The People’s Republic of China (PRC), at the UN’s Universal Periodic Review session, presented its report on the progress on the country’s human rights situation. The report maintained that Beijing upholds “the equality of all ethnicities, respect the religions, beliefs of the masses and guarantee the lawful rights and interests of all ethnic groups”.
The report received criticism from the US, the UK and other countries that pointed at the country’s poor human rights record, especially of its minorities, which China refuted as “misunderstanding” and “misinformation”. The chief of United Nations Human Rights, Volker Turk, recently urged China to implement the recommendations to amend its laws, which violate fundamental rights within China, including the Tibetan region. The human rights record shows that in reality Tibet continues to face systemic oppression by Chinese authorities, which in fact, intensified under Xi Jinping’s rule.
The Tibetan question has its roots in China’s annexation of the region in 1951, claimed wrongfully as “peaceful liberation”. However, the region soon started grappling with systemic repression of a new China under the CCP rule that received widespread global attention following the 2008 Tibetan uprising. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, which aims for “great Chinese rejuvenation”, attention was paid to implement the Sinicisation policy, that is, transformation into a socialist society compatible with Chinese characteristics. In the case of Tibet, Beijing’s aim of cultural assimilation was targeted at Tibetan’s religion, language, culture and environment, all which are vital to keep alive the ethnic minority identity that Tibetans hold.
The series of new legislative measures and policies have perpetuated Beijing’s vicious project in name of “Tibet’s liberation”. Heavy restrictions on freedom of movement and communication in Tibet along with mass relocation, environmental degradation and phasing out of Tibetan language in primary education are mentioned as the human rights violations on the ethnic minority population in Tibet in the latest Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.
The infamous state surveillance has further seemed to alleviate when a recent report revealed evidence of a Chinese app claimed to be an anti-fraud app, that is believed to monitor Tibetans through digital surveillance and gets control over device facilities, by getting access to their data. Tibetans also complained of being forced to download the app by the police. Just a year back, new cyber security rules in Tibet to punish those found guilty of creating public disorder by engaging in separatist acts, or acts threatening the country’s national security.
The communication clampdown on Tibetans, whereby they are targeted and arbitrarily detained on charges of possessing and spreading “banned contents” or “rumours”, is yet another strategic move to instil fear and restrict movements among Tibetans. Other restrictions such as periodic internet blackouts, prohibition of using Tibetan language on social media apps and censorship on news covering Tibetan issues are found to be strictly applied in the Tibetan region.
The exploitation of natural resources in Tibet, witnessed since the 1951 annexation, reached new heights lately as found in a latest report which said that China is damaging the Tibetan plateau’s fragile ecology via its ambitious lithium exploration to boost its electric vehicle industry, further aggravating human rights violations. Moreover, China came under fire last month for detaining more than 1,000 Tibetan monks and villagers who travelled to Dege county in China’s Sinchuan province to peacefully protest against the building of a hydropower dam construction project that is believed to submerge Tibet’s historic monasteries and villages.
Freedom of association and movements already under strict control in the Tibetan region, the latest development attracted global attention with the Human Rights Watch asking the Chinese authorities for immediate release. To fulfil its mega infrastructure projects, China has for years eyed Tibet and exploited its resources. This was obviously done without taking into account the environmental impact of its projects. The latest Tibetan protest also was about resettlement of residents of at least two villages and six monasteries that would be forced to relocate for hydropower dam construction. There are already reports of Chinese authorities subjecting millions of Tibetans to its policy of involuntary mass relocation and housing that has gravely altered their life and detached them from not only their land but also their cultural identity, a practice that seems to continue despite international community’s criticism.
This year also witnessed a leading scientific publisher of a genetic journal retracting 18 papers from China for Human Rights concerns with respect to data collection methods employed by those who wrote these research papers. Of the mass retracted papers, one paper studied DNA of Tibetans in Lhasa, using their blood samples. However, the ethnic review found “uncovered inconsistencies between consent documentation and the research reported.” In January, the US biotech company Thermo Fisher reported to halt sales of its DNA identification kits in Tibet, followed by a series of complaints from rights groups about China’ systemic collection of DNA samples without consent for surveillance purposes, a grave human rights violation found to be in practice in the Tibetan plateau region.
China’s Sinicisation of Religions (2016) policy, aimed at cultural assimilation with the majoritarian Han population, essentially contributed to the restrictions in freedom of religious practice found in Tibet, what is recognised as Sinicisation of Tibetan Buddhism. Besides the destruction of religious sites and the systemic target and detention of Tibetan monks found in the latest HRW report, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs in its February report published shocking findings that nearly 80 percent of Tibetan schoolchildren are sent state-run boarding schools, away from their families, forcibly by Chinese authorities, where they are taught in Mandarin and no lessons on Tibetan language, a deliberate effort at cultural assimilation that risks the erosion of unique Tibetan identity.
China faced its consequence as the US imposed new visa restrictions on China over its forced assimilation last year. In February, the US legislature also passed the China-Tibet dispute bill in order to strengthen efforts to push the Chinese government to resolve the decades-long Tibetan issue through dialogue with the Tibetan leaders, to ensure the Tibetan’s right to have a say in deciding their own future. This reveals that the global community is gradually taking firm actions to not allow the Tibetan question to be diminished as China’s “internal matter” as Beijing intends it to be.
The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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