the free world, like Pope Francis of
Rome and Buddhist masters from Taiwan like Hsing Yun and Master Chin Kung willingly submitted to
CCP’s dictations. “While the Pope and the two Buddhist masters asked the Catholic and Buddhist
followers in China and Hong Kong to submit to the CCP, Master Chin Kung even went as far as calling Xi
Jinping a ‘Bodhisattva’ incarnation,” he added.
However, sounding a note of optimism Dr. Chin Jin said, “Only when various forces and factors converge
to bring about the fall of the CCP, will the restrictions and oppression on religious freedom in Tibet and
other regions come to an end and disappear” he added.

Presenting his analysis of President Xi Jinping’s policies on religion in the context of the new Chinese law

under “Order-19,” Dr. Chienyu Shih raised three pertinent questions. His first question was “Is there
really any space for religious freedom in China which can be or needs to be governed?” His second
question was “What do they mean by ‘Sinicizing’?” And the third was “What is the strategy of Xi and
other communists to make ‘Sinicization’ of religions happen? And how much have they succeeded so
far?”
Giving his own understanding of the idea of ‘Sinicization’ of religion in real terms is, what he termed as,
‘Communistization’ of religion. “There is no Church, meaning the ‘Church’ of any religion, in today’s
China. The ultimate authority of every such institution lies in the CCP. They are focused on developing
communist cadres as the religious leaders – with the final aim of developing political loyalty to the CCP
among the faith holders,” he said adding that, The CCP’s policy on religion is quite simple. You have to
forget whether you are a Mongol, a Tibetan or an Uyghur – not to mention of the Taiwanese, Hong
Kongers. No matter which ethnicity you belong to or where you come from, you have simply to go under
the CCP’s rule.”
Dr. Enver Bughda said, “Communism can function and gain control only in chaos. Where there is no
chaos, they just create it to find a role for themselves. This is exactly what President Xi is doing in the
world today. Inside China it’s a history of nothing but chaos. Now what Xi is doing with religion through
various policies is to create chaos in order to control the entire religious system. Current ‘Order-19’ is a
part of that game.” Underlining the CCP’s policy of keeping itself above the God he said, ”In today’s
China there is no place for Allah or Jesus or Buddha at the top in one’s faith. It has to be the CCP and Xi
Jinping on the top. They are worse than the Taliban in Afghanistan where they blasted a big statue of
Buddha. In today’s Tibet they are destroying all big statues of Buddha. “
Dr. Bughda gave an interesting example of double standards being adopted and practiced by President
Xi on religion. “In the beginning of ongoing Asian Games in China Xi took the visiting King and Queen of
Syria to a temple for prayers. It looks absurd because the guest King and the Queen were practicing
Muslims who would not pray in a temple. But the real game of Xi was to offer prayers for the safety of
his own kingdom without being noticed by the communist cadres and others for going to a temple and
praying.”
Striking a sad note about the situation in Southern Mongolia which happens to be under China’s colonial
occupation since 1919, Mr. Enghebatu Togochog said, “In my country no religion is left which can be
further destroyed by President Xi Jinping’s new law on religion. Soon after coming to power in 1949
Chairman Mao’s CCP attacked and destroyed every symbol of our Buddhist national identity. They did it
because of vengeance against the Mongols who had ruled over China for many centuries. They killed
and eliminated our entire class of elites to ensure that no sign of our nationality could survive. Today
they are bent upon destroying or language by imposing Mandarin Chinese language at every level. Even
the traditional nomad yak and goat herders have been forced to quit their lifestyle on the fake ground of
protecting environment.”

In his vote of thanks as the co-host of the webinar Sonam Tsering, the General Secretary of Tibetan
Youth Congress and a popular youth leader among the Tibetan diaspora, said that the Chinese
government has been making all efforts to erase the Tibetan national identity through destruction of
institutions and re-education of monks in the communist way. They are trying to occupy the Tibetan
tradition of reincarnation of senior religious leaders, including that of the Dalai Lama, which is unique in
the world. “Since 2009 the TYC observes 13 th July as a special day to oppose China’s interference in the
reincarnation system. Such moves show the Chinese leaders’ desperation for failure to eradicate love
and devotion for His Holiness the Dalai Lama from the hearts of the Tibetan people. ‘Order-19’ is just
another expression of their frustration,” he said.
Vijay Kranti, a veteran Indian Tibetologist who is also the Chairman of CHASE and the host of the show,
presented the Tibetan perspective on the state of religion inside Chinese occupied Tibet. Tracing the
history of Chinese policy on Tibetan Buddhism since 1951 he said that the current decision of imposing
their ‘Order-19’ by the Beijing masters of Tibet is the fourth and, perhaps, the last stage of eradicating
religion completely out of Tibetan people’s social, cultural and political life. He referred to the 1951-
1959 era as the first stage when Mao, his PLA and CCP promised autonomy on religion and cultural
matters only to back out leading to the Tibetan uprising of 1959 against the Chinese colonial rule. In the
second stage Mao and subsequent communist leaders of China tried aggressively to destroy people’s
faith in Buddha Dharma and the exiled Dalai Lama hoping that it will force the ordinary Tibetans to
behave as true ‘Patriotic Chinese’.
“However, when widespread Tibetan uprisings happened in 1987 and 1989 only then Beijing’s
communist leadership realized the power of religion and adopted a new strategy of occupying religion
from within as their third attempt to tame the Tibetans. This stage has been especially focused on
implanting CCP’s stooges as new incarnate Lamas at every possible place and increasing CCP control on
all religious institutions of Tibet. It was finally the Tibetan uprising of 2008 and the emergence of Xi
Jinping as the ‘Paramount Leader’ of the CCP that the fourth strategy of annihilating the Tibetan religion
and national identity completely has been taken up. By snatching hundreds of thousands of Tibetan
children from their parents and pushing these kids into regimented CCP residential schools they are now
hoping for a new generation of Tibet which will be visually Tibetan but mentally they will be CCP’s
robots. ‘Order-19’ is just the concluding part of this campaign which covers the rest of Tibetan society,”
said Kranti.

CHINA’S CARTOGRAPHIC MANIPULATION OF TIBET IS ‘COLONIALISM OF PERCEPTION’

58th Anniversary of “Tibet Autonomous Region”

XI JINPING AND CCP FOCUSED AT WIPING OUT IDENTITY OF TIBET, XIJIANG AND S. MONGOLIA

 Report by: VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, Paris, New York & Dharamshala – 28 August 2023

Many international experts on China and Tibet are of the opinion that President Xi Jinping’s obsession with security and to present himself as the new Mao Zedong is resulting into cultural genocide and total annihilation of the national personality of China’s colonies like Tibet, East Turkistan (Xinjiang) and Southern Mongolia. Analyzing the causes and impact of dividing occupied Tibet in 1965 into many pieces at an international webinar titled “China’s Cartographic Colonialism in Tibet” experts from USA, Europe, Tibet and India expressed concern that China’s Communist Party (CCP) and its leaders are religiously focused at washing out Tibet’s history by rewriting and propagating a manufactured version that suits Chinese expansionism.

The webinar, jointly organized by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) this Saturday evening, marked the eve of 58th anniversary of Mao’s decision to break occupied Tibet into many parts and branding one of these parts as ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ (TAR) on 1st September 1965. Fourteen years after occupying Tibet in 1951, Mao chopped off many parts of Kham and Amdo provinces from original Tibet and merged them into adjoining Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. Beijing celebrates this day every year as a special day of reforms in Tibet.

The experts who shared their views in this webinar included Pierre Antoine Donnet from Paris, a well-known author of books on China and former new bureau correspondent of AFP in Beijing; Dr. Uwe Meya a veteran expert on Tibet and a member of the board of directors in the Swiss-Tibet Friendship Association (GSTF); Tenzin Sampho, the head of US-Tibet Coalition who is also an expert and active supporter on asylum matters and human rights in USA. Vijay Kranti, Chairman CHASE and a renowned journalist and Tibetologist moderated the webinar while Gonpo Dhundup , President of TYC delivered vote of thanks. Prof. Aaayushi Ketkar of JNU and expert in international and security matters handled the question-answer session.

Dr Uwe Meya, a well-known Swiss expert on Tibet who extensively traveled through Tibet when China decided to open Tibet to exploit its international tourism potentials, described China’s policy on Tibet as ‘Colonialism of Perception’. Supporting this concept he said that the Chinese propaganda machinery has been consistently focused at managing and promoting this perception among the international community that Tibet is not an occupied ‘country’ but is just another  ‘region in South West China’; or that Tibetans are not a ‘people’ but just one of the ‘nationalities’ or a ‘minority’ community within China. “It is unfortunate that a big section of international media and other opinion makers have fallen into this trap of China,” he said.

He also pointed out that the Xi Jinping’s government is now bent upon washing out the Tibetan names of Tibetan cities, towns and regions from the international memory and usage. “Two months ago the CCP has formally banned using word ‘Tibet’ and to replace it with the Chinese name ‘Xizang’. President Xi Jinping is now focused at removing the mention of word ‘Tibet’ in all areas right from politics to science. Even Wikipedia too has started using it. And this is what I call colonialism of perception,” he said.

Mr. Pierre Antoine Donnet presented a detailed analysis of how the consistently weakening economic situation in China and increasing public disappointment with President Xi due to growing unemployment and the impact of mismanagement of the Covid on Chinese people’s lives have made Xi feel very insecure. “A new winter is descending on China. Even while the Chinese leaders have learnt many lessons from developments like the breakup of Soviet Union, fall of the Berlin Wall and events of 1989 at Tianmen Square in China, yet the CCP looks doomed. As a result of this the situation in China for the CCP and its leaders, especially President Xi Jinping is becoming more and more fragile – month by month.”

He specifically pointed at China’s efforts to assimilate the Tibetans and the Uyghur communities into the Han identity. “Chinese leaders and the CCP have failed to realize that only material policies are not enough for the human beings. This is especially proving  true for the Tibetan people and the people of Xinjiang,” he added.

Mr. Tenzin Sampho from New York, who was born and brought up in Chinese occupied Tibet,  gave details of how China is using language and education to eradicate the distinct personality of Tibet. “In my early years we used to get our education in Tibetan language till the fifth standard and then the medium of instruction would change to Mandarin. But now Chinese administration takes away even small children from their homes in very early age and puts them into residential schools where the only language is Chinese and they are exposed to strong communist brainwashing. The CCP is bent upon Sinicizing every Tibetan to finish Tibet’s own identity permanently. Very soon a real Tibetan might become a special piece for Chinese museums,” he said.

Speaking about the division of original Tibet and assimilation of many parts of historic Tibet into neighboring provinces of China, Tenzin said that there is very strict control on the movement of Tibetans living in these provinces. “One has to seek special official authorization to travel from one place to another. There are dozens of police checking points on every road. The people of Amdo and Kham are not allowed to travel to TAR — not even to go to Lhasa for pilgrimage,” he added.

Introducing the subject and the panelists to the audience Vijay Kranti said that Chairman Mao was quite worried over the rising international awareness about the deteriorating situation of human rights in Tibet and the undying spirit of Tibetan people for freedom from China. That is why he created TAR only to deceive the world community and make it believe that only this part was Tibet. Moreover he wanted to dilute the Tibetan resistance against Chinese occupation by distributing Tibetan populations of Kham and Amdo to adjoining provinces of China.

While giving his vote of Thanks, Gonpo Dhundup, President of TYC made it clear that his organization and the people of Tibet are fighting for the independence of entire Tibet and not just for TAR which was created by China to fool the world. When we talk of Tibet it clearly means all three regions of Tibet which are U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo. A very large number among 157 self-immolations in Tibet in recent years are from areas outside TAR. It shows that Tibetan people from all three provinces are struggling for freedom from Chinese colonial occupation,” he said.

 

WORLD GOVERNMENTS AND W.H.O. MUST WAKE UP TO STOP CHINA FROM INHUMAN HARVESTING OF HUMAN ORGANS FOR TRANSPLANT BUSINESS

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

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 110th anniversary of the ‘Declaration of Independence of Tibet’ by the 13th 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 13th 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 13th 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 13th 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 13th 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 10th 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.

AN INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR ON “HOPES AND POSSIBILITIES FOR A FREE TIBET IN THE PRESENT INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO?”

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 31st 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 73rd session on March 6th. 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.

NEW HOPES EMERGING FOR THE PEOPLE OF TIBET IN THE CHANGING WORLD

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?”

By- VIJAY KRANTI

 

NEW DELHI-PARIS-LONDON-BERLIN-DHARAMSHALA, 9 March                       Tibet experts from a cross section of countries see signs of hope for the colonized people of Tibet and other countries, occupied by China, in the ever increasing nationalist rhetoric by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who are now struggling to keep their hold over China’s ruling system. In an international webinar, held on the eve of 64th anniversary of Tibetan people’s uprising against Chinese colonial rule over Tibet, they saw a big hope in the continuing expression of resistance against Chinese rule among the Tibetan population living under the Chinese rule.

The webinar was organized jointly by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) and the topic of discussion was “Hopes and Possibilities for a Free Tibet in the Present International Scenario.” The expert speakers included Pierre Antoine Donnet, an internationally acclaimed China expert, author and journalist who has had a long stint in Beijing as a correspondent of French news agency AFP. He joined from Paris. Another speaker was Kai Mueller who is Executive Director of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), Germany who joined in from Berlin. Ms. Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, a member of the Steering Committee of International Tibet Network (ITN) joined in from London. The fourth speaker was Ms. Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar who is an elected Member of the Tibetan Parliament in exile. Prof (Ms) Aaayushi Ketkar of the Special Centre for National Security Studies at JNU and a scholar in international relations and security matters handled the question-answer session of the webinar whereas Ms. Tenzin Lhamo, the Information Secretary of TYC presented her concluding remarks and vote of Thanks. Vijay Kranti, a veteran Tibetologist and Chairman of CHASE moderated the webinar.

The experts took note of the pan-Tibet anti-China protests of 2008; Tibetan people’s deep reverence for Dalai Lama despite his six decade long absence; unending spate of unfortunate self-immolations; and public and individual protests happening frequently across Tibet. They termed these elements as a clear indication of the spirit of freedom remaining alive among the Tibetan people despite rigid controls of China on their lives.

In her presentation Lhagyari underlined the significance of the 10th March in the ongoing history of Tibetan freedom movement. She said, “This day is not only a day for expression of Tibetan people’s collective voice for a free and independent Tibet, it is also to draw world’s attention to the occupation of other colonies of China like East Turkistan, Southern Mongolia and Hong Kong. Our struggle is for the cause of entire humanity,” she said.  She recalled how China’s People Liberation Army (PLA) has killed more than a million Tibetans to fortify its occupation of Tibet. Asserting that Tibet has been a free and independent country throughout the history she said that China is trying to manipulate and rewrite history to assert its claims over Tibet.

Referring to the unabated spirit of the Tibetan people to regain their independence from China, Lhagyari drew attention of the world community to the new campaign of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party under which hundreds of thousands of Tibetan children are being taken away from their families to be forcibly kept in the CCP schools to brainwash them in the Communist ideology and to wean them away from their cultural identity

Pierre Antoine Donnet, who has a long experience in watching political developments in China, said that although the CCP has achieved strong control over China and appears to remain in power for a long time, but still the Chinese communist bosses are quite nervous today because of rising opposition and resentment among the Chinese population. He said that after the historic democratic uprising of Chinese youths against the communist regime in 1989 this was the first time that the Chinese people stood up against the communist leadership and the CCP’s for their poor handling of Covid-19. “There were demonstrations in more than 20 cities in which thousands of Chinese youths openly demanded resignation of President Xi and replacing the communist rule with a democratic one. This is a very significant development,” he said.

Donnet underlined the nervousness among the Chinese communist leadership, especially President Xi. “This nervousness became evident from the sudden U-turn on Covid controls,” he said. He also referred to the speeches of President Xi and his new PM at the latest meeting of the Parliament. “Both Xi and his new Prime Minister devoted long time in criticizing and accusing America and western countries. They looked nervous because they are finding that more and more countries are joining hands against China.” He observed that the freedom movements both in Tibet and Xinjiang are gaining momentum. “The international awareness about the real situation in Tibet and Xinjiang is increasing among the world community which is a good sign for both,” he added.

Kai Mueller expressed concern over China’s role in the ongoing Ukraine war. He pointed out that more and more western countries are now realizing that China is becoming a close ally of Russia and cannot be relied upon for conducting any honest negotiations with Russia for bring truce and peace in this war. “World is now realizing China’s increasing attempts in the United Nations, especially in the UN Human Rights Council where it is continuously attempting to undermine definitions, standards and processes of acknowledged and well established UN Rights mechanisms,” he said.

Talking about the take away of the Ukraine war for the Tibetan people he said, “The issue of near total dependence on one source for energy has become quite evident among the western countries during the ongoing Ukraine war. This might now lead to decoupling and diversification of trade with China. If this happens then we can hope a lesser influence of the western corporates over the foreign policy of their respective governments about China. And this will surely lead to a better realization and understanding of western governments on the Tibetan and the Uyghur cause.”

Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, an old hand at developing strategies in the Tibetan campaign, reflected a hopeful scenario on the issue of Tibet as she finds a noticeable change and realization about China in many countries, especially in the UK. She said that the government and people of UK are waking up to their vulnerability to Chinese spying and surveillance through China made CCTV cameras and other equipment. “Just like we have been using asbestos in our homes and buildings without realizing its dangerous impact on our health, we are now waking up to the danger posed by the Chinese CCTV cameras and other Chinese equipment….. But UK is not the only country which is becoming aware of this danger from China. There are many other countries like Australia and USA who are rising up to this challenge. And all this will lead to a better understanding of the situation of the people of Tibet, ” she added. She pointed out at the naïve belief of many countries that more trade with China will bring more democratic and political change in China.

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

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, 15th 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 JINGPING IS NEITHER OMNIPOTENT NOR INVINCIBLE

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.

CHINA’S COLONIAL CONDUCT IN TIBET, XINJIANG AND S. MONGOLIA IS THE WORST FORM OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

CHINA’S COLONIAL CONDUCT IN TIBET, XINJIANG AND S. MONGOLIA IS THE WORST FORM OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

International Experts ask the world to confront China for its colonialist deeds and the ongoing cultural genocide in China’s colonies

 

News Report by -Vijay Kranti

New Delhi, New York, Washington D.C. and Dharamshala – 28 September        In today’s world when terrorism is being considered as a great threat to the humanity, human civilization and the rule of law, the colonialism and cultural genocide being practiced blatantly by China in Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia the world community should take note of it and confront it as the worst form of terrorism. This was one of the common observations of experts in an international webinar, organized on the eve of China’s celebration of its ‘National Day’ on coming first October. The experts shared the fear that after adding Hong Kong to the list of its colonized territories China is now threatening to occupy Taiwan also.

As China is preparing for her annual ‘National Day’ and the ‘Golden Week Holiday’ which start on coming 1st October, representatives of China’s three major colonies namely Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia joined hands at an international discussion platform to underline the serious colonial conduct of Chinese rulers against the citizens of these occupied countries. The webinar entitled “Celebration of Colonialism by China’, was organized by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) on Wednesday the 28th September evening. The participants included Mr. Salih Hudayar, the ‘Prime Minister’ of East Turkistan Government-in-Exile, who joined from Washington DC;  Mr. Enghebatu Togochog, a prominent leader and thinker among the S. Mongolian diaspora from New York; Mr. Sonam Tsering, General Secretary of TYC from Dharamshala in India and Mr. Kai Mueller, Executive Director at International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) Germany from Berlin. Mr. Vijay Kranti, Tibetologist and Chairman CHASE moderated the discussion.

Mr. Hudayar, the Prime Minister of the exile government of East Turkistan, which is known as ‘Xinjiang’ in China, said that many people are hoping that if the group headed by President Xi Jinping of China is deposed from power or if the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ends in China and a democratic system takes over, all problem cause by China will end. “But the real problem for the people of East Turkistan, Tibet and Southern Mongolia is the colonial occupation of their respective countries by China. Unless the colonialist tendencies of the Chinese and their forced occupation of other countries end, there is no hope for these colonized countries,” he said.

Presenting a long list of atrocities being committed by the CCP rulers on the Uyghurs and other Turkic people of his country he said that the Chinese government brands every Muslim citizen of East Turkistan, as a ‘terrorist’ who supports a beard, speaks in his own national language, encourages other people not to smoke or drink and even those families whose any member is living abroad. He alleged that in addition to forcing the Uyghur women to go in for abortion, sterilization or marrying to the newly settled Han men there are innumerable cases of organ harvesting from arrested Uyghurs for China’s international business of organ transplant. “The organs harvested from the Muslim Uyghurs are offered as ‘Halal Organs’ to international Muslim patients from abroad,” he said.

Mr. Enghebatu Togochog who is the Director of S. Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) in New York, said that nearly a third of the population of his country has been tortured to death by the CCP rulers since China occupied Southern Mongolia which is termed as ‘Inner Mongolia’ by China. “My country has been observing waves of Chinese Han settlers over past decades which have changed the demographic character of my country. The entire nomadic community of S. Mongolia, who used to be a distinct part of the Mongolian identity, has been completely disbanded and their lands have been occupied for mining and settlement of Han settlers,” he said. “The biggest danger to my country from China is the ongoing process of wiping out the original Mongol ethnic identity of our people by imposing the Chinese language and demographic manipulations through forced marriages of Mongol women with the Han settlers and other means. This is the same cultural genocide which CCP is practicing in Tibet and East Turkistan,” he added.

Mr. Kai Mueller, who is a known expert on Tibet and a keen observer of China’s colonial system, presented a well analyzed view of the colonial rule and administration of Tibet, East Turkistan and S. Mongolia by China’s communist masters. Saying that the world has understood colonialism so far only from the view point of the colonial powers from North America and Europe, but the world is changing and the Asian and African view on this issue is also emerging now. “I believe our Western view on China, on the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Mongolians needs to be decolonized. This explicitly requires adopting the perspectives of those colonized. Decolonization in this sense does not only entail restoring justice for those colonized, and accountability towards the colonizer, but also to decolonize the view on peoples that are ruled by a colonizing power,” he said.

He referred to the 1997 report of the ‘Unrepresented People’s Organization’ (UNPO) which was entitled as “China’s Tibet: the World’s Largest Remaining Colony”. This report said, “The PRC, a state which has been at the forefront of the struggle against colonialism and which has been a champion of colonised peoples, is today undeniably a colonial power itself.”

Equating the colonial rule of some European nations in Asia and Africa with that of what China is now practicing in Tibet, E. Turkistan and S. Mongolia Mueller said, “As colonizers, the Chinese state by all means needs to maintain the posture of the benevolent, liberating and caring ruler, who has brought progress and prosperity to a once backward and underdeveloped people…. A narrative that in its essence is deeply colonial and reminiscent of colonial rule in Africa and Asia by European nations, with its discriminatory and racist attitude. It is the attitude typical for the colonial power vis a vis the colonized people.”

Mr. Sonam Tsering, the General Secretary of Tibetan Youth Congress, said that China has practiced every tool of colonialism in Tibet since its occupation seven decades ago. Referring to reports coming out of Tibet in recent days he said that Chinese authorities are running a campaign of DNA testing of every Tibetan subject under the garb of testing for Covid-19. He said that serious mishandling of Covid-19 situation by the Chinese administration in Tibet during past two months has caused very serious problems for the Tibetan people. Latest reports show that at least five Tibetans committed suicide as a result of terrorizing conduct of CCP administration and hunger caused by this mishandling.

In his introductory remarks Mr. Vijay Kranti, Chairman CHASE who moderated the discussion, pointed out a major contradiction in the communist theories of the CCP rulers of China and their actual conduct. He said, “It is very difficult to understand that on the one hand China is celebrating their liberation from feudal rule and occupation of China by foreign colonial forces. They go to the extent of terming colonial occupation of their country by many European countries and Japan as ‘The Century of National Shame’. But on the other hand they have no shame about colonial occupation of Tibet, Manchuria, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia. This arrogance is so deep that they can’t even tolerate when the people of these occupied countries and their international supporters point out to the worst kind of colonial atrocities CCP is committing on these colonized subjects. And the worst part of the game is that after blatantly colonizing Hong Kong recently, the communist masters of China are threatening to impose their colonial rule over Taiwan also.”

Dr. Aayushi Ketkar from Special Centre for National Security Studies at JNU who handled the question-answer session of the webinar also pointed out that one of the major challenges before the victims of Chinese colonialism is to challenge the narrative which China has built up on the strength of its economic and military power over the years.

WORLD COMMUNITY AND U.N. SHOULD TAKE URGENT STEPS TO STOP DISAPPEARANCE AND CULTURAL GENOCIDE IN CHINA’S COLONIES

 

Experts from Tibet, East Turkistan and S. Mongolia raise common voice in an international webinar to mark the ‘UN Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearance’

By – VIJAY KRANTI

New Delhi, New York, Canberra and Dharamshala – 30 August               In addition to thousands of citizens of Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia who disappear every year under the Chinese colonial rule, millions of children of 6 – 18 year age group have also disappeared into the brainwashing schools established by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in these colonies. While grown up individuals, who raise their voice against the Chinese colonialism in their respective countries vanish forever into the Chinese jails, these children are the victims of President Xi Jinping’s game plan of enforcing a ‘Common national Chinese identity’ as they will be lost forever to their own culture, families and society. Experts from these three countries called upon the world community, especially the United Nations, to take urgent and effective steps to stop this process of disappearance and ‘cultural genocide’ in these Chinese colonies.

These experts made a common cause of their sufferings under China’s colonial rule at an international webinar on 30 August to mark the United Nation’s “International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance”.  The webinar was organized jointly by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE) and Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) and was entitled “DISAPPEARING VICTIMS OF CHINESE COLONIALISM.” The main focus of the discussion was the serious situation of disappearance of a large number of people in Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia who dare to speak up against the problems being faced by local massed because of the colonial rule of China over their respective countries. It was one of those rare occasions when activist experts from these three countries, occupied by China, shared their pain and struggle from a common platform.

The three speakers who represented their respective country were Ms. Rinzin Choedon, the National Director, Students for a Free-Tibet India who spoke from Dharamshala; Ms. Nurgul Sawut, the Executive Chairperson of Uyghur Freedom Forum (UFF) who presented the Uyghur case from Canberra in Australia; and Mr. Enghebatu Togochog, the Director of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, who spoke from New York. Vijay Kranti, a senior Indian journalist, Tibetologist and Chairman of CHASE moderated the webinar from New Delhi.

In her presentation Ms. Nurgul  said that there have been thousands of cases of disappearance of the Uyghurs and other Turkik people in East Turkistan, renamed as ‘Xinjiang’ by China after its occupation, in which the families were given no information about the fate of the person after one was arrested or just taken away by the Chinese police. “In most cases it is a male member of the family who simply disappears after his arrest and the Chinese officials refuse to let the families meet him or share any information about him. As a result of the agony and frustration the incidence of suicide among the Uyghur women has gone very high over the years. It has been noticed that most of these women are in the 25 to 40 year age group who could not cope with the disappearance of their husband or son,” she said. “It is very strange that the United Nations records and displays the cases of disappearance in many countries, especially in Africa, but refuses to take note of this type of disappearances in “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” under the Chinese colonial occupation.

Nurgul said that, “Entire East Turkistan has been converted into a jail. While a few million people, majority of them in the 14-65 year age group, have been enclosed in mass internment camps, more than 950,000 (0.9 million) Uyghur children have been forcibly taken away from their families and are being brainwashed with communist ideology in the schools which are being run by the CCP”. She emphasized that going by the United Nation’s own definition of ‘forcible disappearance’ these children of East Turkistan also belong to this category because they are not only taken away by force and without the parents’ consent, these children are also cursed to live permanently away from their own family and cultural environment to be brainwashed under the CCP’s control.

Mr. Enghebatu Togochog, an internationally acclaimed and a prominent human rights activist from Southern Mongolia, presented cases of two well-known citizens of his country who were kept in jail even after their jail terms were complete. In one such case the person was kept hostage and tortured by the Chinese police in a private house building. When his family insisted on knowing about his welfare and whereabouts, all members of the family were also arrested. On this point Kranti referred to a common practice of Chinese police maintaining innumerable houses across all provinces of China which have come to be known as ‘Private Jails’. These Private Jails are nowhere documented in official records but are regularly used by the Public Security Bureau, the police tool of the CCP, to keep political dissidents incognito and out of the public or official scrutiny. There have been frequent allegations, especially by activists of Falun-Gong, a banned cultural sect of China,  that such ‘private jails’ are used to keep prisoners for organ harvesting which is a roaring underground activity that is patronized by some influential CCP and PLA leaders to support organ transplant business across China.

Enghebatu spoke about the new policy of the Chinese government to replace the Mongolian language in the educational institutions and the official system in Southern Mongolia. “Under President Xi Jinping’s new campaign of adopting ‘Common Chinese national identity’ in the colonized regions he has started a ‘cultural-genocide’ which is aimed at destroying original national identity of these countries and submerge them into the Han Chinese identity. The Mongolian people are strongly resisting this Chinese policy. As a result of this national resistance movement thousands of Mongols who were fighting for their mother tongue have been arrested in recent times. Unfortunately, families of a large number of those who were arrested are not able to get any information about their whereabouts,” he added.

Rinzin Choedon who is a keen watcher of the human rights situation inside Chinese ruled Tibet, said that the current target of Chinese rulers in Tibet is the new generation of Tibetan writers and musicians who are among the most efficient influencers of the public mind. She gave example of Geshe (Doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy) Sherab Gyatso who is a renowned and vocal Tibetan scholar and who publicly asked the Chinese government to stop replacing Tibetan language with the Chinese language in school system. He was arrested and sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. Despite all efforts of his supporters the Chinese refuse to give any information about him.

She presented the case of the Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet as the most prominent example of disappearance of dissidents and ‘unwanted’ people inside China ruled Tibet. Gedhun was 6 years old in 1995 when the China appointed team of Tibetan monks identified him as the incarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama after secretly consulting the Dalai Lama in exile. Angry over their attempt to contact the Dalai Lama the Chinese police not only arrested the monks but also took away the child and his parents and announced another 5 year old boy Gyaltsen Norbu as the ‘real’ incarnation. Since then the Chinese government has refused to share any information about Gedhun and his parents despite repeated efforts of major international human rights organizations like the Amnesty International and forums like the European Parliament.

Rinzin also mentioned that just like what Nurgul had pointed out, more than eight hundred thousand Tibetan children of 6-18 year age group too have been taken away from their parents by the Chinese government to lodge them in specially established schools of the Chinese Communist Party. She called upon the people of Tibet, East Turkistan and Southern Mongolia to join hands and fight what she termed as ‘cultural genocide’ being committed by the Chinese government in these colonized nations.

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