Human rights violation against Tibetan population has been on a substantive rise in the past year or so. The Chinese Communist Party’s suppressive outlook in Tibet has led to belief that China is potentially gearing up for a significant crackdown on protesting groups that it views as threat to its power.
Multiple Chinese embassies across the world say protests erupting outside its premises on 10th December to mark the International Human Rights Day. Among the protesters were Tibetans living in exile and in hope that one day they could unite with their homeland. Even after the Tibetan native populations cause have largely remained an international issue, China’s rise in the international order has helped it side-line agendas discussing the gross human rights violation it orchestrates inside of the region.
The Tibetan population has mostly been on the receiving end of violent crackdowns, surpassing the ones that have already bloated the CCP’s image of a violent regime.Apart from discrimination preventing the use of local culture and language, the communities are also banned from propagating the Dalai Lama’s name or writings. Such is the fear of mass revolt that can provoke the local community and thus has mostly resulted in state suppression of both communities and news outlets in reporting such crimes.In the past thirty years, hundreds of young Tibetans have self-immolated themselves and have given up their life to bring to notice the regressive nature of the Chinese state.
Many Tibetans watchers have stated that the Chinese Tibetan policy relies heavily upon limiting foreign contact in Tibet as well as preventing economic prosperity and development in the adjoining regions. More so, the Chinese state has also heavily relied on altering the local demography in an attempt to disbalance the ethnic and cultural blend of the region and more so of the belief system of Tibet itself.
Early this year in January, a significant religious statue standing 99 feet tall along with 45 traditional payer wheels for Tibetan pilgrims in Drago in Tibetan Autonomous Region was brought down in concerted attempt to destabilize the ongoing situation. Authorities also went on to supress the news while arresting dozens of local and placing them into labour camps.
More so, many protesting social activists including prominent writers and poets have been censored from producing content criticising the Chinese authorities. A primary reason for the censorship is understood to be the propagation of Tibetan identity which is considered a red line by China’s political class. Furthermore, the restrictions on local language as well as their religion is testimony to the power Tibet’s culture withholds in the form of worrying the CCP and its potential dangers to the ruling elite in the country. A parallel can be easily
drawn from the violent nature of suppression that takes place in the form of fatal torture conducted by Chinese state police in the region.
Recently in one of his speeches, China’s president Xi Jinping deemed his intention to building an impregnable fortress to ward of any threat posed by revolutionaries in Tibet. This was not only a direct threat to those seeking better living conditions for the general public of the distraught region, but was also directed to those that attempted to preserve their culture form the clutches of vicious Chinese suppression. The horrific memory of malicious intent of ruthless killing and arresting from the 2008 Tibet protests still live on in the lives of those affected. Since then, the motto of forced assimilation has been China’s top most strategy for the Tibet region, irrespective of the consequences upon the lives of communities residing in the region.
Upon Xi Jinping’s previous visit to Nepal, a troublesome extradition bill was signed by both the governments, which largely went unnoticed due to the attention on Hong Kong’s prevailing instability. One of the many proposals that were inked was the understanding that would extradite Tibetan refuges from Nepal. Kathmandu has been seen to be the defacto route to escape the treacherous atmosphere that has been created behest the CCP. Hence, when Nepal attempted to stall the treaty, president Xi personally negotiated to clear the roadways for the deal. It would not be a surprise if China sweetened the deal by pledging infrastructural development in the country as an exchange for extradition of Tibetans that sought a better future in India. However, a far worse prospect emerged after the details ofthe treaty came to light in the public; the captured Tibetan national would have to face a daunting prosecution of the penal system in China.
It is thus prudent to understand that China’s tactics in the Tibetan region is not going to ease off anytime soon, rather on the contrary it is only expected to intensify the aggressive nature CCP has bestowed over innocent locals who have only attempted to preserve their identity of thousand years.
China’s state suppression of the Tibet region thus requires as much as international attention and condemnation as the other regions such as Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan. China’s rise to the global order has resulted in far more suppressive approach in the CCP’s attempt to consolidate power. The prospects of a complete annihilation of the Tibetan identity must not be taken lightly, China’s subversive tactics across its sensitive regions have proved to the world that China’s rise is not going to be one that will promote a peaceful world order, more yet it will be one that causes stifling of dissent and suppression of human rights.
