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Apple Censors Dalai Lama IPhone
Apps in China
Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service
Dec 30, 2009 11:40 am
Apple appears to have blocked iPhone applications related
to the Dalai Lama in its China App Store, making it
the latest U.S. technology company to censor its services
in China.
Those apps, which appear in most countries' versions
of the App Store, do not currently appear in the Chinese
version. Another app related to Rebiya Kadeer, who like
the Dalai Lama is an exiled minority leader reviled
by China's authorities, is unavailable in the China
App Store as well. The apparent censorship comes after
carrier China Unicom launched iPhone sales two months
ago, making regulatory approval of the phone's contents
in the country necessary for the first time.
"We continue to comply with local laws,"
Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in an e-mail when
asked about the missing apps. "Not all apps are
available in every country"
At least five iPhone apps related to the Dalai Lama
are unavailable in the China store. Some of those apps
-- named Dalai Quotes, Dalai Lama Quotes and Dalai Lama
Prayerwheel -- display inspirational quotes from the
Tibetan spiritual leader. Another, Paging Dalai Lama,
tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth
app, Nobel Laureates, contains information about Nobel
Prize winners including the Dalai Lama.
Test searches done on four out of five iPhones displayed
at the Apple Store in Beijing this month returned no
results for the term "Dalai." The apps also
did not appear for searches done with a computer on
iTunes after switching the country selection in the
program to China. One of the iPhones at the Apple Store
did display the Dalai Lama apps, though it was unclear
why.
Chinese officials condemn the Dalai Lama as a dangerous
"splittist" seeking to separate Tibet from
China, and have called him a "devil with a human
face." The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after
Chinese troops crushed an uprising in the capital city
of Lhasa, solidifying Chinese control there. The religious
figure remains widely revered by Tibetans.
Kadeer, an exiled leader of China's Uighur minority
group, gets similar treatment by Chinese officials and
state media. An iPhone app named 10 Conditions, based
on a documentary about her life, also did not appear
in test searches of the App Store in China.
Apple lets developers choose in which countries' versions
of the App Store to sell their products, but it is unlikely
that the Kadeer and Dalai Lama apps are unavailable
in China by the choice of their makers. The app about
Kadeer was submitted to the App Stores in all countries,
James Boldiston, the app's developer, said in an e-mail.
Other developers said they could not recall if they
had excluded China, but most had other apps for sale
in the China store, showing that in other cases they
had included the country.
"Given that Apple has cooperated with China before
(by not distributing games), it's of course very likely
that it's Apple, not the developers, that are preventing
certain apps from appearing," said one China-based
app developer, who asked not to be named, in an e-mail.
Games were not sold in the China App Store before recent
months.
Boldiston and other developers of the missing items
said Apple had not told them their apps were unavailable
in China.
"I didn't know the app had been pulled, and wasn't
informed," said James Sugrue, who designed the
Dalai Quotes app. "Apple reserve[s] the right to
do this sort of thing, and while from a censorship point
of view I disagree with this, I can understand why they
did," he said.
Apple joins other U.S. technology giants including
Yahoo and Google that have come under fire for complying
with Chinese government demands on sensitive political
issues. Human rights advocates criticized Yahoo when
Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, landed a 10-year prison
sentence in 2005 partly because of e-mail evidence gained
from his private Yahoo account. Yahoo said it was obeying
Chinese law by handing the evidence to authorities.
Google has been criticized for offering a censored
version of its search engine for China at Google.cn,
which blocks pornographic and some politically sensitive
search results. Google has similarly said it must follow
local laws and regulations.
Chinese authorities previously took aim at Apple last
year during the Beijing Olympics, when the U.S. iTunes
Music Store was blocked in China after it started selling
a new collection of songs about Tibet. The U.S. iTunes
Music Store and App Store are both currently accessible
from Beijing.
The Chinese iPhone also appears to be subject to the
country's set of Internet controls known by critics
as the "Great Firewall." Searching the App
Store for "Falun Gong," the name of a spiritual
sect banned in China as a cult, caused iPhones in the
Beijing Apple Store to display a results loading screen
indefinitely, though no Falun Gong apps appear to be
offered in any countries. In contrast, searches for
other terms quickly returned a results page.
Other iPhone apps that might be seen as sensitive by
Chinese authorities are still offered in the China App
Store. Apps that, for instance, show YouTube videos
or let users update their Twitter accounts remain available
even though YouTube and Twitter are blocked on the Internet
in China.
Back to Top
Former Czech President Vaclav
Havel on President Obama's Postponement of his Meeting
with the Dalai Lama...
Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, in an interview
with Foreign Policy Magazine on December 9 2009
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A27
FP: After President Obama's decision to postpone his
meeting with the Dalai Lama, you said something to the
effect that these small gestures seem harmless, but
over time can have a powerful, cumulative effect. For
the hardhearted realists, can you explain that effect?
Havel: We know this from our modern history. When [French
Prime Minister Edouard] Daladier returned from the [1938]
Munich conference, the whole nation was applauding him
for saving the peace. He made a miniscule compromise
in the interest of peace. But it was the beginning of
a chain of evil that subsequently brought about many
millions of deaths. We can't just say, "This is
just a small compromise that can be overlooked. First
we will go to China and then perhaps talk with the Dalai
Lama." . . .
FP: You make it sound so easy. But how, as president,
do you decide when these small compromises are worth
it and when they might lead to something more dangerous?
Havel: Politics . . . means, every day making some
compromises, and to choose between one evil and another
evil, and to decide which is bigger and which is smaller.
But sometimes, some of these compromises could be very
dangerous because it could be the beginning of the road
of making a lot of other compromises, which are results
of the first one, and there are very dangerous compromises.
And it's necessary, I think, to have the feeling which
compromise is possible to do and which, could be, maybe,
after ten years, could be somehow very dangerous.
I will illustrate this with my own experience. Two
days after I was elected president, I invited the Dalai
Lama to visit. I was the first head of the state who
invited him in this way, directly. And everybody was
saying that it was a terribly dangerous act and issued
their disapproving statements and expressions. But it
was a ritual matter. Later, the Chinese deputy prime
minister and the foreign minister came for a visit and
brought me a pile of books about the Dalai Lama and
some governmental documents about what good care they
have taken of Tibet, and so on. They were propagandist,
fabricated books, but he felt the need to explain something
to me.
I had a press conference with this minister of foreign
affairs. And he said, "It was wonderful, meeting,
because we were speaking openly. Mr. Havel gave me his
opinion, and I explained the opinion of our government.
I gave him this book, and he thanked me for it."
This was unbelievable! Why did they feel the need to
explain their point of view to the leader of such a
small nation? Because they respect it when someone is
standing his ground, when someone is not afraid of them.
When someone soils his pants prematurely, then they
do not respect you more for it.
Back to Top
Founder of Tibetan cultural website
sentenced to 15 years in closed-door trial in freedom
of expression case...
International Campaign for Tibet
November 16, 2009
unchok Tsephel, an official in a Chinese government
environmental department and founder of the influential
Tibetan literary website, Chodme (‘Butter-Lamp’,
www.tibetcm.com), has been sentenced to 15 years in
prison on charges of disclosing state secrets, according
to reports from Tibet received by Tibetan exiles. Some
of the charges are believed to relate to content on
his website, which aims to protect Tibetan culture,
and passing on information about last year’s protests
in Tibet.
The news emerged as US President Obama made a pointed
reference during his visit to China about the importance
of free flow of information and uncensored internet
access. Speaking to students in Shanghai today as part
of a week-long visit to Asia, President Obama said:
“I think that the more freely information flows,
the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens
of countries around the world can hold their own governments
accountable.”
Thirty-nine year old Kunchok Tsephel was detained in
the early hours of the morning on February 26. His house
was ransacked and his computer, camera and mobile phone
seized. His family had no idea where he was until last
week, according to the same sources. They were summoned
to court on November 12 to hear the verdict of 15 years
imprisonment after a closed-door trial at the Intermediate
People’s Court of Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province.
Kunchok Tsephel, who was born into a nomadic family
in 1970 in Machu (Chinese: Maqu) county, Gannan, the
eastern Tibetan area of Amdo, is fluent in Tibetan,
English and Chinese. He studied English and Chinese
languages at Beijing Nationality University and from
1997-99, continued to study English at North Western
Nationality University in Lanzhou. In 2004, he was recruited
as a Tibetan and English language teacher at the Tibetan
Nationality Middle School in Machu, in addition to his
work for the Chinese government environmental department.
He founded his website on Tibetan arts and literature
in 2005, together with a young Tibetan poet Kyabchen
Dedrol. The website, which was shut down by the authorities
several times over the past few years, was self-funded
with a mission of promoting Tibetan arts and literature.
According to his friends, Kunchok Tsephel is in poor
health after nine months of detention and interrogation
and there are fears for his welfare. Until his detention,
he provided the main source of income for his family;
his wife, who is also a government worker, is currently
caring for their sick daughter.
Kunchok Tsephel had undergone an earlier period of
detention in 1995 linked to suspicion of involvement
in political activities. He was tortured and interrogated
but protested his innocence and was released without
charge after two months.
One of Kunchok Tsephel’s close friends, who is
now in exile, said today: “His family has endured
nine months of agonizing waiting after Kunchok disappeared
in February. Now they are even more distraught by this
long sentence. Because the charges related to state
secrets, they do not even know why Kunchok has been
sentenced to 15 years, and he has been denied access
to a lawyer.”
The Chinese government does not need to define what
constitutes a ‘state secret.’ ‘State
secrets’ laws and regulations are implemented through
Communist Party controlled-government bodies that work
together with state security, and through criminal laws,
to create an opaque system that controls the classification
of—and criminalizes the disclosure or possession
of—state secrets.
The human rights monitoring organisation Human Rights
in China states: “Tight control over this system
by the government bureaucracy, headed by the National
Administration for the Protection of State Secrets,
gives the Chinese Communist Party leadership the power
to classify any information it desires as a state secret
and thereby keep or - even if it is already public -
remove it from circulation. This information includes
the state secrets laws and regulations themselves, and
without public dissemination of these laws, it is exceptionally
difficult for individuals to know for sure when they
are violated. Instead of the ‘harmonious society’
being called for by Chinese leaders, what remains is
a controlled society where critical voices pay a heavy
price.” (‘State Secrets: China's Legal Labyrinth,’
a report by Human Rights in China, June 12, 2007,
http://hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision%5fid=41505&item%5fid=41500).
Since protests broke out across Tibet in March 2008,
the Chinese government has stepped up efforts to silence
Tibetans from speaking about the unrest, and have strengthened
attempts to cover up the torture, disappearances and
killings that have been part of the crackdown. New campaigns
directed against Tibetan culture and religion have been
initiated, and now almost any expression of Tibetan
identity not directly sanctioned by the state can be
branded as ‘reactionary’ or ‘splittist’
and penalized with a long prison sentence, or worse.
Tibetan intellectuals, writers and bloggers who have
expressed views about the situation have been at increasing
risk and a number have ‘disappeared’ or sentenced
to prison terms (http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/fears-missing-tibetan-writer-continued-crackdown-writers-and-artists).
Back to Top
Two Tibetans convicted of arson and
sentenced to death in April were executed on Tuesday
morning in Lhasa...
Jane McCartney in Beijing
Times Online (UK)
October 23, 2009
Tibetan exiles have reported the first executions of
those convicted for last year's riot in Lhasa, with
at least two people put to death in a rare implementation
of capital punishment in the restive region.
Two Tibetans convicted of arson and sentenced to death
in April were executed on Tuesday morning in Lhasa,
reported The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
based in the Indian town of Dharamsala - the home in
exile of the Dalai Lama.
It said Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak had been sentenced
to death for their part in setting fire to five shops
in the Tibetan capital, killing seven people, in the
riot that rocked Lhasa in March 2008. Officials say
21 people - including three Tibetan protesters - died
in the violence, which embarrassed Beijing just as it
was preparing to stage the Olympic Games and prompted
a security crackdown across the Himalayan region.
The body of Mr Gyaltsen had been returned to his family
and then submitted to a river burial - an unusual form
of funeral rite that is more common in southeastern
Tibet. Sky burial is the usual ceremony in Lhasa. The
ashes of Loyak were returned to his family, the centre
said.
The centre reported that two other people may also
have been executed. One had been sentenced to death,
suspended for two years, a form that in almost all cases
amount to life in prison. The fourth had been jailed
for life.
The use of the death penalty has been extremely rare
in Tibet over the last two decades, apparently amid
anxiety that such punishments could set off renewed
outbursts of anti-Chinese unrest.
In September, 1987, two Tibetans were executed after
a public rally in the Lhasa sports stadium that 14,000
people - mostly government workers - were required to
attend. While those executed were convicted of ordinary
criminal offences, the timing was believed to convey
a political message to Tibetans since it came just a
week after the Dalai Lama had unveiled a peace plan
in Washington.
Within days, Lhasa erupted in violence when Tibetans
rushed through the streets calling on the Chinese to
leave Tibet and set fire to a police station opposite
the Jokhang Temple in the city centre on October 1.
More riots followed in early 1988 and in 1989, when
martial law was imposed in the city.
The next executions were not until 1990 when two Tibetans
accused of planning a jailbreak after receiving suspended
death sentences on murder charges were shot by firing
squad. Internal court documents showed the pair had
also started a pro-independence cell while in prison,
along with other inmates.
The only other reported executions came during a nationwide
crackdown on crime in 1996. State media said 29 people,
including 18 Tibetans, were put to death in various
Tibetan cities. Across China, more than 2,200 people
were executed in that 'Strike Hard' campaign.
In the only politically linked execution to be publicly
acknowledged, nomad Lobsang Dondup was executed in January
2003 in a Tibetan area of neighbouring Sichuan province
for a series of bomb attacks over the previous four
years.
Back to Top
Australian university cancels
Dalai Lama award
By Rowan Dix
ABC - Radio Australia News
An Australian university has denied it was pressured
by the Chinese government into withdrawing an honorary
degree for the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is due to visit the University of Tasmania
at the end of the year.
University's vice-chancellor Professor Daryl Le Grew
says the spiritual leader's website was incorrect in
reporting he would receive an honorary doctorate.
Australian Greens Party leader, Bob Brown, says he
suspects the offer was withdrawn after a meeting with
the Chinese consulate.
"So let's have it out in the open. I don't think
Australians like that very much at all," the politician
said.
But Professor Le Grew says the university decided not
to proceed with the degree nomination before a meeting
with representatives from the Chinese consulate.
He says the Dalai Lama's visit later this year will
celebrate a successful Buddhist studies exchange program.
Back to Top
Dalai Lama Receives US Civil
Rights Award
By Paul Westpheling
VOA News
The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of six million Tibetans,
has been named recipient of the 2009 International Freedom
Award.
Given by the (U.S.) National Civil Rights Museum, the
Dalai Lama is cited for his "steadfast commitment
to protecting and defending the rights of the oppressed
people of Tibet and elsewhere in the world."
The Dalai Lama
Announcing the award, the National Civil Rights Movement
board chair Benjamin L Hooks described the Dalai Lama
as "a living example of Martin Luther King and
(Mahatma) Ghandi's non-violence in the face of political
oppression and suffering.
"We've given this award since 1991 to people who
have made a total commitment to making sure that the
world is a better place," Museum spokeswoman Gwen
Harmon told VOA. "For us, the Dalai Lama speaks
to that mission totally."
The Dalai Lama will receive the award in a ceremony
on Sept. 23 at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,
Tenn.
The National Civil Rights Museum chronicles the struggle
for equality in the United States. It was built adjacent
to the Lorraine Motel, where civil rights leader Martin
Luther King Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Back to Top
Family Fear for Detained Tibetan
Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen; Beijing Lawyer Barred from
Case
London, 20th July 2009
The wife and cousin of detained Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup
Wangchen have expressed serious concern for his health
and treatment in prison and called on the international
community for help. According to recent information,
Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B and receives no medical
treatment in detention. Wangchen's family appointed
lawyer in Beijing, under government pressure, has been
forced to drop the case.
"Before hearing this latest news, I hadn't had
any news about Dhondup Wangchen for over a year",
said Lhamo Tso, Wangchen's wife living in exile in Dharamsala,
north India. "Ive always known him to be a healthy
and active person, I cannot imagine what terrible torture
he has gone through in Chinese custody. Knowing that
he is receiving no treatment for Hepatitis B makes me
fear for his life, I dare not tell our four children
here about his condition", Lhamo Tso continued.
Wangchen, 35, has been in detention since March 26,
2008, for filming interviews with ordinary Tibetans
on their views on the Olympic Games, the Dalai Lama
and Chinese government policies in Tibet. The interviews
were made into a documentary film Leaving Fear Behind
and first shown to journalists in Beijing two days before
the start of the Olympics in August 2008.
"Dhondup Wangchen has committed no crime and should
not be in prison at all", said Gyaljong Tsetrin,
Wangchen's cousin based in Zurich, Switzerland."
Documenting the views of ordinary people is a basic
human right and freedom of expression is guaranteed
in Chinese law. The Chinese government has shown no
regard for rule of law and has even barred an independent
lawyer from taking up this case. Therefore I call upon
human rights organisations and supporters all over the
world to urge their government representatives in Beijing
to pressure the Chinese government to unconditionally
release Dhondup Wangchen."
To date, Leaving Fear Behind has been shown in over
30 countries worldwide and further translated into many
foreign languages including French, Spanish, German,
Polish, Hungarian, Japanese and Chinese. International
organisations who have so far expressed concern about
Wangchen include Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without
Borders and Amnesty International.
Contact:
English: Dechen Pemba: +44 (0) 77 848 23907
German: Tenzin Tsedoen: +41 (0)79 384 05 63
Tibetan: Gyaljong Tsetrin: +41 (0) 76 462 67 68
media@leavingfearbehind.com
http://leavingfearbehind.com/take-action.html
Back to Top
China's Latest Tibet - Why Beijing
won't Compromise in Xinjiang
From: www.foreignpolicy.com
By John Lee
Posted Jul 6, 2009
After scolding the West for interfering in the internal
affairs of Iran, Beijing's public relations department
will now be on the defensive following riots in Urumqi,
the capital of the westernmost region of Xinjiang. Chinese
state media has admitted that 140 people have been killed
and almost 1,000 arrested. Hundreds had taken to the
streets to protest the local government's handling of
a clash between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers
in far southern China in late June, in which two Uighurs
died. The police responded to the rallies with force,
claiming that the unrest was the work of extremist forces
abroad and that a heavy reaction was necessary to bring
the situation under control.
Given the region's population of 20 million -- barely
1.5 percent of the country's people -- many are wondering:
Why has Beijing taken such a hard line in Xinjiang?
The reason is summed up in one of the ruling party's
favorite mantras: "stability of state." Unrest
of even a small magnitude, the Chinese authorities believe,
can spell big consequences if it spirals out of control.
Instability of the sort in Xinjiang today is hardly
new for China. Behind Shanghai's glamour and the magnificence
of Beijing, there are large swaths of disunity and disorder.
Taiwan, which mainland China still claims as its own,
remains recalcitrant and effectively autonomous. Residents
of Hong Kong want guarantees that Beijing will not dismantle
the rights they enjoyed under British colonial rule.
And traditional Tibetans, who fear a complete political
and religious takeover by the ethnically Han majority,
want cultural and administrative autonomy -- even if
most have abandoned hopes of achieving outright secession.
Many of the 10 million Uighurs in Xinjiang want the
same. The current violence is just the latest manifestation
of their simmering anger.
There is widespread disorder even in provinces that
pose no challenge to Beijing's right to rule. In 2005,
for example, there were 87,000 officially recorded instances
of unrest (defined as those involving 15 or more people)
-- up from just a few thousand incidents a decade ago.
Most protests are overwhelmingly spontaneous rather
than political; they arise out of frustration among
the 1 billion or so "have-nots" who deal with
illegal taxes, land grabs, corrupt officials, and so
on. To deal with the strife, Beijing has built up a
People's Armed Police of some 800,000 and written several
Ph.D.-length manuals to counsel officials on how to
manage protests. Those documents detail options to deal
with protest leaders: namely the tactical use of permissiveness
and repression, and compromise and coercion, on a case-by-case
basis. The tactics are designed to take the fuel out
of the fire. Sometimes leaders of protests are taken
away; other times they are paid off; still other times
they are given what they want.
Much of this is done quietly, which is perhaps why
the current riots stand out. When it comes to what Beijing
sees as separatist behavior, subtlety is no longer an
option. Although their populations are relatively small,
Xinjiang and Tibet together constitute one third of
the Chinese land mass, and Beijing will not tolerate
losing control over these territories. To be sure, the
protesters in Urumqi and their supporters cannot spark
an uprising throughout China. The protests will eventually
be quelled, and their leaders will no doubt be dealt
with brutally. But as the history of the Chinese Communist
Party tells us, when the regime's moral and political
legitimacy is threatened, the leadership almost always
chooses to take a hard, uncompromising line.
President Hu Jintao, who incidentally earned early
brownie points within the party by leading a crackdown
of political dissidents in Tibet in 1989, understands
better than anyone that authoritarian regimes appear
weak at their own peril. Losing face, he believes, will
only embolden the "enemies of the state."
The Communist Party's Leading Group on Foreign Affairs,
which is chaired by Hu, has often spoken warily about
the democratic "viruses" behind the "color
revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia, and perhaps
eventually Iran -- the same kind that could conceivably
take root in places such as Xinjiang and Tibet. This
is why Chinese authorities are deeply suspicious of
any group with loyalties that might transcend the state
and regime or at least cannot be easily controlled by
the state, such as the Falun Gong, Catholics, or independent
trade unions.
It's important to remember that, at home, the government's
hard line is not wholly unpopular. Most Chinese do not
support the separatist agendas of Tibet, Xinjiang, or
Taiwan. They would rather see a strong and unified China
restored to historic glory. No wonder then that the
Chinese state media has been quite upfront about reporting
on the current unrest in Urumqi.
Chinese leaders learned much about control in their
extensive studies of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Their conclusion is clear: It was Mikhail Gorbachev's
ill-fated attempts to be reasonable that brought down
that empire. The current generation of Chinese leaders
is determined not to make the same mistake. And that
means no compromise in Xianjiang.
Back to Top
China Angry at Australia's
Dalai Lama Visit
ABC News
South Asia Correspondent Sally Sara
Posted Fri Jul 3, 2009 7:00am AEST
The Chinese Government has reacted angrily to an Australian
parliamentary delegation's visit to meet Tibet's spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, in India.
It is the first time a group of Australian MPs and
senators has travelled to meet the Tibetan spiritual
leader in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala.
The Chinese Embassy in Canberra says the visit constitutes
interference in China's internal affairs.
The Dalai Lama says Tibet has been given a death sentence
by the Chinese Government.
"No freedom of speech, no freedom of press. Their
own people put in dark. It is, I think, immoral,"
he said.
The Dalai Lama spent more than an hour meeting with
members of the first Australian parliamentary delegation
to visit him in Dharamsala.
He thanked the all party group of MPs and senators
for their support.
"Usually I describe our supporters not like pro-Tibetan,
but rather pro-justice," he said.
Labor MP Michael Danby says several members of the
delegation are hoping to travel to Tibet later in the
year during an official visit to China.
"If the Parliament asks the Chinese Government
to allow this group to go, I don't see why they shouldn't
be," he said.
"They would be breaking their word and I'm sure
the Chinese Government wouldn't like to be seen to be
doing that."
The delegation expressed its support for the Dalai
Lama's middle way approach of autonomy rather than independence
for Tibet.
The Chinese Embassy in Canberra has condemned the Australian
visit, saying it constitutes interference in China's
internal affairs.
Fifty years after the Dalai Lama fled Tibet, more activists
are continuing to arrive in Dharamsala.
The Australian delegation visited a new arrivals centre
and met one man who says he was shot by Chinese forces
during a protest in March last year.
He told the delegation he thought he was going to die
because he was bleeding so heavily.
On Monday, the Dalai Lama will celebrate his 74th birthday
and he remains hopeful of returning home.
"Even some of my friends, Tibetan, are now 90
years old. Some, even [though] they [are] also still
waiting, one day [will] go back," he said.
"So then I compare them who [are] already in [their]
90s. So I am a bit younger."
Back to Top
America's Tortured China Policy
Phayul [Wednesday, May 13, 2009 23:27]
By Maura Moynihan
When Americans discovered that the Bush Administration
used torture techniques detailed in a Chinese Communist
military manual from the 1950’s, citizens and legislators
across the nation were outraged and demanded an investigation.
Torture is illegal in the United States, and President
Obama has stated that torture does not reflect American
values.
In the People’s Republic of China there is no
such public debate, for in China’s totalitarian
dictatorship, soon to celebrate 60 years in power, torture
is an integral part of governance.
So why does the United States of America continue to
relocate manufacturing, sell T-Bills and hand over all
manner of high-tech hardware to the Chinese Communist
Party, a regime that routinely tortures Buddhist monks,
AIDS activists, bloggers and labor organizers? Has America’s
policy of “constructive engagement” with China
deteriorated into craven appeasement of a vast totalitarian
dictatorship? Our close relationship with China is deemed
“vital” to preserving the global economic
order, but it has entangled America in a policy that
is both morally repugnant and politically dangerous.
As America and China have become close friends and
trading partners in recent years, America’s democratic
institutions have been dangerously attacked. We have
witnessed a shocking erosion of civil liberties and
press freedom, the doctrine of “pre-emptive war”
and a vigorous effort to legalize torture. Is it merely
coincidence? The tragic legacy of allowing bankers to
dictate foreign policy? Those Wall Street analysts whose
passion for de-regulation created the global economic
crisis are the same fellows who for years predicted
that market capitalism would magically give rise to
democracy in China. Now the global economy is collapsing,
China is becoming more repressive and playing tough
with every neighbor and trading partner, and getting
its way. Where's the free press and independent judiciary
that the MacDonald’s Corporation was supposed to
fabricate?
If you wish to study the grotesque particulars of Communist
China’s torture techniques, study Tibet. Human
rights researchers have for decades agreed that China
uses Tibet as a torture laboratory, to develop and practice
torture methods of extreme cruelty, a reminder to all
free-thinking Tibetans that the totalitarian order prevails,
and anyone who challenges it will be shackled, whipped,
beaten, starved and killed.
Torture in Tibet has increased as an instrument of
state policy under China’ “Strike Hard”
policy – implemented in 1995, moments after the
Clinton Administration de-linked trade and human rights.
Tibetan civilians, of all ages, are routinely arrested
and tortured for such crimes as waving the Tibetan flag
or proclaiming allegiance to the Dalai Lama. New videos
and film of men, women and children killed under torture
have streamed out of Tibet since the populist uprising
of March 2008. The Chinese Communist torture tactics
dating from the Korea War are not only still in use,
they have been enhanced by new technologies, in particular,
electric batons and wires.
Nonetheless, policy makers in the west continue to
de-link the obscene record of barbarism in China’s
Tibet from the “constructive engagement” myth.
Meanwhile, China is exploiting the economic crisis to
push human rights and Tibet off the table, and is aggressively
punishing heads of state who have the temerity to meet
the Dalai Lama, the distinguished Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate. Many heads of state are bending to Beijing’s
will. Support for Tibet is eroding, as foundations,
academies and governmental agencies discreetly cancel
funding for projects linked to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
The Dalai Lama’s popularity does not translate
into tangible support for his people; the Tibetan refugees
hang by a slender thread, which cannot hold indefinitely.
The disastrous misreading of the nature of the Communist
China regime has western powers ensnarled in a policy
morass. A new report from the European Council on Foreign
Relations states: “The EU’s China strategy
is based on an anachronistic belief that China, under
the influence of European engagement, will liberalize
its economy, improve the rule of law and democratize
its politics. Yet ... China’s foreign and domestic
policy has evolved in a way that has paid little heed
to European values, and today Beijing regularly contravenes
or even undermines them.”
For decades Chinese soldiers have slaughtered men,
women and children in Tibet as heads of state looked
away in uncomfortable silence. China's barbarous treatment
of a helpless civilian populace in Tibet exposes the
uncomfortable truth that China remains a rigid totalitarian
state. 30 years of market capitalism and foreign investment
did not nurture democracy; it made the Chinese Communist
Party rich and powerful.
America spent billions to fight communism in the former
Soviet Union, while investing billions in the People’s
Republic of China. America has become the Chinese Communist
Party’s chief enabler and ally. As the economic
crisis threatens the supremacy of the western powers,
China is poised to become global emperor, and will likely
accrue more power in the Maoist way; from the barrel
of a gun. How will the United States and other NATO
powers respond should China strike hard on India, Taiwan,
Japan, or the West? What cards will the western powers
have to play, when it was western corporations who willingly
handed China our computer codes and surveillance cameras
in the quest for profit?
Chin Jin, of the Federation for a Democratic China,
journeyed to Dharamsala to stand with the Dalai Lama
on March 10th 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan
Uprising. On his last day in India, Chin Jin recalled;
“I was a teenager in Shanghai in 1972, when Nixon
came to China. An elderly friend of my father’s
started to cry when Nixon came, he said, ‘now the
USA has come to the rescue of the Communist Party, and
this will prolong the suffering of the Chinese people
for many more years.’ He was right. If the western
powers don’t use their leverage to promote political
reform in China, if they keep this dictatorship in power,
it will be a tragedy not only for the Chinese and Tibetan
people, but the world.”
Back to Top
PRC's 60th anniversary a chance to
review Tiananmen event: Dalai Lama
Phayu l[Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:22]
Dharamsala, June 4 – The 60th anniversary of the
founding of the People’s Republic of China presents
a great opportunity for the People’s Republic of
China to review the events of June 4,1989, said His
Holiness the Dalai Lama.
In message issued on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananemen
Square students’ democracy movement of 1989, the
Tibetan leader who is currently on Europe tour, expressed
his respects for those who died fighting for democracy.
The Tibetan leader said the students were not against
communism or socialism. “Their speaking out in
defence of the Chinese people’s constitutional
rights, in favour of democracy, and taking a stand against
corruption, truly conformed to the underlying beliefs
of the Chinese Communist government.”
His Holiness expressed hopes that the Chinese leaders
have “the courage and far-sightedness to embrace
more truly egalitarian principles and pursue a policy
of greater accommodation and tolerance of diverse views.
A policy of openness and realism can lead to greater
trust and harmony within China and enhance its international
standing as a truly great nation, the Tibetan leader
who won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year added.
Back to Top
China intensifies restriction
on religious activities during holy month in Tibet
By Phurbu Thinley
Chinese government has stepped up restrictions on the
religious activities of Tibetans in the capital Lhasa
as they observe the Buddhist holy month of Saka Dawa,
according to a report on Tibetan Government-in-Exile
website.
In Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile
in India, hundreds of Tibetan Buddhists, including monks
and nuns, have been regularly gathering and offering
prayers at the Tsuglag-khang, the main Tibetan temple
here, from May 25 that marked the beginning of the holy
month.
Meanwhile, the concerned government offices in Lhasa
had convened meetings of staff members and people under
their respective jurisdictions and subsequently issued
strict orders, particularly to students and government
officials not to visit temples during the festival,
sources in Tibet informed the exile government.
The restrictions come ahead of Saka Dawa festival,
which is celebrated on the 15th (full moon) day of the
fourth Tibetan month, when hundreds and thousands of
Tibetan Buddhists flock to holy sites to offer prayers
and engage in meritorious spiritual activities. The
annual festival celebrates the three most important
events of the life of Lord Buddha - his birth, enlightenment
and parinirvana.
The report said the normal life of people in Lhasa
has been affected as the Chinese government has sent
in more security forces and deployed a large number
of intelligence officials across the city.
The authorities also are carefully examining the details
of foreign tourists visiting the region, the report
said.
Part of the investigation also includes asking questions
about whether any member of a family who had earlier
visited India or anyone who has now returned to Tibet,
it added.
According to the report, those families who have relatives
and children in India and in other foreign countries
are being asked to provide their conditions and contact
details.
Starting from March 2008, the concerned offices have
conducted at least eight rounds of such investigations
and more than ten times by the village committees, the
report cited sources as saying.
Such intensified restrictions were not new in Tibet
under Chinese rule.
Restrictions and prohibitions are regularly imposed
on religious ceremonies and sensitive anniversaries.
Apart from politically sensitive anniversary like March
10 Tibetan Uprising Day, China has also acted with equally
heightened vigilance during mass occasions like Losar
(Tibetan New Year), Monlam Chenmo (The Great Prayer
Festival), Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai lama and
the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and other
similar events.
Back to Top
MPs' trip to see the Dalai Lama
angers Chinese
The Sydney Morning Herald
Cynthia Banham Diplomatic Editor
TENSIONS between China and Australia will increase with
the visit next month by federal parliamentarians to
Dharamsala in India, where the Tibetan community in
exile is based, to meet the Dalai Lama.
It will be the first such visit by a delegation of
Australian MPs, and is expected to prompt protests by
a Chinese Government already annoyed that Australia
is considering a request by the US to resettle a group
of Chinese Muslim Uygurs being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The unofficial delegation comprises the Labor MPs Michael
Danby and Melissa Parke, the Liberal MP Peter Slipper,
the independent senator Nick Xenophon, and the Greens
senators Scott Ludlam and Sarah Hanson-Young.
The delegation will also have meetings with officials
in New Delhi to discuss the recent attacks against Indian
students in Australia, which have caused a diplomatic
headache for Canberra.
Mr Danby, who has long campaigned for the human rights
of Tibetans and is heading the delegation, said of the
reason for the visit: "A lot of us feel that the
non-violent struggle of the Tibetan people to preserve
their culture and identity and their very modest political
aims for cultural autonomy within the Chinese state
is something that we identify with for different reasons."
Over the six-day visit the group will have meetings
with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Parliament, the Tibetan
cabinet, as well as newly arrived refugees and former
political prisoners. On July 6 the group will take part
in the public celebration of the Dalai Lama's 74th birthday.
"This is a significant step in Australia's support
for a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan situation,"
Mr Danby said. "It is also a unique opportunity
for Australian parliamentarians to learn first-hand
about the challenges facing the Tibetan people and Tibetan
culture."
The news of the visit follows Chinese Government demands
that the Federal Government decline the request by the
US President, Barack Obama, to take up to 10 Uygurs
captured during the Afghanistan war in 2001 and sent
to Guantanamo Bay, but were cleared for release more
than four years ago.
"The protesters at the time were calling for less
corruption, greater media freedom and greater openness
in government, and these of course remain challenges
with which the Chinese government today is grappling,"
Mr Rudd said. "It remains the Australian Government's
view that it is in our national interest to further
develop a broad and substantive relationship with China,
and within the relationship the question of human rights
is an important dimension. Australia continues to raise
our concerns about human rights with China."
Back to Top
Chinese consulate hoodwinks
Melbourne city, says ATC
By Kalsang Rinchen - From Phayul
Dharamsala June 3 - Chinese Consulate has deceived
the residents of Melbourne on Eve of Tiananmen Massacre
Anniversary, said the Australia Tibet Council (ATC)
today.
Melbourne Town Hall will today host a photo exhibition
funded and organized by the Chinese Government purporting
to show the “democratic reform and social and economic
development of Tibet, China in the past 50 years”.
The booking for the exhibition, titled “Tibet’s
Past and Present”, was made under false pretences
by Chinese-Australian businessman Anson Hong, Chairman
of the National Liaison Council of Chinese Australians
- an organization with strong links to the Chinese Communist
Party. An invitation procured by the Australia Tibet
Council revealed that Mr. Hong had acted as a proxy
for the Consulate General of the People’s Republic
of China in Melbourne.
The exhibition, a central component in a state-driven
initiative to shape international perceptions of the
Tibetan situation, has been shown in a number of countries
including China, Canada and South Korea. It was recently
withdrawn from the Canberra Centre after a series of
complaints to the venue and the Canberra Times.
Australia Tibet Council claims the exhibition grossly
misrepresents the realities in modern Tibet and is potentially
damaging towards ongoing efforts to promote dialogue
and reconciliation between Australia’s Tibetan
and Han Chinese communities. ATC recently published
a report which reveals the alarming extent of covert
efforts by Chinese Government officials in Australia
to influence Australian politicians, media, NGOs and
universities.
“This exhibition is a blatant example of the Chinese
Government’s determination to avoid dealing with
the Tibetan issue. Instead of addressing the legitimate
concerns of the Tibetan people, the Chinese Government
persists with its attempt to deny the existence of the
problem and mislead the international community about
the real situation in Tibet,” said Paul Bourke,
Executive Officer of the Australia Tibet Council.
Officials at the City of Melbourne were unaware till
yesterday of the exhibition’s link to the Chinese
Government. The booking was made directly with Epicure
Catering, the company contracted by the City of Melbourne
to manage the Town Hall, and was being handled as a
commercial booking. A staff member at the City of Melbourne,
on condition of anonymity, conceded that they had been
“hoodwinked” by Mr. Hong over the exhibition.
Nonetheless, contractors Epicure Catering have chosen
to proceed with the exhibition and the City of Melbourne
has refused to intervene.
Revelation of the exhibition, advertised only through
the Chinese language media, has drawn strong objections
from Melbourne’s Tibetan community.
“We are very concerned and upset that Melbourne
Town Hall is giving legitimacy to this exhibition. It
is deeply insensitive and inflammatory towards our community
and we appeal in the strongest possible terms to the
City of Melbourne to intervene,” said Samdup Tsering,
President of the Tibetan Community Association of Victoria.
The Chinese Consulate General in Melbourne sent invitations
for the exhibition’s opening to members of the
Victorian Parliament and local councils. Members of
the Victorian Parliament and Melbourne City Council
have since been advised of the nature of the exhibition
and are discouraged from attending.
Chinese dissident groups have also expressed concern
at the timing of the exhibition, which opens on the
eve of the politically sensitive 20th anniversary of
the Tiananmen massacre of June 4, 1989.
Back to Top
Tibetan nun gives account of rape
in custody
ICT Report
A Tibetan former nun in her thirties has given a harrowing
account of her rape by Chinese Peoples Armed Police
(PAP) officers after she was caught attempting to escape
from Tibet near the border with Nepal. Although the
incident happened four years ago, in September 2005,
the pattern of abuse the former nun describes is consistent
with other reports of the treatment of Tibetans caught
attempting to escape into exile. Numerous Tibetan sources
report facing torture and hard labor when caught by
PAP border security during the journey into exile or
from Nepal, although cases of rape appear to be less
common.
The Tibetan woman, who has now arrived in India and
asked for full details of her identity to be withheld,
told ICT that she was first detained in a village near
the border called Kuchar in Burang (Chinese: Purang)
County, with another six people from her village in
Ngari Prefecture, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR),
including two children. They were arrested by the PAP
border security at the border and taken to a border
security facility somewhere near Burang County. Tenzin,
38, had escaped earlier into exile so that she could
practice her religion freely. She was educated at Bir
Suja school run by the Tibetan government in exile for
three years, then moved to a monastery in Dharamsala
where nuns can also study.
In 2005, her father became very sick and her family
asked her to travel back to Tibet to see him. She did
so, and stayed there for three months. It was when she
was attempting to escape back to India that she was
detained by PAP security.
Tenzin said: "About two weeks after I returned
to see my father, they [the local authorities] somehow
came to know that I came from India. Then they started
visiting my house very frequently and asked me questions
like: Why did I go to India? What is the reason to come
back again? They also took me to a place that looks
like an army barracks and also to the township headquarters
for interrogation. The Chinese authorities are increasingly
suspicious of Tibetans who attend Tibetan government
in exile-run schools and religious institutes, as they
consider them to have been influenced by ideas of separatism."
Tenzin continued: "It was so disturbing that I
could not stay in peace. When other people go back to
their country, it is supposed to be a time of happiness
and family reunion. But for me and for all Tibetans,
there is no way that we can enjoy family reunion and
moment of happiness of returning to our homelands. It
is like a hell of the world, I really mean that, all
those ordeals I faced it is really like hell in the
world. I don't think that even after I died, I would
know such an ordeal."
Tenzin prepared to escape and traveled to the border
area of Burang where she and her group were stopped
by five soldiers at a checkpoint. Speaking in Chinese,
they told Tenzin and the others to get out of the car
and show their identity cards. They were then taken
to a nearby army barracks, which Tenzin describes as
being at least two hours drive away. She said: "I
was taken to a very dark room. There was one Tibetan
soldier, who asked me if I was a nun" [Tenzin's
head was shaved, but she was wearing laymans clothing].
I replied yes, then he said: "You are Dalai's running
dog, you betrayed our great nation. They then beat me
with whatever they had in their hands, with batons and
army belts. Later on I could feel nothing as my body
was numb due to the beatings and kicking, and I fell
unconscious , but what was worse than the beating was
to hear a Tibetan soldier calling me Dalai Lama's running
dog. How can a Tibetan do that?"
Tenzin found herself in another cell, handcuffed, when
she regained consciousness. They had separated her from
the group she was with and began to interrogate them
all separately, asking why they had come back from India.
After five days of interrogation and beatings, Tenzin
and the rest of the group were transferred to a detention
center. She says: "For many days they locked me
up in a solitary confinement cell which was big enough
for only one person. Both my arms and feet were handcuffed
to a wooden bed. Then one night the light was switched
off, and two prison guards came into the cell and told
me that I had to take some medicine. I said I was not
going to take any medicine. I thought that time that
they were going to kill me by giving me that medicine.
So I struggled to shake my head while they were forcing
to put the medicine to my mouth but they forced me to
swallow it down by pouring water into my mouth and blocking
my nose by pressing it. [The type of medicine or drug
given to Tenzin is not known.] After that, two guards
went out and chatting with each other outside the cell.
Then moments later they came in, and I sensed something
bad was going to happen, I screamed as loud as I could
in the hope that someone would come to stop them. But
all was in vain, one of the guards covered my head with
his coat and was trying to stop me from screaming while
the other raped me. Later I fell unconscious. I dont
know if that was because of the medicine they gave me
or out of fear. I could not feel anything, especially
the lower part of my body."
Tenzin considered trying to kill herself, but says that
her feelings of guilt about the two children in the
group were too strong. When she asked the guards to
let her meet the children, as she was responsible for
taking them to India, the border guards told her that
because she had tried to make the children Dalai's running
dog she deserved what was happening to her.
Tenzin was transferred to a police department in the
Ngari region for seven days and then to a labor re-education
camp, láodòng jiàoyng , abbreviated
láojiào ). This is a system of administrative
detention that is generally used to detain persons for
minor crimes such as petty theft or crimes against the
state for periods of up to four years. Re-education
through labor sentences are given by police, rather
than through the judicial system. One of the Tibetan
officials told her: "Your brain became very dirty
and needs to be cleaned. You betrayed our nation by
becoming Dalai’s running dog. So you have to clean
your thoughts. You are going to a labor camp, where
you will study and work, and you have been sentenced
to three years."
She said: "For the first eight days in the labor
camp, they locked me in a solitary confinement [cell]
with hands handcuffed, and no any water at all, except
a small amount of food that was hard to eat. After that,
they (the prison authorities) told me that I had to
study and work, and undergo military training as well.
The study that they meant is that I had to confess what
I did was wrong, actually I did nothing wrong but having
been to India, and be obedient to what they say."
Tenzin became very ill in prison due to the poor conditions,
torture and lack of food. She says she was finally released
after approximately a year because the authorities feared
that she might die in prison. Her family spent almost
all of their savings, approximately 20,000 yuan ($2,900)
on medical treatment for Tenzin. She says: "After
some months of treatment at different hospitals including
the People’s Hospital in Lhasa I was well enough
to go home. But my mind could not be at peace, because
officials came to visit my family so often. They told
me that whenever I had to leave town, I had to report
to the township leader." This intense surveillance
and kinds of restrictions are common for released prisoners,
and lead to the escape of many into exile. Monks and
nuns who have been imprisoned are not allowed to return
to their religious institutions on release. Tenzin says:
"Later the protests broke out in Lhasa [on March
10, 2008], which is something that we all should be
proud of, but at the same time, all those educated Tibetans,
those Tibetans who love Tibet, those elites of our ethnic
group, have been killed, detained, and have ‘disappeared’,
that is a big loss. Our hearts are broken." Following
the protests in March 2008, increased numbers of troops
were deployed across the plateau and restrictions intensified
in most areas.
Tenzin and her family were vulnerable due to Tenzin
’s earlier period in detention; former political
prisoners are commonly singled out by the authorities
at times of tension and frequently returned to custody.
Officials began to visit Tenzin’s home once a day
and pressed her to denounce the Dalai Lama. "In
order to avoid saying anything, I told them that my
health was failing due to the intimidation, and I went
to a hospital in Lhasa for two months." Tenzin
realized that she could no longer stay in Tibet, and
despite the risks would have to escape again to India.
She arrived in exile three months ago. Due to the rape
in prison that she refers to as the ‘incident’,
without using the specific word, she is unable to be
a nun again.
She said this week: "Thanks to the blessing of
Three Precious Jewels [a Buddhist term referring to
the Buddha, the Dharma and the Buddhist community, sometimes
referred to as ‘The Teacher, The Teaching, The
Taught’], I made it to India this time. It is my
bad fortune to be out of the wheel of Dharma [the spiritual
path], as I can no longer be a nun. Maybe it is my karma,
but still I am happy now that I can be here near His
Holiness once more." Monks and nuns form a high
percentage of the numbers of Tibetans who escape into
exile each year, due to the Chinese government’s
repression of religious practice and teachings in Tibet.
On arrival in exile, Tibetan monks and nuns are allocated
places at different monasteries and nunneries in India
run by the Tibetan exile authorities. While previously
around 2,500 to 3,500 Tibetans have made the dangerous
crossing across the Himalayas into exile in Nepal, and
from there to India, each year, the number was dramatically
lower in 2008.
This was a result of intensified security in the border
areas due to the crackdown against the protests beginning
in March, 2008. In around September, 2008, after the
stepped-up security throughout China during the Olympics
period, more Tibetans began to attempt the journey despite
increased risks. Given the continued violent repression
and stifling political atmosphere in Tibet, it is possible
that more Tibetans may see no other alternative but
to seek to escape Tibet in 2009 and beyond.
Back to Top
Official acknowledgment of suicide
of monk after protests due to ‘stress’
ICT Report
The Chinese authorities have made a rare admission
that a Tibetan monk committed suicide due to ‘stress’.
Forty three year old Sheldrup (named in the Chinese
official statement today as Shadri), had been tortured
in custody after protests at his monastery in Rebkong
(Chinese: Tongren) county in Qinghai province in April
2008, although this background was not acknowledged
in the report issued today by Xinhua, China’s state-run
news agency.
The Xinhua report said that Sheldrup was found dead
on March 9, 2009 in his monastery after hanging himself
with two khatags (white blessing scarves). Details of
the means of death could not be confirmed. According
to the report, local police said that Sheldrup was suffering
from stress due to illness and also due to deaths in
his family.
According to information received from Tibetans who
knew Sheldrup, he was detained following peaceful protests
at his monastery on April 17, 2008, when he and several
other monks demanded the release of monks detained during
the initial wave of protests a month previously. He
was taken into custody and beaten severely and later
released. According to the same sources, the local authorities
then published his name and details among others on
‘wanted’ posters, indicating he would be detained
again. Sheldrup left his monastery to go into hiding,
during which time his health deteriorated, and he committed
suicide in March 2009, a few weeks after returning to
his monastery in February. Sheldrup left Tibet in the
mid-1990s to study at Ganden monastery in southern India,
and returned to Tibet around 10 years later in 2006.
According to ICT’s monitoring and research, several
Tibetans monks, nuns and laypeople have resorted to
suicide in acts of despair and of protest. ICT has received
reliable information on people who committed suicide
because of the distress of being compelled to denounce
the Dalai Lama, as well as others who committed suicide
as an apparent direct protest against the requirement;
other sources have reported that during the height of
the protests in 2008, Tibetans committed suicide upon
witnessing police brutality against Tibetan protestors;
whereas others committed suicide to escape police brutality
being inflicted upon them. (See: Tibet at a Turning
Point: The Spring Uprising and China’s New Crackdown,
ICT, August 2008, available for free download at: http://www.savetibet.org/documents/pdfs/Tibet_at_a_Turning+_Point.pdf)
Back to Top
Bold report by Beijing scholars
reveals breakdown of China’s Tibet policy;
Reflects demands for greater state and Party accountability
ICT Report
A bold and remarkable new report by a group of Chinese
scholars in Beijing challenges the official position
that the Dalai Lama “incited” the protests
that broke out in Tibet in March 2008, and outlines
key failings in the policy of the government of the
People's Republic of China (PRC) on Tibet.
The report is the first such analysis from inside China
and comes at a time of crackdown in Tibet when the PRC
government is taking an increasingly hardline position
against the Dalai Lama. Read
more...
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