A New Approach is Needed to Ensure the Survival of the Tibetan People
Chinese occupation of Tibet has been ongoing for sixty years as of this year. This marks the anniversary of the forceful incorporation of Tibet into the People’s Republic of China when the People’s Liberation Army invaded and asserted China’s control over Tibet. This has evolved into the destruction and oppression of a culture and a people, despite constant assertions from China that their intentions and efforts have been positive. There is a real genocide and constant violations of human rights taking place in Tibet at the hands of the Chinese government. If the rest of the world does not act soon to encourage a more autonomous Tibet, the Tibetan culture will disappear.
Reports from the vast number of non-government organizations involved with the situation in Tibet verify the existence of human rights violations in Tibet. “The International Campaign for Tibet”, the Tibetan people are denied most human rights guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These rights include freedom of speech, religion, movement, expression, and assembly, protection of human dignity, protection from torture, protection from discrimination, protection from arbitrary arrest, and the right to security
. Hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns have been detained in Tibet, arrested, expelled, or executed for being connected with “political activities”
. Many Tibetan civilians have been slaughtered during peaceful protests over the past decades; 450 Tibetans were killed in 1989 alone
. The Chinese government sees the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, as a separatist who advocates violence and Tibetan independence rather than as a peace seeker willing to compromise. There has been much evidence over the years that proves China’s methods of control to be coercive, invasive, and violent
. The Chinese view Tibetans as a lesser people. China’s actions in Tibet can be described as genocide as defined by Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948: “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Though China has never overtly declared the intention of destroying the Tibetan people, the history of China’s treatment of Tibet is evidence of its indifference to the destruction of the Tibetan people.
Consequently, the survival of Tibet’s culture, race and national identity is severely endangered. Chinese settlers are urged to relocate to Tibet. The influx of Han Chinese migrants into Tibet, facilitated by Chinese authorities, has helped to severely dilute Tibet’s demographic makeup and encourage ethnic tensions and inequality within Tibet
. The Chinese presence in Tibet is supported by large military and security forces, which act to forcefully suffocate Tibetan culture. Even the Tibetan language is being smothered by Han Chinese, which is treated as the official language and is the language primarily used in schools. “The influx of Han Chinese and the growing restrictions on religious practice have become the biggest threats to Tibet, which faces ‘something like a death sentence’ under Chinese rule, said the Dalai Lama.”
In a sense, as described in 1991 also by the Dalai Lama, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. It is very clear that the Tibetan culture is disappearing and that its extinction is being encouraged by Chinese laws, conduct, and policies.
The People’s Republic of China, however, declares positive progress in Tibet. It cites advancement towards a prosperous and free society primarily through economic development and investment in huge infrastructure projects. The principal issue with this is that the Chinese are investing in the Tibetan economy and then extracting the value. This is not in the interest of the Tibetan people but for the benefit of China. According to the Chinese, 45.6 billion dollars has been invested in Tibet since 2001 for issues such as “agriculture, animal husbandry, infrastructure, science and technology, education, governmental facilities and environmental protection”
. It is difficult, however, to trust the accuracy of China’s statements because of their tendency to distort information. Historically, the Tibetan culture places little value on these sorts of material investments.
In terms of infrastructure, China is building or has built roads and railways connecting Tibet with China. This is unfortunate because it will further facilitate the migration of more ethnic Chinese peoples into Tibet and worsen the demographic disruption discussed above
. The budget allowance for government in Tibet is essentially to strengthen Chinese government; this money is being used for police and to maintain more control over the region. Though China is investing in education and building schools, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy International Campaign for Tibet describes the education to be wholly biased.
“Since the occupation of Tibet in 1950, the Chinese government has
wielded the power of education to systematically discriminate
against Tibetans. Instead of cultivating human and social
development of the Tibetan children education has been the medium
of inculcating loyalty to the Chinese Communist government in
Beijing…Education in Tibet is designed to generate love for
communism and the “motherland” and demands the denunciation
of the Dalai Lama and his “clique” in the exile…While the teaching
of Tibetan has been permitted in some village schools, the best
equipped and staffed schools continue to teach in Chinese medium.”
This statement provides evidence that the education methods in Tibet are not in the best interests of the Tibetans, but are focused on cultivating loyalties to China rather than respecting the integrity, culture and language of the Tibetan people. China, in short, is pushing Tibet down a path of development that reflects mainly Chinese interests and is imposing unnatural and inorganic development within Tibetan society, which is detrimental to the preservation of Tibetan identity. Though China assures autonomy for Tibet, there is little evidence to support this claim. The money invested into Tibet is funding Chinese projects with little say from the Tibetan’s themselves.
China is notorious for being difficult to work with on an international level. It has proved itself to be stubborn and cunning in its approach to foreign relations and trade. One example of this is the Chinese government breaking its promise to remedy its continuous violations human rights if China was permitted to host the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China did host the Olympics, but also failed to improve its internal human rights performance. Negotiations with China are always approached very delicately. It remains difficult and complicated for influential nations, the European Union and the United Nations to approach the subject of Tibet because China is a very powerful, and sensitive, economic player on the global scale and many of these countries could not afford to lose China’s cooperation. China’s conduct can seem juvenile at times; when their views seem challenged Chinese officials begin threatening negative effects on foreign diplomacy. As of late, China’s warnings of “damaging trust” have been specific to its relations with the United States of America on several different issues, including the recent visit of the Dalai Lama to the White House in Washington D.C. by invitation of President Barack Obama.
What is desperately needed in order for Tibet to be respected by China as truly an autonomous region is strong international cooperation. The trouble is that the Chinese government consistently declare the issue with Tibet as being an internal affair and that no other country should interfere. It will also take strong but careful international action to ensure protection and preservation of Tibetan culture, language, people, and human rights. All efforts made in the past by the United Nations, European Union and United States have virtually been ignored and China has proved to be uncooperative. Seven United Nations Resolutions on human rights protection in Tibet have been approved, though they have neither been enforced nor respected. They all reflect continuing concern for human rights violations in Tibet and insistence that China respect these requests. The initial resolution from October 21, 1959, Resolution 1353 (XIV) called for “respect for the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people and for their distinctive cultural and religious life.”
A resolution passed March 10th, 2009 by the European Parliament urged China to renew dialogues with Tibet on genuine autonomy. “The parliamentarians urged 27 European Union nations to “adopt a declaration calling on the Chinese government to open a constructive dialogue.””
Also in March of 2009 the United States congress passed a resolution that requested China to respond to the Dalai Lama in his efforts to find a solution to the problem13. Despite the numerous recent and past attempts to encourage China to respond to calls for resolution and to make progress towards an autonomous Tibet there have been very few results. The resolutions given above are just few of the many efforts made by the western world that exemplify the awareness and recognition of the need for change in China to protect the rights of the Tibetans.
The first step towards preserving Tibetan identity and human rights is the need for stronger dialogue from developed nations. There should be more international pressure for China to re-evaluate the situation in Tibet and to be more diplomatic and cooperative. President Obama specifically has made recent attempts just this month that appear to be the beginnings to possibly more forceful dialogue with China on their policy with Tibet by expressing his concern about the human rights situation in Tibet. This “apparent change in tack by the Obama administration is a sign that the US government is prepared to challenge China, demonstrating that the myth of China’s supreme strength can be challenged.”
Britain’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has also expressed his indignation at the human rights situation in Tibet. Foreign relations with China has always been timid, which has emboldened China to make demands without making compromises. “Relations between the United States and China have turned chilly in recent months as the two countries wrangle over Taiwan, Tibet, Iran and China’s continued manipulation of its currency.”
The Obama administration’s recent interactions with China, particularly the Dalai Lama’s visit and the sale of military equipment to Taiwan, have soured US relations with China. The President is giving the impression of taking a more forceful stance with China. This is exactly what is needed on a more global scale to achieve more autonomy for Tibet.
China is not respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If there is no change of tone in the international approach to China, the Tibetan people may become another failed attempt for protection of human rights. There needs to be more action from influential nations around the world to restore the dignity of the Tibetans and ensure the survival of their people. More steps need to be taken by these influential nations to help save a people that will otherwise disappear. Though China is committed to following its policies on Tibet, influential powers must find a way to get some leverage and be more forceful in order for China to change its policy on Tibet or the Tibetan culture will cease to exist.
OTHER SOURCES:
“China Attacks US For Tibet Resolution.” Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Web. 27 Feb. 2010. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/12/china-attacks-us-for-tibe_n_174303.html>.
“China to achieve leapfrog development, lasting stability in Tibet.” Web. 28 Feb. 2010. <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-01/22/c_13147500.htm>.
Home | Free Tibet. Web. 22 Feb. 2010. <http://www.freetibet.org/>.
“The New York Times Log In.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/asia/13tibet.html>.
“The New York Times Log In.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Web. 27 Feb. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/asia/11tibet.html>.
“On Human Rights, Obama’s Words Soar Above Actions | Human Rights Watch.” Home | Human Rights Watch. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. <http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/01/20/human-rights-obamas-words-soar-above-actions>.
“Two Realities of Tibet – Times Topics Blog – NYTimes.com.” Topics – Times Topics Blog – NYTimes.com. Web. 27 Feb. 2010. <http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/tibets-two-realities/>.
“Welcome to the United Nations.” Welcome to the United Nations: It’s Your World. Web. 02 Mar. 2010. <http://www.un.org/en/index.shtml>.
© 2010, Alena Charow. All rights reserved.