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All the 55 counties and districts in western half of Tibet which China has demarcated as Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) will be eventually connected by railway transport services, which will also traverse India-claimed Aksai Chin, according to China’s official chinadaily.com.cn and bharattimes.co.in Feb 13.

The “medium-to-long-term railway plan” for TAR, which was made public last week, envisages expanding the region’s rail network from the current 1,400 km to 4,000 km by 2025, including new routes that will connect India and will walk till the borders of Chinese ruled Tibet with Nepal.

The bharattimes.co.in report called the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway, which will roughly follow the route of the G219 national highway, as the most ambitious. It noted that the construction of the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway through Aksai Chin had created tensions between India and China in the lead-up to the 1962 war.

The proposed railway would start at Shigatse in southern Tibet, and run northwest along the Nepal border, before cutting north through Aksai Chin and terminating at Hotan in Xinjiang.

The planned route will pass through Rutog and around Pangong Lake on the Chinese-ruled Tibet side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The first section, from Shigatse to Pakhuktso, will be completed by 2025, with the rest of the line, to Hotan, expected to be finished by 2035.

Citing Chinese state media, the report said that by 2025, construction of a number of railway projects, including the Yan’an-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway, the Shigatse-Pakhuktso section of the Xinjiang-Tibet Railway, and the Bomi- Ranwu Lake section of the Yunnan-Tibet Railway will all see major progress.

The rail network plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period and beyond released last week by the region’s Development and Reform Commission, also envisages that border railway lines will be built to Gyrong (Kyirong), a land port on the Nepal-Tibet border, and Yadong County in the Chumbi Valley, which borders India’s Sikkim and Bhutan.

The report noted that China’s railway construction in occupied Tibet is seen as serving two purposes: boosting border security by enabling it to more closely integrate border regions as well as enable rapid border mobilization when needed; and second, to accelerate the economic integration of Tibet with the hinterland.

China-Tibet tiff over the Dalai Lama issue hots up again as the US lawmakers have tabled a Bill in the House of Representatives and the Senate to strengthen America’s policy for the peaceful resolution of their differences over Tibet. Known as the Resolve Tibet Act, the bill will make it official US policy that China must resume dialogue with the envoys of the Dalai Lama, as the conflict between Tibet and China is unresolved and Tibet’s legal status remains to be determined under international law.

The timing of the legislation is significant as it was tabled during the US visit of Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration. He is visiting Washington to meet with US lawmakers, including the main sponsors of the legislation and Biden administration officials.

“Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act” was introduced by Congressman Jim McGovern and Michael McCaul in the House and Senators Jeff Merkley and Todd Young in the Senate. It seeks to empower the US government to achieve its long-standing goal of getting Tibetans and Chinese authorities to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue. As a result of the Chinese government’s decades of extreme human rights abuses, Tibet is now the least-free country on earth alongside South Sudan and Syria, according to the watchdog group Freedom House.

The two sides held ten rounds of dialogue between 2002 and 2010, but the dialogue process has stalled. China has illegally occupied Tibet for over 60 years, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959.  India granted him political asylum, and the Tibetan government-in-exile has been based in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh since then. India is home to the Dalai Lama and some 100,000 Tibetan exiles. The Dalai Lama is found in the northern hill town of Dharamsala. The Dalai Lama has rejected Beijing’s longstanding demands to say that Tibet was historically part of China, a refusal cited by Beijing in declining dialogue with his representatives since 2010.

Beijing has in the past accused the Dalai Lama of indulging in “separatist” activities and trying to split Tibet and considers him a divisive figure. However, the Tibetan spiritual leader has insisted that he is not seeking independence but “genuine autonomy for all Tibetans living in the three traditional provinces of Tibet” under the “Middle-Way approach”. McCaul alleged that the Chinese Communist Party continues to oppress the Tibetan people.

The Resolve Tibet Act offers new hope that the decades-long crisis in Tibet can come to a peaceful end. It will make it official US policy that the conflict between Tibet and China is unresolved. Tibet’s legal status remains to be determined under international law, recognising that Tibetans have a right to self-determination and that China’s policies preclude them from exercising that right and fault China for failing to meet expectations of participating in dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.

China’s embassy in Washington denounced the legislation, which has been introduced with bipartisan support, saying, “Tibet is part of China.” “We urge the US side to take concrete actions to honour its commitment of recognising Tibet as part of China, not supporting ‘Tibetan independence,’ and stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” an embassy spokesperson said.

Many observers believe China shut off the Tibet dialogue in anticipation that the cause would shrivel away without the Dalai Lama, the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk whose once frenetic international travel schedule has slowed down in recent years.

The detention of a 30-year old Tibetan elementary school teacher, who goes by the name of Palgon his alleged contacts with exiles overseas should not come as a surprise. This is part of the system of persecution of Tibetans that Chinese authorities have put in place for a long time. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brings to the fore a new mechanism by which the State keeps tabs on Tibetans. The Voice of America (22 September) summarises the current situation in Tibet by stating that “Tibetans are monitored more heavily and face harsher repercussions than people elsewhere because of the political sensitivity of the region.” Especially in Lhasa, people were “quarantined in empty stadiums, schools, warehouses and unfinished buildings.” The situation in Tibet is unbearable and protests began against President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy first on social media in September 2022 and moved on to the streets on 27 October to protest the lockdown imposed since 8 August 2022.

Radio Free Asia reports that the writer, Palgon, was arrested at his home in August 2022 and has been incommunicado ever since. “His family members were also not informed or given proper reasons for his arrest other than Palgon’s contact with people in exile to offer prayers to His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” one source told RFA. Palgon is from the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s south-eastern Qinghai province. He was an elementary school teacher in the prefecture’s Pema county, but he later resigned from his role and continued as an independent writer. Over the last few months, RFA has reported on China’s arrests of monks, writers, young protestors, and other Tibetan figures in a wide-ranging crackdown. Those detained will often be held incommunicado for months before being sentenced.

This trend of controlling the lives of ordinary citizens of Tibet continued even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Tibetans were arrested for sharing online Covid-related photos and videos. For instance, the local media reported the case of a nomad, Rinchen Dhondup and other six fellow Tibetans who were arrested (14 September 2022) for this reason. Other Tibetans were arrested in Lhasa, Nagqhu, and other counties for similar crimes. Of all this repressive policy against Tibetans using the supposedly anti-Covid measures, one key point is especially alarming. First, to ascertain infections, Tibetans are compelled to undertake antigen tests. Social media showed pictures and footage of Tibetans standing in huge lines in inclement weather. Many were women with their little children: all had to wait in harsh conditions for being tested. Secondly, even some people who tested negative were separated from others, quarantined, and repeatedly monitored.

Voice of America reported that a Tibetan man and his three young children were taken to the Lhasa Beijing Middle School Quarantine Center after the man’s wife’s anti-COVID test was inconclusive. “Authorities,” reports VoA, “required the entire family to quarantine with 800 people.” Two of those young kids “developed fevers in the school facility where there were no doctors, medicine or medical treatments.” It is quite difficult to describe this as a measure to protect the health of Tibetans. Again, in a viral audio recording, a Tibetan father pleads with a government official at one of the Lhasa quarantine centers to not separate him from his year-old child” even though they had all tested negative for COVID. “Now we have tested positive,” the Tibetan father lamented, “and you want to take away our child.” Once more, it is rather difficult to describe this as a measure to protect the health of Tibetans.

In the second half of September 2022, the number of worldwide infections was the lowest since March 2020, when virtually the entire world was under a lockdown. The World Health Organization, then announced that the pandemic was virtually over. Yet, China remained in a state of lockdown since early August. If what the WHO said at that time was correct, this massive and strict Chinese lockdown had no reason to be in place. The situation continued for weeks, exacerbating Chinese citizens, impoverishing businesses, and destroying families. Finally, in late November protests burst out in the streets of unprecedented magnitude since the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen square. Demonstrations were held in the nation’s capital Beijing, in the country’s financial capital Shanghai, in the trade and manufacturing center of Guangzhou, as well as in many other cities across the country. It was the consequence of the “Zero COVID” policy of Xi Jinping: harsh, severe, and also unmotivated if the Chinese-friendly WHO was not lying.

On 24 November 2022, a fire broke out in a residential building in Urumqi.  Officially, ten Uyghur died and an additional nine were injured, while independent and more believable sources assessed casualties at 44. In fact, they were victims of President Xi’s zero-covid policy. The strict “zero covid” policy of the government prevented the residents from leaving the building and interfered with the efforts of firefighters. This ignited more popular demonstrations, protesting the infamous and murderous lockdown. In front of the huge protests throughout the country, the government seemed not to know what to do: either continue with the lockdown, risking deadly incidents reminiscent of Tiananmen, or lose its face in front of the protesters and the world. We all know what happened.

Suddenly, China ended the lockdown, just like nothing had happened for months, a few hours after saying that the lockdown was indispensable and will continue. Chinese citizens began to move freely around the country and reportedly the infection sky-rocketed again. While the whole world begs the Chinese regime to tell the truth, at least once, and release true data on the infections, no one yet knows the real figures. The “zero-covid” policy of Xi has been a great tool for repression. Lockdowns and similar measures greatly helped the regime to implement its gigantic and hyper-technological system of control and surveillance of its citizens, under the pretext of protecting their health. Maybe Xi’s policy also partially counteracted the infections by COVID 19, but for sure it brought repression to its zenith.

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/eb85751c-6a3c-4a45-98a7-9ff64aab6a90

Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/china-s-anti-covid-policies-in-tibet-trigger-resentment-rare-online-outcry-/6759313.html

China has banned residents of a Tibetan county in Sichuan Province from having any kind of contact with their brethren living in exile and is subjecting them to random searches to enforce it, reported the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Jan 2, citing people with knowledge of the latest development there.

The communication clampdown in Draggo (Chinese: Luhuo) county in the Province’s Kardze (Ganzi) prefecture is the latest measure by Chinese authorities to bring locals to heel following the demolitions of huge Buddha statues in the area beginning 2021, as monks and local residents were forced to watch, the report said, citing local sources.

“Beginning January this year, local Chinese authorities in Draggo County have warned Tibetans living in the region to stop communicating with people outside Tibet,” one source has said, requesting anonymity due to safety concerns.

“Their cell phones are randomly probed and restricted from sharing any kinds of information with the outside,” he has said. “They are also not allowed to contact their family members or send money.”

Draggo has a history of strong and persistent resistance to Chinese rule that dates back from the middle of the last century when China invaded Tibet and the non-violent protests there has continued unabated to this day.

The area was subjected to a particularly harsh religious repression last year with landmark Buddha statues and other religious objects being destroyed and worshipper forced to watch the sacrilegious attacks; those who protested were arrested. Tibetans suspected of sending information about the destruction to the outside world have also been arrested.

The Cultural Revolution-style destruction was stated to have been carried out under Draggo’s Communist Party chief Wang Dongsheng, who had earlier overseen a campaign of the expulsion of Buddhist clergy and destruction at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy, then the world’s largest, located in neighbouring Serthar County.

“Ever since Wang Dongsheng was appointed as county chief in Draggo, the campaign against the Tibetans has gone from bad to worse,” another local Tibetan has said. He has added that “the staff and those with authority in the monasteries have been forced to attend re-education programs.” 

A prominent Tibetan Buddhist monk who had completed his monastic education in India has died recently after he was arrested and jailed for life by Chinese police in a traditionally Tibetan area of Sichuan Province last year, said the exile Tibetan administration on its Tibet.net website Feb 2.

The monk, Geshe Phende Gyaltsen, 56, was arrested by Chinese police in Lithang (Chinese: Litang) County of Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture in Mar 2022 while meditating in a dispute between two parties in the country, the report said.

It was not clear what the dispute was about and which parties were involved in it. The exact reason why the monk was arrested and given a life sentence is also not clear.

He was stated to have died on Jan 26 due to unknown ill-health, the report said.

The authorities initially transferred the monk’s remains to his native village of Gyongpa in Lithang County, where local Tibetans were banned from visiting it with the imposition of restrictions on their movement for three days. The body was then stated to have been shifted to Beijing.

Geshe Phende Gyaltsen had travelled to India in 1985 and joined Sera Mey Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka state, where he earned his Geshe Degree.

He was then stated to have travelled to Dharamshala, Manali, Darjeeling, Bhutan etc on a prolonged spiritual retreat before returning to Tibet to give religious teachings.

He was also stated to be actively engaged in renovating the Shedrub Dhargyeling Monastery in Lithang.

Chinese authorities in Qinghai Province had taken away in Aug 2022 a young Tibetan writer for having communicated with exile contacts and asked them to offer prayers to the Dalai Lama, reported the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Jan 25.

The whereabouts of Palgon, 30, who was taken away from his home in the province’s Golog prefecture, has remained unknown ever since.

“His family members were also not informed or given proper reasons for his arrest other than Palgon’s contact with people in exile to offer prayers to His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the report quoted a local Tibetan source as saying, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Palgon was stated to be an elementary school teacher in the prefecture’s Pema County before leaving this job to continue as an independent writer.

“Palgon usually is very active on social media platforms and audio chat groups where he writes and engages,” the report quoted another local Tibetan source as saying.

China’s forceful occupation of Tibet has had consequential effects on the centuries old and revered indigenous culture of the Tibetan population. Since its invasion in 1950’s, China has maintained its territorial control over the Tibetan land and more so has coercively attempted to Sinicize the population that preach the Tibetan culture. Its global ambition moreover, are motivated by its assertive characteristics all around its regions where it projects itself as a dominant player. From boundary disputes to sovereign claims over territories, China has managed to spark discontents with most of its neighbours and has more or less asserted its domination by subverting regions to its economic might. However, amongst the most repressive of Chinese strategies, lies the iron-fisted control of Tibet that has claimed lives of thousands, if not millions.

As China’s claims over Tibet have emboldened over the years, its legitimacy is sourced from an illegal Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet also known as the 17 Point Agreement signed on 23rd May, 1951 by a person devoid of legitimate authority to represent Tibet. As per the agreement China had pledged to keep Tibet’s traditional government and religion in place without hindering local ethnic groups local practices. The unbalanced settlement was signed after the invasion of Tibet and whilst China had illegally occupied Tibet’s eastern and northern parts and threatening further action until an agreement was reached. The Tibetan Government in exile has always claimed that the agreement was signed through coercive means and is devoid of any legal legitimacy.

Furthermore, the spill over of the unjust and cruel settlement was visible in the Tibetan uprising of 1959 which was crushed vehemently by the Chinese authorities while also forcing Tibet’s leader the 14th Dalai Lama to flee to India with his followers.

Over the past eight decades, not only has China undermined the pact through which it derives its legitimacy but has also manifested to rid clear of any Tibetan aspirations of a liberated future. By introducing communist policies, enforcing regressive Sinicization measures and by forcefully assimilating its ethic population in Tibetan regions, the Chinese authorities have attempted to cleanse Tibetan culture from the sacred lands.

More so, The Chinese Communist Party has been attempting to declare a successor to the Dalai Lama for years but has been unsuccessful in doing so as well. The succession plans of the 14th Dalai Lama are a vital part of China’s attempt of assimilating the Tibetan region into China. Recently Chinese prospects have begun to intensify in its attempt to capitalize on a future where a successor is all set to emerge through the CCP’s directions. These aspirations also have a consequential effect on China’s borders with India more particularly in the Arunachal region which is closely tied to the Tibet.

The Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh inculcates great cultural value for Buddhism and has been native to the oldest and second biggest monastery in Asia where the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, was born in 1683. These cultural roots have led many Lamas to believe that the next Dalai Lama would very well emerge out of the Tawang region, a prospect member of the Chinese Communist Party has been trying to navigate.

However, due to the its wolf-warrior approach and more so its lack of understanding on India’s sovereign rights over the whole of Arunachal Pradesh, China has been expediating

its aggressive behaviour in its thirst to contain India’s border development as well as fulfil its Sinicization process in the sensitive regions of Tibet and its adjoining areas.

In the recent years, the international attention has increased on regions such as Xinjiang which lays to Tibet’s north. The United States on various occasions has stated that China has been carrying out a genocidal policy against Uyghurs and other minorities including Turkic-speaking residents. This has also invariably brought the much-needed attention to Tibet where such measures have been in place for decades. In a response to such coercive human rights violations, authorities from the U.S had imposed sanctions against two senior Chinese officials over their serious violations of human rights in Tibet regions. These allegations included tortured killings of prisoners and forced sterilization of masses. As part of the sanctions, the U.S authorities blocked all of Wu Yingjie’s and Zhang Hongbo’s assets in U.S and criminalised transactions with the blacklisted officials.

Although the Chinese Communist Party has strained upon the economic advancements made in Tibet, it is crystal clear to what extent such development advances China’s colonial tendencies in the Tibetan region. Such developmental models have on the contrary marginalized the naïve communities and has promoted the hegemony of the Chinese nation in the region. The desire to exploit Tibet’s rich resourceful ecology as well as mineral reserves has motivated such hegemonic tendencies that have become more and more apparent with its developmental model. Infrastructural projects have specifically been constructed along the rich resourceful regions of Gyama, Shetongmon, Nrbusa amongst many other important regions. The economic extent of China’s mineral exploitations in Tibet has been valued to exceed $100 billion in worth. The ecological disaster such activities causes has yet to gain traction mostly due to the inhumane treatment of the Tibetan population that has barely managed to international condemnation.

China’s irreversible damage to not only Tibet’s culture but also to its much-valued ecological balance requires a unified response, one that safeguards the interests of the victims that face prosecution against China’s authoritative regime. Such sinister tactics must be dealt with through an equal measure that restrains China’s colonial and hegemonic aspirations. However, Beijing’s approach is driven by its quest to attain a superior position in the international order, such aspirations, if given space in the international forums, can only lead to infestation of a far more regressive tactics in sensitive regions including Tibet. Therefore, it is important not only to counter such propositions but more so very vital to contain the subversive rise of China that seeks a hegemonic control over its neighbouring regions. In this regard, Tibet plays an integral role in bringing forth the extent to which China can reach to assert its domination over aspects that it sees necessary to secure itself a dominant position in the international arena, irrespective of it being achieved at the backdrop of repressive methods of subversion.

Lhasa, Tibet:  

They demanded that world leaders acknowledge Tibet’s ecological significance and adopt a rights-based strategy that gives frontline communities power.

According to the Tibet press, China imprisons and sentence the Tibetans who defend and protect their environment be it against the constant damming projects – adhering towards it so called Hydro-Hegemony, mining extensively without any recovery time, needless development of grasslands and Greenwashing – which sees large number of Tibetans relocated from the ancestral lands in the name of development and for its realization, Beijing has directed a large sum of governmental finances (taxpayers money) which instead could have been utilized consciously in preserving the environment.

The Tibet delegation pointed out that the Chinese government is responsible for the worsening climate situation in the region which is already affected by global warming

This is further accelerated by the policies implemented in Tibet by Beijing that pushes for development but neglects sustainability.

Tibetan environmentalists have been sentenced without any legal justification by China. Environmental activists Nya Sengdra and Karma Samdrup are in prison to preserve and protect Tibet’s fragile and unique ecology and also that both have been sent to prison without formal legal procedures.

In 2010 Human Rights Watch submitted a report to the Chinese government requesting to rescind the accusations against the philanthropist and environmentalist Karma Samdrup and his brothers. It states “these people embody the characteristics the government says it wants in modern Tibetans – economically successful, lending support to only approved cultural and environmental pursuits, and apolitical – yet they, too, are being treated as criminals.” This illustrates what the Chinese think of Tibetans who are not only apolitical but are trying to bring upward mobility to not only Tibetans but also the Chinese residing in Tibet especially in terms of the quality of life which is intertwined with the state of the environment.

Lobsang Yangsto , the programme and environment coordinator at the International Tibet Network (ITN) along with 4 other Tibetan women at the CoP27, highlighted the desecration and destruction of Tibet’s fragile and vital ecosystem under the illegal Chinese occupation.

The report highlighted that Tibetans who are under this very brutal regime will continue to fight not only the illegal occupation of Tibet but also continue to preserve and protect its environment which impacts more than a quarter of world population directly.

The all-women Tibetan representative in Cop 27 called for the world to take attention to Tibet as unique ecological zone whose sensitivities have further and server ramifications to not only Asia by the whole world environmentally.

They also questioned why Tibetans are not included in the global climate debate when they Tibet has a major stake in it.

Tibetans cannot ignore the dire health of the Tibet’s degrading environment and the political authorities must work together with the scientist, researchers, environmentalists and activist in protecting the 3rd pole. They should not discriminate and sentence Tibetans who raise these issues and only then will the world be able save the 3rd pole and Tibet, it added

Lhasa, Tibet:

The people of Tibet are facing brutality and witnessing the destruction of their culture and continuous atrocities on their people especially in recent times the conditions there have grown from bad to worse, Voice Against Autocracy reported.

The struggle of the Tibetans against the human rights of China has put Beijing on the international radar, decades after its illegal occupation. The local Tibetans are continuing their efforts to take back their motherland from the oppressing regime in Beijing China.

The people of Tibet are being forced to live their life in accordance with the rules of China. Even the innocent monks are not being spared disallowing them to practice their religion and culture of Buddhism. Innocent monks and nuns from around Tibet are monitored and even forced to remove their robes which are a significant part of their culture and religion.

The total count of political prisoners from Tibet has increased significantly and now it even contains monks and nuns from hundreds of monasteries around Tibet based on fabricated charges and tortured beyond imagination. And most of the time it results in trauma, injuries, and even death because of the injuries sustained by these political prisoners from Tibet, reported Voice Against Autocracy.

The communist regime in China is actually threatened by individuals that are vocal against the oppression and atrocities that China is using to oppress the Tibet locals and monks. And during this entire time when these prisoners are detained the whereabouts and condition of these prisoners remain hidden from family members which is a totally different torture for them.

Voices Against Autocracy reported citing a Tibet Watch report, that recently a monk named Geshe Tensin Pelsang who was a political prisoner had died due to the injuries that he had received in detention. He was in prison for six years from 2012 to 2018 on fabricated charges of heading protests in Drago County in Eastern Tibet.

His condition had grown critical from the inhuman treatment at the prison. He was also not given adequate medical care because of the baselessly strict rules put in place by Chinese authorities. Further, Voices Against Autocracy said quoting a local source that when he was released from prison in 2018 he was not able to stand or walk by himself because of the beating that he had received in prison.

Continuous surveillance is kept on monks and special attention and hard response are given to any protest supporting Dalai Lama as he was able to receive exile in India sometime back. Another Radio Free Asia report was cited by Voices Against Autocracy.

According to that report, two monks Rachung Gendun and Sonam Gyatso from Kirti Monastery in Sichuan province are held at the Menyang prison in Sichuan province, which is close to Chengdu. This was because they had sent their offerings to Dalai Lama and their monastery heads that were living in exile in India.

Rachung Gendun was also exposed to a Patriotic Education program by China. Under this program, a campaign is being run throughout the country against Dalai Lama who according to China a traitor for leaving Tibet. Gendun had actually expressed his disagreement on the campaign and was again exposed to torture for that.

The Voice Against Autocracy further reports quoting sources on the condition of anonymity that Rachung Gendun was detained on April 1, 2001from the monastery itself, and Sonam Gyatso was arrested on April 3, 2021, from Chengdu while he was on a holiday. The sources further told that the present condition of Sonam is still unknown.

Leave aside the right of free expression and the right to practice a religion as Buddhism is even taken away from locals and monks. They are being detained and put through inhuman treatment based on fabricated and untrue allegations. And after these so-called allegations, they are detained and their condition is kept secret from their family members torturing them also and these detainees are also stripped of any medical treatment for their injuries. China must be held accountable and answerable for all this inhuman treatment.