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China trying to change the demography of Tibet

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Lhasa, Tibet:

According to a report in Tibetan media, the Chinese community Party is working on policies aimed at altering the demography of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

“There are reports that some as young as eight or nine years have been sent to the indoctrination facilities. The indoctrination is also aimed at overcoming resistance within the local population to the PLA’s efforts to recruit more Tibetans. In December this year, the Tibet Action Institute issued a report that Chinese authorities in Tibet had set up a wide network of boarding schools for Tibetan children to separate them from parents, and reduce their exposure to their own language and culture,”.

It is estimated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has coerced over half a million Tibetans into forced labour programs strewn into secret locations all across China.

China’s rampant misinformation campaign and state-sponsored distortion of historical truth has already brought the Tibetan civilization to the brink of extinction.

“The sinicization of Tibetan history, arts and culture is well underway. The world community must raise questions about human rights violations in Tibet and come together for the Tibetan cause,” the report read.

It is viewed that Chinese authorities are attempting to recruit more Tibetans in order to offset the disadvantages of posting ethnic Han soldiers at high altitudes, especially under the Western Theatre Command.

They believe that the first responder troops at high altitudes need to be Tibetans, who can function effectively in areas with low oxygen, the report read.

Tibet is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party government based in Beijing, with local decision-making power concentrated in the hands of Chinese party officials.

Tibet was a sovereign state before China’s invasion in 1950 when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) entered northern Tibet.

Ecological damage in Tibet

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Tibetans in Dharamshala held a candlelight vigil to protest the destruction of a 99-foot statue of the Buddha in Kham Drago in Kardze Prefecture. Along with the statue, the authorities also destroyed 45 huge prayer wheels that had been constructed near Drago monastery. The Chinese demolition of the statue in end December 2021 happened after the demolition in October 2021 of a school attached to the Drago Monastery in Sichuan Province. The destruction of a Buddha statue that had been officially approved six years ago, shows that China intends to keep tight control over religion in Tibet at any cost. The destruction of Tibetan culture and identity apart, the world also needs to hold China responsible for complete neglect of Tibet’s ecosystem as we shall presently see.

In late October 2021, local Chinese authorities in Kham Drago had condemned the Gaden Rabten Namgyaling, a school administered by Drago Monastery, and monastery officials were ordered to demolish the school building in three days with the threat that a government team would destroy the building and confiscate school property if it was not done by them. More recently Chinese authorities in Drago County demolished a 99-foot statue of Buddha, as well as 45 huge prayer wheels that had been erected near Drago monastery, Tibet Watch notes. Wang Dongsheng, the county chief is said to be responsible for the demolition. Wang was involved earlier in the destruction of Larung Gar Buddhist Academy also in Sichuan Province. The huge Buddha statue was first built in 2015 with a financial contribution of 4,000,00 Yuan (US$ 6.3 million), whereas 1,800,000 Yuan (around US$ 282,500 million) was spent on the prayer wheels by local Tibetans set in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. The demolition took place from 12 December onwards with “military troops heavily deployed in the crossroads of its vicinity to prevent any form of protest,” according to Tibet Watch.

The statue was formally established because the Buddhists believe that it would prevent famine, war and potential catastrophes of fire, water, earth and air. Local authorities, at the time of demolition, invalidated the documents related to the construction and said that the statue’s height was not allowed in the vicinity. The Tibet Watch report states that “This tragic wave of demolition follows the forced demolition of the nearby Gaden Namgyal Monastic School in late October 2021. As a result, over a hundred of its young students were expelled and ordered an immediate return to their homes.” The Dharamshala vigil in December 2021 was a reminder to the people of Tibet of the support they have from outside Tibet and of China’s repressive policies.

While the wanton destruction of Tibetan culture and identity by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a well-known fact, the destruction of Tibet’s ecosystem remains less known. A US-based journal (Jianli Yang, Providence, 28 December 2021) has recently claimed that China is dumping toxic waste in Tibet and further that it does not provide adequate resources to the region to protect its ecosystem. The carbon footprint of China’s industrial activities, mining of lithium, and mining for nuclear minerals in Tibet has deeply affected the monsoon cycle in the region claims Providence, a US based journal. China has also repeatedly ignored the Montreal Protocol, which explicitly bans the use of hydrocarbons, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development. This has caused drastic harm to the ozone layer that envelops the Earth’s atmosphere and protects us from harmful UV rays. Excessive industrial mining has not only robbed Tibet of its natural resources but has also left the land barren and infertile.

This wilful negligence of Tibet’s ecosystems led overseas Tibetan communities to come together during COP26. They voiced their concerns about Tibet’s fragile environment and its importance to the world. Two days ahead of the COP26 inaugural in November 2021, the Dalai Lama, in a video message, had reiterated his concerns about the effects of climate change impacting the Tibetan Plateau — the world’s ‘third pole’. “At least in Asia, Tibet is the ultimate source of water. We should pay more attention to preservation of Tibetan ecology” the Dalai Lama said. A Washington Post story (26, December 2016) noted that Tibetans in Sichuan province had seen and felt the impact of the large lithium mine in the region on their environment. The land they worshipped was threatened and the river their animals drink from became poisoned.

Earlier, reports emerged of a sudden mass death of fish in Lichu River in Minyak Lhagang, Dartsedo County in Karze Prefecture due to the release of contaminated waste from the mine. This brought hundreds of local Tibetans out on the street, who protested against Gangzhi Rongda Lithium Co Ltd that had released mine waste into the Lichu River, a tributary of Nakchu/Yalong river, which merges with Yangtse river downstream. Downstream, precious yaks died from drinking the contaminated water.  

Lichu river incident is not the only instance of environmental degradation. Others include the open-pit Muli coal mine in Tsonub (Haixi) Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province, which spread a layer of black coal dust across the landscape, causing grassland degradation and the loss of permafrost. Similarly, the Jiajika Lithium mine in Lhagang (Tagong) township, Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, in the Kham region, twice (first in October 2013 and then in May 2016) leaked toxic chemicals into the local water supply, killing fish and local livestock. Thus, the Chinese are fully aware of the damage their policies cause to Tibet’s environment but are unwilling to do anything about it. Now we know the reason why China did not attend CoP26!

Just how serious the environmental crisis in Tibet due to China’s policies is highlighted in written testimony by the International Campaign for Tibet for the Congressional/Executive Commission on China Hearing (21 September 2021). The testimony points to the wanton destruction of Tibet’s forests and the large-scale and forcible re-location of Tibetan nomads from their homelands. Data sources claim that over 1.8 million Tibetan nomads had been settled into sedentary households in a bid to undermine Tibetan identity and to profit from mining, logging, and damming Tibet’s rivers. China is destroying the world’s third pole, i.e., Tibet. The world must hold it responsible for this and make it accountable. If this is not done today, the world will pay for China’s deliberate lust for minerals with the lives of future generations.

Respect for Tibetans in China still a far-fetched dream

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Chinese Administration believes that Tibetan society was primitive, feudal and ruled by a handful of aristocrats. The aristocracy was increasingly becoming oppressive and the people of Tibet were being subjected to harsh punishments until the China liberated Tibet and Tibetans in the 1950s. Chinese government maintains that Tibet is an integral part of China and their administration never discriminates between Tibetans and Hans (the dominant ethnic group in China) politically, socially and economically. To further justify this stance, they have started focussing on major infrastructure development activities in Tibet area viz. laying/improvement of railway networks, dam sites, establishment of new PLA setups, residential facilities for troops and general public (who fulfils political, demographic and security criteria), flourishing of new villages, and excavation/exploration of minerals, including gold.

However, despite these efforts, incidents continue to be reported which refute the Chinese claims to reveal the prevalent discrimination being adopted between Han ethnic group and Tibetans. Tibetan youth are still unable to find employment in Chinese administration. They are reportedly engaged as low grade workers (electricians, drivers, mechanics, etc.) and often made to work in harsh terrain and adverse weather conditions viz. high altitude border areas. Their salaries are also low as compared to Han Chinese workers. Chinese officials continuously monitor their movements.

It is viewed that Chinese authorities are attempting to recruit more Tibetans in order to offset the disadvantages of posting ethnic Han soldiers at high altitudes, especially under the Western Theatre Command. They believe that the first responder troops at high altitudes need to be Tibetans, who can function effectively in areas with low oxygen.

The Senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership has undertaken multiple visits including the visit by President and CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping to Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The frequency of these trips signifies the emphasis laid by the Xi Jinping Government on Tibet, for further exploitation of natural/water resources, linkages with BRI and consolidation over disputed border areas. They may also be seen as part of Chinese Government’s strategic efforts to implement gradual sinicization of Tibet while overseeing progress of the various development projects implemented in the region to facilitate migration and upgrade military facilities.

In order to secure dominance over TAR, the CCP is working on policies aimed at altering the demography of the region. China’s National Strategic Project to Develop the West, introduced during the 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, encourages the migration of Chinese people from other regions of China into Tibet with bonuses and favourable living conditions. No doubt these policies have borne fruit for China. While Han Chinese constituted 8 percent of the population of TAR in the year 2010, the percentage rose to 12 in the Chinese census of 2020.

It is also reported that Chinese authorities have begun sending Tibetan children to special camps to be indoctrinated in a Sinicised worldview and given basic military training in order to prepare them to be inducted into militias. There are reports that some as young as eight or nine years have been sent to the indoctrination facilities. The indoctrination is also aimed at overcoming resistance within the local population to the PLA’s efforts to recruit more Tibetans. In December this year, the Tibet Action Institute issued a report that Chinese authorities in Tibet had set up a wide network of boarding schools for Tibetan children to separate them from parents, and reduce their exposure to their own language and culture.

It is estimated that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has coerced over half a million Tibetans into forced labour programs strewn into secret locations all across China. China’s rampant misinformation campaign and state sponsored distortion of historical truth has already brought the Tibetan civilization to the brink of extinction. The sinicization of Tibetan history, arts and culture is well underway. The world community must raise questions about human rights violations in Tibet and come together for the Tibetan cause.

Bike rally to boycott Beijing 2022 winter Olympic held in Dharamshala by exiled Tibetans

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Dharamshala, India: : Tibetan who are living in Dharamshala have organised a bike rally in order to boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics game.

A slew of long-distance rallies has taken place over the last few weeks campaigning and calling for the boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics over human rights violations in China, according to Phayul.
From touring the Himalayan border states along the Indo-Tibetan borders to cross-country biking from Bangalore to Delhi, several rallies have been held recently.


Earlier, on December 10, Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC), Delhi kicked off its cross country bike rally from Bangalore to Delhi to boycott the Beijing 2022 Olympics boycott on human rights violation.


Meanwhile, in the press statement, the campaign lists its core aim as to “call upon and appeal to the basic human conscience of all the people and boycott Beijing Olympic 2022 as an expression of solidarity with people in Tibet, Xinjiang, South Mongolia, and Hong Kong who are suffering under Chinese repression and oppression.”


Further, along the Indo-Tibetan border on the world’s highest motorable road, Sonamling Tibetan Settlement Freedom Support Group organised a bike rally from Leh to Kardung La Pass thanking National Basket Ball Association player Enes Kanter Freedom for his support and calling for the boycott of the Beijing 2022 Olympics.


Enes Kanter Freedom has emerged as the new poster boy for the Tibetan Freedom Movement, inspiring many campaigns of varying sizes.

Cultural Genocide in Tibet on Rise

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China has marked the 70th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of Tibet with a call to adopt the rule of the Communist Party of China (CCP) by learning the Chinese language and culture. Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked Tibetans to learn Mandarin, the official Chinese language and demanded a “new modern socialist” Tibet, as well as the “sinicization” of the Tibetan people

The CCP is committing cultural genocide in the Himalayan region with iron hands. To ensure mass compliance, the CCP has implemented a string of new policies in the supposedly autonomous region. In Tibet, banned activities and practices now include visiting temples and the use of rosary beads, any other religious objects.

According to the Policy Research Group (POREG), Beijing “has appointed special agents in each office and community to report on Tibetan cadres and officials who break these laws.” Any person found to have engaged in any of the banned activities or practices faces “sacking from their government jobs, denial of all special entitlements, and even arrest.”

To eradicate the country’s cultural DNA, the Tibetan language is no longer being taught in schools. Instead, Mandarin is now the new language of instruction. Buddhist monks are also being persecuted and punished for fabricated crimes. According to Human Rights Watch, two monks recently received 17- and 15-year sentences, respectively, simply for arguing with the cadres during the education session.

On 10 December Go Sherab Gyatso, a Tibetan writer and educator, was sentenced to a decade behind bars. His crime? He refused to denounce the Dalai Lama. It should be noted that 10 December was Human Rights Day, a fact that added an extra layer of cruelty to the prison sentence.

China has ruled the Himalayan region since 1951 after its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded and took control of Tibet which it calls a “peaceful liberation”. Human rights activists and analysts believe such moves towards cultural assimilation spell the demise of Tibet’s traditional Buddhist culture.

“Judging by developments in Tibet over the past 70 years, the Tibetans people have no cause for jubilation, as Chinese policies have turned Tibet into an open-air prison with restrictions on all aspects of Tibetan life,” says International Campaign for Tibet, the US-based organisation in a statement. “After 70 years of oppression, the only thing the Tibetan people need peaceful liberation from today is China’s brutality,” the group further added.

Beijing brands the current Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist and instead recognizes the current Panchen Lama, put in place by the Communist Party, as the highest religious figure in Tibet. The Dalai Lama has been a symbol of the struggle of the Tibetan people for freedom, challenging the communist rule of China.

For the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), controlling the selection of the next Dalai Lama is critical for the sinicisation of Tibetan Buddhism. The project to sinicise Tibetan Buddhismhas consistently received attention from the top echelons of the party, including President Xi. “Tibetan Buddhism should be guided in adapting to China’s socialist society and should be developed in the Chinese context,” Xi has said last year.

In May this year, China had also issued an official white paper that any successor of the Dalai Lama has to be approved by Beijing. As per White Paper, it would choose the successor to the Dalai Lama through “drawing lots from the golden urn” with the candidate subject to the approval of the Communist Party China (CPC)-ruled central government.

China’s biggest fear is that the Dalai Lama may choose his successor outside Tibet within the Tibetan community in India. If the Dalai Lama finds a successor outside Tibet, the successor that China may appoint will not enjoy legitimacy and the spiritual authority required to exercise effective influence in Tibet.

Tibetans allege Beijing’s climate action plan hurts their livelihoods, traditions, rights

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Tibetans have alleged that the Beijing government is trying to strip them off their lands under the garb of climate mitigation efforts. They said they were forced to give up ownership of their land as well as stopped from using grazing fields. All this is expected to jeopardize the basic rights and hurt the livelihoods of the Tibetans living in Tibet. The Chinese government has started revoking land permits and confiscating farmlands and grazing grounds under the Grassland Preservation Policy. Water resources from Tibet take care of China’s water needs, which has caused Beijing to declare grasslands as national parks. All this has disrupted the lives and the livelihoods of Tibetan people. Tibet is a part of the Third Pole– Earths’ largest store of glaciers, ice and permafrost. Thus urbanization and disrupting the traditional likelihoods in Tibet are going to have huge negative COP26 Summit in Glasgow.

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said China was punishing Tibetans in the name of climate action and reducing carbon emissions. China is relocating and resettling nomadic pastoralists from highlands to urban areas, which can lead to loss of land tenure security, food security and a host of other collective rights, it said. TCHRD said the climate action component, eco-compensation, had contradictory meaning in China’s way of doing it since it leads to the expulsion of Tibetan from their homelands. “Instead of compensating Tibetans for the loss of permafrost and wetlands, due to climate change driven by China’s emissions; and for the costs of increasing flooding, lake overtopping and extreme weather, China uses its adoption of Natural Ecological Capital Accounting to relocate Tibetans away from their lands,” the TCHRD said in its report named Unsustainable Futures.

China’s programme to address climate change involved restructuring Tibetan’s way of life even as allowing an intensive, industrial, market-based economy in other parts of the country, TCHRD said. This can affect long-term livelihood resilience among the affected communities. “Nomadic pastoralists are already vulnerable to climate induced disasters and calamities, the frequency of which has only accelerated in recent years. As if this is not enough, official policies aimed at environmental conservation prevent Tibetan nomads from pursuing a sustainable 33 livelihood and exercising autonomous agency, which is the foundation of human rights and personal dignity,” reads the TCHRD report. Also, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Chinese authorities were found to be relocating Tibetan nomadic herders forcefully– physical as well as by creating unfavourable conditions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) had in 2019 warned that the rate of warming in Tibet was at triple the speed of the rest of the world was experiencing warming. Yet China continued with extensive infrastructure building across the Tibetan Plateau. “Despite the fragility of the high-altitude ecosystem and the stark threats spelled out by the IPCC, China has intensified infrastructure construction across Tibet to further open up the landscape and extract Tibet’s natural resources. Such projects include a network of strategic rail routes and major damming and hydropower projects, the effects of which are likely to be irreversible,” said International Campaign for Tibet.

China is the biggest polluter as it releases more greenhouse gases Tibet than the combined share of other countries. And China contribution is set to increase significantly as it has boosted coal-based power generation in the wake of the unprecedented power crisis. Naturally, China finds itself at the centre stage as different countries begin negotiations for a comprehensive and balanced outcome for a coordinated climate action plan. Thus, China is using Tibet to show that it is taking mitigation measures to repair reputation damage. This however has in turn affected poor and naive Tibetan’s livelihoods, their traditions, and their basic rights, said CHRD researcher Tenzin leadership role in global climate management.

Biden was annoyed on Pakistan because of its role in last US elections

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ISLAMABAD: Former Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Malik said the US President Joe Biden was not showing his cold behaviour because of Afghanistan, but because of Pakistan and its Partian role in favour of former President Donald Trump.

Talking to The News, Malik revealed, “During the US presidential election, a Pakistani businessman used the Pakistani Embassy in Washington as Trump’s election office and when President Joe Biden found out about it, he got annoyed.”

He advised the prime minister and the foreign minister to write a letter to the US president and clarify the country’s position in addition to inquiring from the Pakistan’s ambassador to the US as to who had allowed him to use the Embassy for Trump’s election campaign.

He claimed that the ice had not melted yet between the US and Pakistan, otherwise President Biden would have talked to PM Khan. The former Interior Minister asserted that an allegation on Pakistan prompting the Afghan Taliban to take over Kabul before an agreed date was false and Indian propaganda.

He questioned as to how could one stop Taliban from entering Kabul once they were near their destination and Afghan forces welcomed them instead of resisting them, adding that President Ashraf Ghani fled away with many of his cabinet ministers, including his vice President Amrullah Saleh who had made tall claims of resistance and staying in Kabul till the last breath.

“The withdrawal of the American forces was in haste, giving a clear way to Afghan Taliban to enter Kabul and make an interim government of their own will,” Malik said, adding that there was no fault of Pakistan in the given scenario as the US never consulted Pakistan either before invading to Afghanistan or withdrawing its forces.

He said since day one, Pakistan had been playing a very sincere role for restoring peace in Afghanistan and it helped bring many Afghan Taliban factions to the negotiation table, adding, “It is Pakistan that has always come forward to rescue the US in crisis like situations despite the fact that the latter had a history of back stabbing the former.” He said that US had best chance to work with Pakistan to bring peace in Afghanistan instead of indulging in blame game as Pakistan could play a pivotal role, adding, “I hope President Joe Biden takes this advice and takes the initiative to stop Afghanistan from becoming a hub of international terrorists. The solution of Afghanistan crisis lies in the joint strategy and efforts between Pakistan and the USA.”

He said that just like post-Afghan war, US was targeting Pakistan unreasonably and alleging it of harbouring terrorism. He blamed the USA, in collusion to India, for being instrumental in placing Pakistan on FATF grey list for the reason that Pakistan and China were enjoying close ties and collaborating in CPEC project as “China is potentially the next super economic power.”

Abdul Rehman Malik also proposed formation of an International Reconciliation Commission with its key members from USA, Pakistan, UK, China, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan to give a reconciliation plan for resolving the ongoing row between the stakeholders.

To a question regarding PPP’s inclusion in PDM, Rehman Malik said that if the show cause notice was withdrawn, the PPP could return to the PDM. He added that Pakistan was facing many challenges and the people needed relief from inflation and unemployment.

Occupied Tibet should be a reminder to Taiwan

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The securitization of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is a warning
to all of China’s ethnic minorities that all of them eventually face the
possibility of being made Hanised and extinct. The same message also applies
to the Taiwanese people who have lived under the shadow of the PRC all these
years, and the increasing belligerence of Beijing has important lessons for
Taiwan from the experience of Tibet under Chinese occupation. The Tibetan
people who have been under the occupation of China, have considerable
experience of this Hanization. Despite the deep sinews of Chinese state power
penetrating the region, Beijing is still wary of attempts that questions its hold
over the region.
That is why when the elections to the post of Sikyong were held in India, China
released its White Paper on Tibet, for no reason but to show its control. While
the White Paper spoke in glowing terms of the progress made by Tibet under
PRC rule, the world should be aware of China’s oppression of Tibetans and
this should serve as a warning to the people of Taiwan, an independent nation
who China claims to be its own and constantly threatens to take over. This
was recently stated by Kelsang Bawa, the Tibetan government-in-exile
representative to Taiwan, who added that Tibet’s experience should serve as
a warning to Taiwanese that their country’s freedom and democracy was in
their hands.
During a book launch (2 September), Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, representative
of the Dalai Lama to Taiwan, noted that over the years, intellectuals from Tibet
had either been forced into exile or faced brutal crackdowns in their homeland
by the Communist Party of China (CPC), and their suffering continues to the
present day. He recalled that after the signing of a peace treaty between the
Dalai Lama’s government and CPC in Beijing in 1951, Tibet witnessed “seven
decades of blood and tears shed by Tibetans”. Kelsang Bawa was referring to
the 17-Point Agreement that had affirmed China’s sovereignty over Tibet, but
which also promised Tibetans a high degree of autonomy. None of the
promised autonomy was ever given. Even as Chinese forces invaded Tibet,
they let loose a campaign of repression and loot. Several thousand
monasteries were destroyed, and many monks and their families lost their
lives. Subsequently, following the uprising by Tibetans in Lhasa, the capital
of Tibet, in 1959, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama escaped to India,
where he formed a Tibetan government-in-exile.
It is significant that the Tibetan representative who had assumed his post in
January 2021, spoke at a book launch about the 1951 peace treaty
commemorating the 61st anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day. Several
Taiwanese lawmakers joined the event and spoke in support of Tibet. For
instance, Freddy Lim an independent Legislator, who also heads the Taiwan
Parliament Group for Tibet, said the people of Taiwan should cherish their
freedom of expression and fight for democracy, while supporting the Tibetans
who faced oppression at the hands of the Chinese.
Similarly, warning the Taiwanese to be wary of the uptick in Chinese military
exercises off the coast of Taiwan, a legislator from the ruling Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP), Fan Yun, noted that China’s military belligerence
towards Taiwan had increased over the years. He added that people in Taiwan
should also keep faith in important values that the country shares with the
international community, including freedom, democracy, and human rights.
Another DPP Legislator, Hung Sun-han said China had shown what it would
do after a peace treaty is signed and noted that what happened in Tibet should
be a wake-up call for the Taiwanese when they think about the future of the
island.
The relevance of these comments comparing the situation in Tibet and the
possible Chinese takeover of Taiwan lies in the fact that China’s position on
the peaceful reunification of Taiwan has witnessed a gradual shift in the last
several years. On 2 January 2019, President Xi Jinping said, “We do not
forsake the use of force,” talking of the process of reunification. He added:
“China must be and will be reunified”. While President Xi Jinping had then
spoken mainly of “peaceful reunification”, the tone and context of his remarks
suggested he was firing a final warning shot to Taiwan. The basic message is
“give in or else.” China had earlier positioned itself as the one advocating
peace, and seeking integration without an invasion, while the Taiwanese
President Tsai Ing-wen was cast as the villain. In other words, if conflict and
invasion of Taiwan does take place, it would be blamed on the Taiwanese.
Four decades ago, when China entered the era of “Reform and Opening”,
“peaceful reunification” became the mantra of official CPC policy toward Hong
Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. With Hong Kong and Macau having been
“peacefully reunified” (1997 and 1999 respectively), Chinese expectations that
Taiwan would follow suit have been building up for two decades now. These
expectations redoubled a decade ago, as the Beijing Olympics and the Global
Financial Crisis (both in 2008) increased China’s self-confidence and
assertiveness internationally.
But in recent years, China has been losing its patience with the notion of
“peaceful re-unification.” President Tsai Ing-wen’s election in 2016, and her
re-election in January 2020, “forceful re-unification” has become ascendant.
Beijing views Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as being radically proindependence and has been tightening the noose around Taiwan, both
diplomatically and militarily. For instance, China has limited Taiwan’s
“international space” by forcing it out of international organizations. After Tsai
was sworn into office, China prevented Taiwan from participating in
international organizations such as the World Health Organization even
under the name “Chinese Taipei.” International airlines have likewise been
pressured to replace “Taiwan” with descriptions such as “Taiwan, Province of
China.” More importantly, military exercises off Taiwan have intensified both
in scale and intensity. All these measures are evidence of the hardening of
China’s line.
The government and people of Taiwan should, therefore, keep in mind the
negative results of the occupation of Tibet by China. The political and socioeconomic disaster that has befallen Tibet since 1959 is a matter of historical
record. Additionally, the environmental impact of Chinese rule over Tibet is
something whose consequences will be felt for many years to come. Taiwan is
a free country today. It should retain its freedom and democracy and not
become an extension of the CPC. Tibet is today an outpost of the Han Chinese
and has had its religious and cultural identity irreversibly changed. In every
single way, Tibet is today, not the Tibet of the past, but with more negatives
thrown in by the Chinese, than the positives of progress and modernization.

U.S. Institutions Must Get Smarter About Chinese Communist Party Money

Desk Team

Amid the intensifying strategic rivalry between the United States and China, the CCP is increasingly using cash to infiltrate influential U.S. institutions using tactics broadly known as foreign-focused propaganda and United Front influence campaigns . These activities trace back to the party’s creation in 1921, when it began “educating the masses” and “mobilizing friends to strike at enemies.” At the National Meeting on Propaganda and Thought Work in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized cadres should “use innovative outreach methods … to tell a good Chinese story and promote China’s views internationally.”

In June, the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations honored California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with lifetime achievement awards for their contributions to U.S.-China relations. “I’m grateful to accept this award from the Bush China Foundation,” Feinstein said. But what she did not seem to know was more than 85 percent of the foundation’s operating budget —a total donation of $5 million —came from the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), an organization controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In June, the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations honored California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger with lifetime achievement awards for their contributions to U.S.-China relations. “I’m grateful to accept this award from the Bush China Foundation,” Feinstein said. But what she did not seem to know was more than 85 percent of the foundation’s operating budget—a total donation of $5 million—came from the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), an organization controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Amid the intensifying strategic rivalry between the United States and China, the CCP is increasingly using cash to infiltrate influential U.S. institutions using tactics broadly known as foreign-focused propaganda and United Front influence campaigns. These activities trace back to the party’s creation in 1921, when it began “educating the masses” and “mobilizing friends to strike at enemies.” At the National Meeting on Propaganda and Thought Work in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized cadres should “use innovative outreach methods … to tell a good Chinese story and promote China’s views internationally.”

But when these tactics, which the CCP calls “soft power” or “people-to-people” relations, target the United States and other liberal democracies, they have a corrosive influence on objective China studies research. By forging close partnerships with prominent foreign “opinion-setters,” Beijing aims to shape perceptions so they adopt and share views consistent with those of the CCP.

As leaders in research and innovation as well as incubators for future U.S. leaders, universities have become prime targets for Beijing’s penetration. In 2015, the FBI began formally warning these institutions about the risks, and five years later, it publicly sounded the alarm. “Of the nearly 5,000 active FBI counterintelligence cases currently underway across the country,” FBI director Christopher Wray said in a 2020 speech, “almost half are related to China.”

But although some like Feinstein and Kissinger have been taken in, many people in Washington are now seeking ways to thwart Beijing’s political influence campaigns. In 2018, members of Congress intervened to stop CUSEF from providing $2 million for a new China center at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Then, the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision pressuring colleges with Defense Department-funded foreign language programs to shutter their Confucius Institutes.

These language and cultural centers—which former Chinese Propaganda Minister Liu Yunshan described as overseas outposts of “international propaganda battles against issuers such as Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan, human rights and Falun Gong”—have restricted the examination and even discussion of topics Beijing deems unacceptable. And last year, an Education Department investigation into U.S. universities found many are several decades delinquent in disclosing Chinese-sourced donations. The probe uncovered a staggering $6.5 billion in unreported foreign donations and more than $1 billion in anonymous foreign financial assistance over the past decade.

Still, many academic institutions have simply refused to disclose their CCP funding while others have closed their Confucius Institutes or renamed them to work around governmental pressure and keep the cash flowing. Tufts University and the University of Michigan shuttered their Confucius Institutes but continue to receive funds from China’s Ministry of Education. Because federal laws single out Confucius Institutes, the Asia Society simply changed the name of its K-12 version of the Confucius classroom to “Chinese Language Partner Network” and kept the money.

Meanwhile, Beijing is also responding in ways U.S. policymakers have yet to fully understand and address. China has rebranded it Confucius Institutes and created groups like the aforementioned Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, which emerged in the aftermath of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs scandal. David Firestein, a retired State Department official who pushed CUSEF funding at the University of Texas, left in 2019 to lead the new organization. Moreover, the Carter Center at Emory University, which also takes money from CUSEF, has provided a platform for CCP diplomats. Without breaking any laws, Beijing is buying the legitimacy of both Republican and Democratic U.S. presidents to launder its propaganda and expand its influence over senior congressional leaders and U.S. statesmen.

To be sure, China is hardly the only government playing the foreign influence game in Washington, but its tactics set it apart from other players. “China has a politically weaponized system of censorship,” said Xiao Qiang, director of the Counter Power Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. “It is refined, organized, coordinated, and supported by the state’s resources. They also have a powerful apparatus to construct a narrative and aim it at any target with huge scale. No other country has that.”

The onus is now on Congress to respond by protecting the integrity of U.S. research and education on China. House members sent a formal inquiry on the matter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in mid-June, but so far, it is unclear whether the department has opened any new investigations into noncompliant universities. But the Biden administration and Congress must also take urgent steps. Annual disclosure requirements for universities and a ban on all congressional engagement with such groups are essential first measures—but alone, they are insufficient to stop the flow of CCP-linked funding into U.S. educational institutions.

To do that, Congress could require reciprocity so if Beijing wants to fund U.S. educational institutions, then Washington must also be able to sponsor its own programs at Chinese universities. Short of real reciprocity, however, Congress should restrict the types of gifts and donations U.S. universities can accept from CCP-backed sources. It is time U.S. policymakers acted to blunt the CCP’s influence campaign; the integrity and reputations of its educational institutions depend on it.

Mini marathon in Mumbai to commemorate 50 year of 1971 war

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Mumbai, India: A mini marathon was organised on Sunday to commemorate the 50 years of 1971 war from Pakistan.

 On the 50th anniversary of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, also known as ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’, a mini-marathon was organized in Mumbai on Sunday.

The run was held from Nariman point to RC Church in Colaba in the city.

Vijay Diwas is celebrated every year on December 16 to mark India’s triumph in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan in the year 1971.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lit the ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaal’ at the National War Memorial on last year`s Vijay Diwas on December 16, 2020, to mark the year-long 50th-anniversary celebration of the 1971 India-Pakistan war.

In one of the fastest and shortest campaigns of military history, a new nation was born as a result of the swift campaign undertaken by the Indian Army.