The world is well aware of the struggle between Tibet and China. Since China’s illegitimate conquest of Tibet, the Tibetan people have been fighting for their freedom, and they are still doing so now. It is becoming a typical problem for Tibetans in Tibet to be denied access to their fundamental rights. Tibetans are powerless, voiceless, and helpless under the communist party’s autocratic control. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government’s intentions, plans, and schemes are never in the interests of the Tibetan people, and circumstances have only gotten worse and more difficult. In Tibet, there is no end to the ongoing political and religious persecution. The suppression of religion has been more severe over the years, and China’s larger plan to completely sinicize Tibet will continue to include this ongoing assault on Tibetan Buddhism and its practises. Numerous monasteries, nunneries, and other places of worship, as well as historical artefacts, have already been destroyed in Tibet. In Tibet, monks and nuns are forced to take off their robes and live like commoners, which ultimately results in their being deprived of the right to practise or study their religion.
The United States imposed sanctions on scores of people and organisations “linked to corruption or human rights abuse across nine countries” on December 9, 2022, the day before International Human Rights Day. Two of them were charged with “severe human rights abuse” in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China (TAR). They are Zhang Hongbo, the head of the Chinese police in Tibet, and Wu Yingjie, formerly the province party secretary. The People’s Republic of China’s efforts to severely restrict religious freedoms led to Tibetans suffering “arbitrary incarceration, extrajudicial murders, and physical abuse” while they were in charge, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
China responded angrily to such measures on 12th December, 2022 by labelling American allegations of rights violations in Tibet and other parts of China as “full of distortions and bias.” Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, declared that the alleged “repressive policies in Tibet” were a misrepresentation of the truth. This is untrue. Tibetans have seen a campaign of “Sinicization,” in which they are compelled to assimilate into Chinese society at the expense of their own language and culture, similar to what is happening in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. These campaigns have involved violations of fundamental rights that were ordered by the state. Tibet operated as a de facto independent state prior to China’s forcible conquest of Tibet in 1951, which China falsely refers to as a “peaceful liberation.”
The top spiritual figure in Tibet and former head of state and government, the Dalai Lama was driven into exile in 1959. Many Tibetans have been in exile for many years and still firmly support the Dalai Lama. Religious repression has been at the heart of forced assimilation in Tibet, where public displays of support for the Dalai Lama have been made illegal. Freedom House, a nonpartisan organisation based in Washington, D.C. that works to advance democracy and liberty around the world, noted in its 2022 Freedom in the World report that “authorities are especially rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans, including manifestations of Tibetan religious beliefs and cultural identity.” According to a 2020 report by Amnesty International, Tibetans are “arbitrarily jailed for routine religious activities that authorities regarded to signs of extremism’ under cover of so-called ‘De-extremification Regulations’.” Twenty Tibetan monks from Tengdro monastery in Tingri county, Tibet, were held on the mere suspicion of contact with Tibetans living overseas, according to Human Rights Watch, a New York City-based organisation. Four of the monks were given “extraordinarily punitive sentences” of up to 20 years, “with little respect to the evidence in the case,” after being tried “in secret on unknown charges.”
Authorities in Tibet’s police and prisons frequently use violence. Kunchok Jinpa, a tour guide who had been given a 21-year sentence for writing about unrest in Tibet, passed away in February 2021 as a result of torture in prison, where he reportedly experienced paralysis and suffered a brain haemorrhage. According to Human Rights Watch, a 19-year-old Tibetan monk who was first detained in 2019 and then detained again the following year passed away in detention after being beaten and mistreated. He had been imprisoned alongside other monks who had been given prison terms of up to five years for peacefully promoting Tibet’s independence. According to Radio Free Asia, a second political prisoner named Norsang died mysteriously after being released from a Tibetan jail, where local reports claim he was similarly subjected to torture. This incident occurred in 2019. There are innumerable cases as such.
The U.S. State Department stated that “impunity for abuses of human rights was endemic” in Tibet in its 2021 human rights report on China. According to the research, there is no proof that officials who commit unlawful killings or other atrocities against detainees have ever been looked into or punished. A Tibetan shopkeeper was given a five-year prison sentence for carrying a banner with a picture of the Dalai Lama on it, according to RFA. Tibetans have also been detained for celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Panchen Lama and second-highest religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism, was “disappeared” by China 27 years ago. Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was six years old when he vanished, has been dubbed the youngest political prisoner in history.
Tibet has been referred to as “China’s laboratory for repression; a site where the Chinese authorities have tested, and sought to perfect, methods of mass surveillance and abject control,” according to the International Tibet Network, a global coalition of Tibet-related nongovernmental groups. Since 2020, more than 500,000 Tibetans have been housed in “military-led ‘vocational training’ institutions,” according to a study by Freedom House. The primary battle in the Tibetan people’s campaign for freedom has been bringing up the subject of Tibet on a global scale. Over the years, Tibet’s condition has deteriorated, and the savagery there requires quick assistance. If China is not condemned or held accountable for all of its wrongdoing, it will continue to inflict such havoc and violate all human rights.
