Office of Tibet-Taiwan Attends Human Rights Event in Taipei and Pays Courtesy Call on Kirti Rinpoche

Representative Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa and staff from the Office of Tibet (Tibet Religious Foundation) in Taipei paid a courtesy call on Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the chief abbot of Kirti Monastery, following his arrival in Taiwan to pay obeisance on 25 November 2023. 

In a brief 30-minute meeting with the former Kalon of Department of Religion and Culture (CTA), Representative Kelsang Gyaltsen updated the former about undertakings of the office and was commended by the visiting lama. He further invited Kirti Rinpoche to their upcoming Thanksgiving dinner event on 10 December as chief guest to celebrate the conferment of Nobel Peace Prize on His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. The day coincides 25th founding anniversary of the Office of Tibet – Taiwan and International Human Rights Day.  

The Tibetan team with MP Freddy Lim, the Chair of the Taiwanese Parliamentary Group for Tibet, during the Human Rights street fair. 

Later on the same day, the Office of Tibet partook in a Human Rights street fair, organised by Taiwan’s National Human Rights Commission, to advocate the Tibetan freedom struggle and create awareness among spectators on Tibet. Books about Tibetan history and traditions published by Gangjong Publication, the office’s affiliate, were exhibited during the expo. The Tibet booth received a visit from MP Freddy Lim, the Chair of the Taiwanese Parliamentary Group for Tibet, and Fan Sun-Lu, a member of Ombudsman, Control Yuan (Taiwan), along with a flock of Taiwanese youngsters. 

Furthermore, Representative Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa introduced the definition of word ‘TIBET’ and the areas it encompasses at a talk session that was held as part of the fair. Given the PRC’s substitution of term “Xizang” instead of Tibet in their recent official white paper on Tibet, he explained how the sinicization policy of the Communist Party of China targets complete annihilation of Tibetan identity. 

-Report filed by Office of Tibet, Taiwan

Preserving the Tibetan Buddhist Deities’ Abodes

Under increasing climate pressures in Northeast India, monks and monasteries safeguard local lakes and forests.

A singular, seventeenth-century thangka painting adorns the central hall of Ganden Namgyal Lhatse, the largest Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India. The painting depicts a haggish figure with pendulous breasts, flaming eyebrows, and red hair standing on end. Palden Lhamo, the fearsome protector deity in the painting, commands supreme reverence in Tibetan Buddhism. As the protector deity of the lineage of Dalai Lamas, Palden Lhamo is known to assist senior monks in the identification of the next Dalai Lama through a series of visions on the bank of the sacred Lhamo La-tso — “Oracle Lake” — in a remote location southeast of Lhasa, Tibet.

Due to her association with Lhamo La-tso lake, followers of Tibetan Buddhism consider Palden Lhamo to be the goddess of the sacred lake and believe that she resides in a number of other lakes scattered in the Himalayan region.

Every year, Phuntsok Wangchuk, a monk in Ganden Namgyal Lhatse monastery, spends three months visiting these lakes, which are tucked amid snow-clad mountains a few miles from his monastery. The 39-year-old lama isn’t seeking visions or seclusion. Rather, he’s there to guide and care for the Buddhist pilgrims who visit the lakes, locally known as Bhagajang tso, and believed to be the abode of various other divinities.

Scholars claim that China is heavily investing in surveillance in Tibet.

The nature and extent of surveillance that the Chinese government has on people in its restive provinces was in focus on the second day of the three-day All India Conference of Chinese Studies at the University of Hyderabad.

Apa Lhamo, research fellow at the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, described showed how the Chinese government has weaponised surveillance in Tibet by collecting even DNA samples and how it can be used to track the relatives of people who fall afoul of the law.

Using primary and secondary Tibetan, Chinese and English sources, Ms. Lhamo showed how the Chinese government has turned Tibet into a laboratory for testing technology and digitised form of surveillance.

In the absence of direct evidence; budgetary data and calculations were used by Devendra Kumar to understand how much the Chinese government is spending for its surveillance project in Tibet.

“Police, People’s Armed Police, irregular personnel and private security companies, and the militias are the key to the project of internal security in Tibet Autonomous Region. The growth of budget shows how the Chinese government sees the threat perception at sub-provincial level,” said Mr. Kumar, who is an associate fellow at the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence.

Another interesting paper presented at the conference showed how the Uyghur women in Xinjiang are resisting the project to change the demography and culture of the region.

“The women resisted the forced policies of assimilation like marriages with Hans. They kept the Uyghur culture alive even during the Cultural Revolution,” said Ayjaz Ahmad Wani, who is a fellow in the Strategic Studies Programme at ORF.

Scholars claim that China is heavily investing in surveillance in Tibet.

The nature and extent of surveillance that the Chinese government has on people in its restive provinces was in focus on the second day of the three-day All India Conference of Chinese Studies at the University of Hyderabad.

Apa Lhamo, research fellow at the Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, described showed how the Chinese government has weaponised surveillance in Tibet by collecting even DNA samples and how it can be used to track the relatives of people who fall afoul of the law.

Using primary and secondary Tibetan, Chinese and English sources, Ms. Lhamo showed how the Chinese government has turned Tibet into a laboratory for testing technology and digitised form of surveillance.

In the absence of direct evidence; budgetary data and calculations were used by Devendra Kumar to understand how much the Chinese government is spending for its surveillance project in Tibet.

“Police, People’s Armed Police, irregular personnel and private security companies, and the militias are the key to the project of internal security in Tibet Autonomous Region. The growth of budget shows how the Chinese government sees the threat perception at sub-provincial level,” said Mr. Kumar, who is an associate fellow at the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence.

Another interesting paper presented at the conference showed how the Uyghur women in Xinjiang are resisting the project to change the demography and culture of the region.

“The women resisted the forced policies of assimilation like marriages with Hans. They kept the Uyghur culture alive even during the Cultural Revolution,” said Ayjaz Ahmad Wani, who is a fellow in the Strategic Studies Programme at ORF.

Human Rights Organization Presses US President to Press Beijing to Resuming Talks With Tibetan People During Biden-Xi Meet

The International Campaign for Tibet has urged the US president Joe Biden to press Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people.

Expressing concern that the issue of Tibet did not come up during the Joe Biden-Xi Jinping meeting, the International Campaign for Tibet has urged the US president to press Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people.

“Xi’s meeting with President Biden takes place at a critical moment as the Chinese leader has ruthless control in Tibet, including intensive securitisation of the Tibetan Plateau and unprecedented Sinification of the Tibetan people. It is most important to raise these concerns directly with President Xi,” the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.

Tibetans, Uyghurs, and many other groups, including the Chinese people themselves, have been denied the freedom to raise their grievances and seek redress from the Chinese government. Xi and his officials must hear their voices too, and the Biden administration has an opportunity to push them to listen, it said.

“In particular, President Biden should press Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people, as he promised to do during his 2020 campaign,” the statement said.

However, a readout of the meeting issued by the White House said Biden did raise the issues with Xi during the summit meeting in Woodside, California.

“Biden underscored the universality of human rights and the responsibility of all nations to respect their international human rights commitments. He raised concerns regarding PRC (People’s Republic of China) human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong,” the White House said.

“On Taiwan, President Biden emphasised that our one China policy has not changed and has been consistent across decades and administrations. He reiterated that the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side, that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, and that the world has an interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” it said.

Biden called for restraint in China’s use of military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. He also raised continued concerns about China’s unfair trade policies, non-market economic practices, and punitive actions against US firms, which harm American workers and families, the White House said.

President Biden and President Xi discussed a number of rights concerns, including Tibet.

US President Joe Biden has included Tibet among issues of human rights he raised in his meeting Nov 16 with visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, he has been urged to go further to push China for dialogue on the settlement of the decades-long Tibet issue, as mandated by relevant US laws.

“President Biden underscored the universality of human rights and the responsibility of all nations to respect their international human rights commitments. He raised concerns regarding PRC human rights abuses, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong,” said a White House readout on the meeting.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of the group’s 21 member-countries which took place over Nov 15-17 in San Francisco.

Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet welcomed the confirmation that Tibet was raised during the meeting but made it clear that more needed to be done.

Tibetans, Uyghurs and many other groups, including the Chinese people themselves, have been denied the freedom to raise their grievances and seek redress from the Chinese government. Xi and his officials must hear their voices too, and the Biden administration has an opportunity to push them to listen, it said in a statement Nov 16.

In particular, the group wanted President Biden to press Beijing to return to direct dialogue with representatives of the Tibetan people, as he had promised during his 2020 campaign.

The group has pointed out that US law gives President Biden a legal mandate to speak up for Tibet, referring to the country’s Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 and the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020, which reaffirms the US commitment to the China-Tibet dialogue process.

The group said Biden himself had promised during his 2020 campaign to “work with our allies in pressing Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people to achieve meaningful autonomy, respect for human rights, and the preservation of Tibet’s environment as well as its unique cultural, linguistic and religious traditions.”

The group has expressed regret that pro-China demonstrators had reportedly attacked Tibet activists who protested peacefully outside Xi’s meetings in San Francisco. The Chinese government and its operatives must not be allowed to intimidate or assault Tibetans on American soil, it added.

Australia is urged by Tibet’s government-in-exile to refrain from “compromise” on China’s human rights record.

Australia must not compromise on human rights as it improves its relationship with China because “the truth must be told”, a minister from the Tibetan government in exile has said during a visit to Canberra.

Norzin Dolma, a minister of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala in India, met Australian MPs from across the political spectrum on Thursday to warn against a “quiet diplomacy” approach to “gross human rights abuses” and “brutal suppression” in Tibet.

She also urged the Australian government to use its new Magnitsky-style sanctions laws to target Chinese Communist party officials for “threatening the very existence and survival and maintenance of Tibetan identity, culture and language”.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, visited China last week for meetings with the president, Xi Jinping, and the premier, Li Qiang, as part of what the Australian government calls the “stabilisation” of ties with its largest trading partner.

Albanese said he had raised human rights during the trip, although he has not gone into details about the content.

Norzin Dolma, the minister for information and international relations, said she understood the desire of the Australian government to stabilise the relationship.

“But what we are asking for is to have a principled engagement and not to compromise on your values, principles and priorities,” she said.

Asked whether quiet diplomacy was acceptable, Norzin Dolma was firm: “No, no, no, because there needs to be accountability and there needs to be transparency …

“We only seek justice and our call is only for the truth to be told, and while the truth should be told behind closed doors, it should also be told publicly, whatever needs to be said. The Australian government needs to take a stronger and more proactive role.”

Norzin Dolma urged the Australian government to take a strong stand when China faces the “universal periodic review” of its human rights record at the UN next year, and should also oppose CCP meddling in the process of the selection of the next Dalai Lama.

She conveyed this message during meetings with MPs and senators from Labor, the Coalition and the Greens, including the shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, and the deputy speaker, Sharon Claydon.

The chair of the parliament’s security and intelligence committee, Peter Khalil, also met her, as did the Labor MP Susan Templeman and the Greens senator Janet Rice.

The executive officer of the Australia Tibet Council, Zoe Bedford, said the visit was timely to ensure human rights abuses remained “an integral part of the conversation” as Australia and China renewed their trading relationship.

In February three UN special rapporteurs said about 1 million Tibetan children were “affected by Chinese government policies aimed at assimilating Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically” through a boarding school system.

These UN experts said they were “very disturbed that in recent years the residential school system for Tibetan children appears to act as a mandatory large-scale programme intended to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture, contrary to international human rights standards”.

The Chinese government has repeatedly denied claims of human rights abuses, including in Tibet, and has said the region “enjoys social stability”.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, rejected the February boarding school report, saying some UN experts “endorsed lies and rumours to malign and discredit China”.

She also accused some countries of “politicising and instrumentalising human rights issues” in order to “suppress and contain China”.

Tibetan Snowlion banners indicate a notable presence during the APEC meeting in San Francisco.

Tibetans with their Snowlion national flags – some being waved about or held up, others draped around them, yet others being held from or planted on strategic high spots – were a marked presence among hundreds of protesters who were reported to have marched, waved signs and flags and occasionally scuffled Nov 15 in San Francisco where President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit of 21 world leaders after holding talks down the road at a Woodside estate.

Protestors waving Taiwanese, Tibetan, and East Turkestan flags gathered at many stages of Xi’s trip to the US, including the airport, outside the APEC venue, and outside the mansion where he held talks with Biden, reported taiwannews.com.tw Nov 16.

A banner at the venue that went up in the air over the Moscone Centre, the site of the APEC Summit, read: “End CCP, Free China, Free HK, Free Tibet, Free Uyghur”, reported wionews.com Nov 16.

The banner called for an end to the rule of the Chinese Communist Party that Xi currently helms, as well as for the independence of Hong Kong, Tibet and freedom for Uyghur people who reside in the Xinjiang province of China, the report said.

Pro-Tibet protesters confront supporters of China President Xi Jinping near an entrance to the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy: SFC)

Demonstrators waving Tibetan flags marched midday down Market Street chanting “Free Tibet” and criticizing the Chinese Communist Party and Xi. There were repeated incidents of pushing and shoving between critics and supporters of China as police separated the groups, reported the siliconvalley.com Nov 15.

“The United States is a country that believes in human rights,” demonstrator Penpa Dhundup, 50, of Berkeley, draped in a Tibetan flag and wearing a “Save Tibet” headband, has said. “How can they welcome a Communist Party who takes away everything which the United States is based on?”

Protests were held not only in the area near the city’s Moscone Center, but also near the Filoli Historic House in Woodside where the Chinese leader held a high-stakes meeting with President Jose Biden, said cbsnews.com Nov 15.

It said there were physical confrontations between some of the protesters in the area of 3rd and Market Streets, with one group holding banners condemning China’s ruling communist party and flying Taiwanese flags, and others holding pro-China placards and chanting “only one China.”

Pro-Tibet protesters confront supporters of China President Xi Jinping near an entrance to the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, in San Francisco. (Photo courtesy: SFC)

Earlier in the day, a large crowd gathered outside the Chinese Consulate at Laguna Street and Geary Boulevard, with some protesters holding signs reading “Free Tibet” and “Tibet belongs to Tibetans,” the report said.

It said pro-China demonstrations has been held outside the St. Regis Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Hotel, both about a block away from each other on 3rd Street in the city’s South of Market, where it was believed members of the Chinese delegations were staying.

Also, the “No to APEC Coalition”, a bloc of 150 organizations opposed to the 21 member economies’ partnerships, began gathering at the Powell Street BART Station around 7 a.m. in an effort to disrupt attendees’ entry into the CEO Summit, reported sfexaminer.com Nov 15.

The “No to APEC” summit protest on Nov 15, the first of the two-day summit, was generally peaceful and petered out before the afternoon, with the coalition’s wide-ranging interests – climate change and anti-imperialism, among others – reflected in demonstrators’ motivations, the report said.

Pro-China and Tibet activists hold conflicting protests in San Francisco in conjunction with Xi Jinping’s attendance at the APEC meeting.

A protest organised by the city’s Tibetan diaspora was held outside the hotel where US business leaders attended a dinner with China’s leader Xi Jinping, whom they accuse of human rights violations in Tibet.

Groups of Tibet activists and pro-China supporters staged opposing demonstrations in San Francisco on Wednesday as Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the city for an APEC summit.

A protest organized by the city’s Tibetan diaspora was held outside the hotel where US business leaders attended a dinner with Xi, whom they accuse of human rights violations in Tibet.

The protest was met by a counter-demonstration of pro-China supporters waving the country’s flag, while police separated the two groups with fencing.

Xi met with US President Joe Biden on Wednesday before the dinner, their first tete-a-tete in a year, in which the two countries agreed to restore military communications.

“US CEOs… are hosting President Xi Jinping, the guy who’s responsible for millions of deaths. Tibetans, Hongkongers, even Chinese people themselves — he’s killing them,” said Chemi Lhamo, a member of the Students for a Free Tibet organization, outside the hotel.

The demonstration drew around 1,000 people in the morning, with some stepping on the Chinese flag and dancing on it.

One protester climbed up a flagpole outside the hotel to wave the Tibetan flag.

“We are going to force Xi Jinping to see the Tibetan flag. That Tibetan flag is illegal inside our own home country, inside Tibet,” Lhamo said.

“Tibetans cannot speak Tibetan. Tibetans cannot hold the Tibetan flag.”

“We came because we want freedom… in Hong Kong,” said Stanley Tang, of the US Hongkongers Club.

“We cannot do everything over there, and we want to express ourselves,” he added. “We want Xi Jinping to know we want freedom.”

AFP tried to speak to several Xi supporters, but they declined to comment.

China has administered Tibet since the 1950s.

Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, has raised global awareness of the region.

The United States imposed visa sanctions on Chinese officials in August for pursuing the “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families.

China’s recently released “White Paper” on Tibet: A sea of party rhetoric mixed with ominous stillness

The new “White Paper” on Tibet released on Nov. 10, 2023 by China’s State Council unsurprisingly presents an overwhelmingly flowery image of the situation in Tibet, while its barrage of figures and alleged achievements, along with language characteristic to the Communist Party under Xi Jinping, remain silent on core projects of the party-state in Tibet, namely the boarding school system and the massive relocation programs, both of which are having a tremendous impact on the Tibetan people and their culture.

During a recent UN review, the Chinese government had given details on both programs and stated, for example, that 260,000 Tibetans had been relocated alone in 2019, while the total figure may amount to up to 2 million relocated Tibetans over the past 20 years. At the same time, UN experts have called for an immediate end to the residential boarding school system in Tibet.

Obviously aimed at an international audience and timed to coincide with upcoming scrutiny of China at the UN level, the document and its language are also in contrast to recent speeches given by Xi Jinping at “study sessions” of the CCP Politburo, where China’s autocratic leader more bluntly talked about assimilationist policies toward Tibetans and others. The paper also aims to justify policies toward Tibetan Buddhists that have been found to be in contravention to international law many times, also by independent UN experts. Absurdly, the atheist party-state reiterates its authority over the appointment of Tibetan Buddhist leaders and teachers, such as the Dalai Lama.

Only a thin veil is laid over the massive indoctrination drives toward the Tibetan population, as they are euphemistically coined “education campaigns” and misleadingly represented as promoting the rule of law, in the absence of an independent judiciary, a free media and the separation of powers. The emphasis on such programs in the paper gives reason for concern that repressive policies will only be expanded in Tibet.

Tellingly, the paper portrays its top-down approach to “cultural undertakings” as success, when it highlights television shows, songs and performances such as “The Party Shines upon the Border,” “Affection of the Tibetans for the CPC,” “Forging Ahead in the New Era” or “Bitter Turns to Sweet when the CPC Comes.” Such alleged cultural achievements must sound offensive particularly to Tibetans who have been imprisoned for their dissenting or autonomous artistic, cultural or political expression and for those who risk their freedom for protecting the Tibetan culture.

The document is titled “CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements.” Throughout, the paper imposes the Chinese term “Xizang” instead of “Tibet” as an apparent attempt to imply legitimacy of Chinese rule over the occupied country and to eradicate the global association of “Tibet” with injustice and the assault on a precious culture.

The white paper covers the period after the 18th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, when Xi Jinping assumed office. It is preceded by a white paper from 2019, when the Communist Party presented its version of 60 years of repressive and repeatedly extremely brutal rule in Tibet, while Tibetans in Tibet and across the world were commemorating the violent crackdown in 1959 and the ensuing exodus of Tibetans from Tibet, among them the 14th Dalai Lama.

The International Campaign for Tibet commented on the White Paper: “The State Council’s white paper offers insight into the Communist Party’s repressive strategies and assimilationist ideology on Tibet through what it omits, how it manipulates and reframes terminology, and what can be read between the lines. After deducting the patently absurd sugarcoating, what remains is a people who are totally subjected to a regime that does not understand the value of their culture, does not understand the Tibetan people, their religion, their traditions and their aspirations. Such paternalistic elaborations of an autocratic one-party dictatorship should be rejected by anyone who reads the white paper.”

Imposition of Chinese identity on Tibetans
In 2012, Tibetans were also among those filled with optimism over Xi Jinping’s ascent to power and hoping for forward movement on the resolution of the Tibet-China conflict. However, contrary to the claims in this white paper, 11 years later, Xi Jinping has shown himself to be among the most repressive of Chinese leaders. His focus was on two primary goals: securitize Tibet and “Sinify” the Tibetan people within the Chinese nation-state.

This white paper reflects the proceedings of the “group study sessions” that Xi Jinping has been conducting for the members of the politburo in which outside experts are invited to lead a discussion on a particular topic that the leadership finds important. In his address to one such study session, the eighth collective group study session of the Political Bureau of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee held on Oct. 27, 2023, Chinese state media outlet Xinhua reported that Xi Jinping called for forging “a strong sense of community for the Chinese Nation, efforts should be made to let the people cultivate the awareness that people from all ethnic groups are in the same community, where they share weal and woe and the same future and stick together through thick and thin, and life and death.”

Xi continued saying that, “The Party’s ethnic work and all other initiatives in areas with large ethnic minority populations should focus on forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.”

Continuing with his assimilation theme, Xi encouraged “people of all ethnic groups to identify themselves with the Chinese culture. And continuously enhance the recognition of Chinese culture among the people of all ethnic groups, effectively promote the popularize the standard spoken and written Chinese language and the use of unified state-compiled textbooks to ensure the facilitation shared communication of heart and soul through language.”

The white paper clearly shows that whatever little protections that were afforded to Tibetans who are considered “minorities” in the Chinese system of regional autonomy to retain their identity and culture in the past are endangered under Xi Jinping’s administration. In fact, the report forebodingly asserts that in Tibet, “A shared sense of belonging for the Chinese nation has been consolidated.”

Creating a new generation of Sinified Tibetans
Creating a new generation of Sinified Tibetans includes assimilating an entire Tibetan youth demographic. This has led to boarding schools (without parents having any say in the upbringing) in Tibet being one of the primary domains for Sinification policy through which Tibetan children are distanced from their traditional cultural environment and through strict enforcement of Chinese as the primary language over Tibetan language in the education system. Through this, the Chinese government’s objective is to encourage a new generation of Tibetans only being able to identify themselves as Chinese with loyalty to the Chinese nation.

There have been international concerns expressed at this development. Canada, Germany, and the United States (which imposed visa restrictions on this) are among those that have condemned the Chinese political agenda behind the boarding schools in Tibet.

A senior Chinese official on Nov. 10, 2023 made an attempt to refute international condemnation of the boarding school system by saying, “it’s highly necessary to have a combination of boarding schools and day schools to ensure high quality teaching and the equal rights of children.” China ignores the fact that international criticism is not about the boarding school system per se but about how these are administered, resulting in turning Tibetan children into someone devoid of Tibetan identity.

Preempt scrutiny at the UN
The white paper is an attempt to deflect international scrutiny, particularly by the United Nations. China’s report is due to be discussed at the UN’s Universal Periodic Review session in January 2024.

The International Campaign for Tibet and the International Federation for Human Rights have submitted a joint report to the UN Human Rights Council, ahead of the UPR process, which highlights “a system of boarding schools that separate families, and the prioritization of Chinese language over Tibetan language in education.” This joint report recommends that the Chinese government “[i]mmediately abolish the boarding school and pre-school system imposed on Tibetan children and authorize and subsidize the establishment of private Tibetan schools.”

In a statement on the Tibetan boarding schools on Feb. 6, 2023, three UN experts—Fernand de Varennes, the special rapporteur on minority issues; Farida Shaheed, the special rapporteur on the right to education; and Alexandra Xanthaki, the special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights—warned that, “As a result, Tibetan children are losing their facility with their native language and the ability to communicate easily with their parents and grandparents in the Tibetan language, which contributes to their assimilation and erosion of their identity.” In March 2023, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued the “Concluding Observations” on its third periodic review of China, calling for an end to forced relocations and the state-run boarding school system in Tibet.

Disinformation about Dalai Lama succession
The white paper highlights some peripheral ritualistic activities to show that there is religious freedom in Tibet while there is no reference to the more important and fundamental traditional transfer of religious philosophy to the disciples, as is being continued in the Tibetan community in exile. Ignoring the historical fact that the institution of the Dalai Lama is beyond the geographic boundary of Tibet and that past Dalai Lamas have come from outside Tibet, as per the spiritual process, the white paper asserts that reincarnation of the “Dalai Lamas and Panchen Rinpoches, must be looked for within the country, decided through the practice of lot-drawing from the golden urn, and receive approval from the central government.” The present 14th Dalai Lama has said that only he has the authority to decide on his reincarnation. In a statement in September 2011, the Dalai Lama said, “It is particularly inappropriate for Chinese communists, who explicitly reject even the idea of past and future lives, let alone the concept of reincarnate Tulkus, to meddle in the system of reincarnation and especially the reincarnations of the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas. Such brazen meddling contradicts their own political ideology and reveals their double standards. Should this situation continue in the future, it will be impossible for Tibetans and those who follow the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to acknowledge or accept it.”

The Dalai Lama has also said that he would not be reborn under the current situation of Tibet under China. “The very purpose of the next reincarnation is to continue the legacy of the previous person,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2021. “Therefore, if the next Dalai Lama is to be found while the current one is in exile still struggling for the freedom of the Tibetan people, and the preservation of Tibetan culture and religion, then obviously he will be reincarnated in a free country. That includes anywhere in the world where there is a sizeable Tibetan Buddhist community…”

No reference to COVID-19 and its impact on Tibetans
A clear indication of the white paper avoiding realities on the ground is the fact that it makes no mention of COVID-19. For anyone believing the white paper, COVID never reached Tibet, even though China itself and the world are still fighting off the pandemic.

Let Tibetans decide their future
Through planted questions posed by Chinese state media reporters, Chinese leaders at a press conference provided a false sense of normalcy in Tibet, even extending an invitation to the audience of almost entirely state media to visit Tibet. The white paper claims that the Tibetan people support Chinese policies saying, “The reactionary nature of the Dalai Group has been exposed and denounced, and the regional government relies closely on the people of all ethnicities to resist all forms of secession and sabotage. It is now deeply rooted in the people’s minds across the region that unity and stability are a blessing, while division and unrest lead to disaster. They are ever more determined to safeguard the country’s unity, national sovereignty, and ethnic solidarity.”

If the situation in Tibet was indeed normal and Tibetans enjoyed all the rights claimed in the white paper, China should end its discriminatory policies, including denial of passports and travel to Tibetans, and allow independent observers to see Tibet for themselves. In fact, in his statement on the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising on March 10, 2001, the Dalai Lama said, “If the Tibetans are truly happy the Chinese authorities should have no difficulty holding a plebiscite in Tibet. Already a number of Tibetan non-governmental organizations are advocating a referendum in Tibet. They argue that the best way to resolve this issue once and for all is to allow the Tibetans inside Tibet to choose their own destiny through a freely held referendum. They demand to let the Tibetan people speak out and decide for themselves. I have always maintained that ultimately the Tibetan people must be able to decide about the future of Tibet. I would in fact whole-heartedly support the result of such a referendum.” The reality is that China lacks the confidence to even open up Tibet to the outside world.

Chinese officials are fond of quoting the proverb, “Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.” But as of today, only a few select individuals, including few journalists, have been able to visit Tibet, and that too only under strict state control.

The sad fact is that Tibet is the least-free country in the world today, sharing the bottom spot with South Sudan and Syria in Freedom House’s global rankings for 2023.