Democratic world needs to stop Communist China from erasing all that is Tibetan

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is infamous for its repressive tactics against the people it rules, especially concerning suppressing the minority population. What is glaring is that Tibetans, specifically, seem to be at the receiving end of the CCP stick and have been allowed fewer civil and political rights compared to the Han Chinese, the majority ruling class in Communist China. Every day, Tibetans are subjected to stifling control and the use of violence by the Xi Jinping government, from the widespread Chinese mainland police monitoring of Lhasa’s crowded streets to the vilest torture that occurs in Tibet’s secret prison facilities. The Tibetan government in exile at Dharamshala in India recently highlighted that the entire Tibetan way of life is under attack. Mere expressions of dissent, protest, celebrating the Dalai Lama’s birth anniversary on social media, or keeping the Tibetan flag as phone wallpaper are perceived as criminal offenses in Communist China. As a result, Tibetans, fearing torture and facing legal implications, adopted self-censorship to avoid imprisonment. Since the CCP annexed the Tibetan plateau in 1951, the majoritarian Han community and the CCP have systematically marginalized and oppressed the Tibetans, especially the dissident voices. The CCP, through various policies, measures, and brute force, has been successfully destroying centuries-old Tibetan civilization and traditions. They have diluted the Tibetan culture and tried “assimilation” of the ethnic group into the broader Han community, called Sinicization. However, the ordeals of this Sinicization are full of horror and misery for the Tibetan inhabitants in the western provinces of China. Further, the horror of the Tibetans and other ethnic minority groups, such as the Uyghurs, in China has not gone unnoticed globally. The blatant human rights violations in China were noticed on platforms like the UN. Attempts have been made to address this issue repeatedly, although the condemnations failed to change the human rights situation in Communist China positively. The census conducted by the Chinese in 2021 highlights how the Tibetan community has been subjected to forced assimilation, with the Han migration taking over the regions inhabited by the Tibetans. The Tibetan men have been forced sterilized, adding to their misery. Reports suggest that many young children have been forcibly separated from their families and are taken to indoctrination centers where they are taught communist ideals and the ‘Chinese way of life.’ With all this, the CCP desires to homogenize the Chinese population and eradicate all Tibetan traditions and customs, which has resulted in severe human rights abuses and the dissolution of several families. The state-run Chinese media continue to spread false information and specific news worldwide through well-planned tactics and strategy. Repeated attempts have been made to undermine the Tibetan leadership, primarily through discrediting the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader. Communist China authorities are now trying to have control over the process of reincarnation of Tibetan Lamas despite the opposition of the Buddhist community the world over. During the recent two-day Global Buddhist Summit 2023, experts mentioned that religious suppression is an everyday affair in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The exercise of religious practices is highly regulated through Chinese state control over the monastic institutions, subjecting monks and nuns to “patriotic re-education,” which means indoctrination to CCP’s ideas. The CCP intends to assume control over Tibetan Buddhism by appointing a Lama of its preference. The intention is clear; the Chinese authority wants an upper hand and leverage over Tibetan Buddhism. To reach this goal, the CCP works towards undermining the Tibetans’ self-agency and their claim for autonomy and altering or even entirely abolishing Tibetan Buddhist practices. In a very absurd statement, Communist China authorities even attempted to change the history of Tibetan Buddhism by claiming that the birthplace of Buddha was somewhere in Pakistan, foolishly forgetting that it was part of the undivided India until 1947. They have also been backing some breakaway factions, such as the Shugden group, who are critical of the Dalai Lama and often protest the current Tibetan institutions. These reveal that the Chinese efforts to undermine the Tibetans go beyond its borders. Through all these measures, China has even attempted to counter the religious influence that Bodh Gaya in India’s Bihar holds in the lives of all Buddhists, irrespective of faction, region, or nationality. The experts further highlighted that Beijing wants to assume control over the Buddhist nations and influence the decision-making on the pretext of its religious commonality, which needs to be opposed by the global community. The CCP administration has also taken over the newly built Gompas and has strategically and shrewdly downsized the number of monks in monasteries and appointed compliant monastic heads. The Chinese aim, therefore, is to create a group of loyalists who align and support the Chinese agenda and establish its further influence on the peace-loving and virtuous Tibetans. Surveillance and policing are other significant concerns that the TAR is faced with. China has established an intrusive surveillance ‘security’ system in Tibet and has installed surveillance camera checkpoints and forcefully collected DNA data of the Tibetans. This violates the Tibetan’s right to privacy and gives the CCP administration an unfair tool to exploit the Tibetans and subdue any activism in the region. The CCP, in a recent legislation, has disallowed ethnic minorities, especially the Tibetans, to appear in examinations in any other language except Mandarin. Under the repressive “Mandarin Only Policy” of the CCP, primary schools no longer have the liberty to impart education in their native languages and standardised Mandarin as the only medium of instruction. Due to this shift in policy, many Tibetan students face hardships, as they don’t possess the required proficiency to appear and pass the crucial entrance, college, and school examinations. This legislation wholly violates the law that earlier allowed minority schools to print textbooks in their native languages and use them as the medium of instruction. This trend demonstrated that the Xi Jinping administration is going all-out to destroy the unique Tibetan cultural and linguistic identity by the imposition of Mandarin. Apart from the marginalisation of the Tibetan population, Communist China has also been exploiting the Tibetan land for its benefit. The country’s manufacturing hub is concentrated in the nation’s eastern provinces, making the region’s appetite for power too large to be met. China’s aim to reduce its carbon footprint by 2030 has compelled it to develop its renewable and green energy capacity. Keeping this in mind, Beijing has shifted its focus to the sparsely populated western provinces with abundant resources to meet its energy requirements. The CCP exploits the mineral deposits in the Tibetan region and the local Tibetan inhabitants through forced labour to reduce production costs. The villages and settlements that have been neglected for too long now face acute development issues. Tibet’s abundant natural resources, such as minerals and timber, are being extracted, but the local Tibetan population needs to receive their rightful economic benefits. As a result, the Tibetans are facing the brunt of the Chinese economic expansionist ambition. The economic disparity between the eastern provinces of mainland China and the TAR is quite stark. The stringent policies of the CCP followed by the repressive regime’s measures have further aggravated the situation. These repressive measures of the CCP further worsened the plight of the people in the region. According to a few reports, the living conditions in the barracks, where the workers are kept, are nowhere near human standards. The CCP administration has also pushed this coercive labour practice in TAR. It has set quotas for the rural Tibetans, who are churned out of the military-style labour training camps in different regions. It is pretty clear that the CCP government has the slightest regard for the welfare of the Tibetan people, and its whole focus is on satisfying its economic greed. There is also concern that the CCP is attempting to erase Tibetans’ cultural and religious identity, disregarding the interests of the Tibetans. Additionally, the increased militarization of the Tibetan region challenges India’s national security and compounds the difficulties Tibetans face. Beijing has increased the number of airfields in the region and has converted many civil flight airport facilities for military purposes. There are also attempts at road construction for rapid troop mobilization, which is growing alarmingly. It is, therefore, essential to take a united stance against China’s oppressive policies in the TAR and halt the CCP’s expansionist ambitions. International human rights organizations must pay rightful attention to the situation, become actively involved, and thoroughly investigate the atrocities the CCP has committed against the Tibetan people to curb its aggressive anti-people policies at the cost of its ethnic minority population. The writer is the chairman of New Delhi-based think-tank Law and Society Alliance. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.