Author: Tsering Passang

By Venus Upadhayaya | The Epoch Times | December 3, 2022 

Former Chinese communist leader Jiang Zemin presided over an extraordinary clampdown on faith groups, particularly the spiritual group Falun Gong, during which the regime deployed tools and tactics that laid the groundwork for the development of China’s modern digital authoritarianism, according to experts and advocates.

Jiang died on Nov. 30 at the age of 96 years in Shanghai, due to leukemia and multiple organ failure, according to Chinese state media.

While his death has prompted some analysts to positively recount his alleged contributions to China’s economic development, others point to Jiang’s role in boosting the communist country to the detriment of the United States and the West.

Meanwhile, advocates and experts have drawn attention to Jiang’s mass human rights violations—atrocities that persist in China today.

Violations

“His biggest demerits: of course the Falun Gong persecution starting 1999 with pogroms, [and] ruling China through corruption and messing around with ethics,” Frank Lehberger, a Europe-based sinologist and analyst of Chinese Communist Party policies, told The Epoch Times in an email.

The spiritual practice Falun Gong, which includes meditative exercises and moral teachings focused on the principles, truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, surged in popularity in the 1990s. Perceiving this to be a threat to his grip on power, Jiang launched an expansive campaign of suppression that resulted in millions of adherents detained for their beliefs.

Jiang also ordered the forced organ harvesting from persecuted groups, particularly Falun Gong practitioners, Lehberger noted. Detained Falun Gong practitioners were found to be the main source of organs for this horrific practice used to supply China’s large transplant market.

The former leader’s sweeping oppressive policies thus laid the foundation for other CCP campaigns of repression towards Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, and those in Hong Kong, noted Lehberger.

Jiang is the first CCP leader to face lawsuits in national as well as international courts.

In 2009, Jiang and four high-ranking CCP officials were indicted at the national Spanish court for committing crimes of genocide and torture against Falun Gong practitioners.

In 2003, three Tibet support groups jointly filed a criminal lawsuit in Spain’s High Court, accusing Jiang and Li Peng, both of whom had retired as China’s president and parliament chief, respectively, of committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Tibet.

Tsering Passang, the founder and chairman of the advocacy group Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities, noted Jiang’s role in crushing the Tibetan Buddhist faith.

The Panchen Lama, the second most significant religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama disappeared at the age of 6 in May 1995 during Jiang’s rule in China, reportedly abducted by the regime. Since then, there has been no news about him or his family. In 2018, the U.S. State Department in an official statement called for his immediate release.

“In Tibetan tradition, the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama have a vital role of recognizing each other’s reincarnation. Beijing appointed its own Panchen Lama six months later in November 1995. This all happened during the reign of … Jiang Zemin who had absolute authority,” Passang told The Epoch Times over text message.

He added that even the 17th Karmapa, the spiritual head of the 900-year-old Karma Kagyu branch of Tibetan Buddhism, had to dramatically escape from Tibet in 2000 during Jiang’s regime as the spiritual leader was restricted from pursuing his Buddhist education in Tibet.

Lehberger also noted that Jiang ordered the establishment of China’s Great Firewall, the regime’s vast internet censorship and surveillance apparatus. This laid the foundation for the regime’s digital dictatorship, later perfected under the rule of current CCP leader Xi Jinping. It also paved the way for today’s “bio-medical COVID dictatorship,” he said.

On the economic front, Jiang’s policies kickstarted the regime’s rampant intellectual property theft, spawning cheap Chinese counterfeits that have since flooded the global market, according to Lehberger. The expert also blamed Jiang for China’s widespread environmental destruction and predatory capitalism.

Problem with Democracy

French historian and author Claude Arpi relayed accounts of Jiang’s poor comprehension of democracy during his state visits abroad. Hosts had faced problems when rights protestors shouted slogans at the then-leader.

“On March 25, 1999, Jiang Zemin was on an official visit to Switzerland. On that day, as he arrived at the parliament in Bern, the Chinese [leader] saw some pro-Tibetan protestors in front of the building with ‘Free Tibet” banners. He got very angry,” said Arpi, now based in India.

“Inside the parliament, he addressed the Swiss lawmakers and said: ‘Today, Switzerland has lost a friend’.”

Arpi mentioned that a few years after this incident, a Swiss diplomat told him that Jiang’s anger continued even during the state banquet with the Swiss president later that evening.

“Jiang Zemin was still so angry that he refused to eat to the great embarrassment of his hosts, who tried to explain what ‘democracy’ was about. In vain!” said Arpi.

Passang participated in protests during Jiang’s state visit to London in 1999, and was detained by the city’s police for over six hours.

“In Cambridge (I did not attend the protest there) the Chinese security/secret service were literally seen directing the British police to contain Tibet protesters,” he said.

“There was no doubt that the policing was beyond reasonable—it was heavy-handed,” he said, adding that the local police later issued apologies for its policing.

Factional Politics

Observers note that Jiang was the leader of a faction within the CCP known as the “Shanghai gang,” in reference to eastern coastal city on which Jiang has a political stranglehold.

Factional politics had a key role in the political and economic policies of the Chinese regime. As long as Jiang was in power, his Shanghai gang not only dominated national politics but his city also received preferential economic treatment from the central leadership, said analyst Srijan Shukla of Observer’s Research Foundation in a 2021 paper titled “Rise of Xi Gang.”

“A study conducted in 2002 showed how over …12 years (1990-2002), Shanghai received 19.8 billion yuan more in state grants and loans than its chief domestic competitor, the city of Tianjin. This preferential treatment also resulted in more flows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Shanghai than any other Chinese city,” wrote Shukla, adding that between 1978 and 2002, 86 percent of FDI inflows into China went to the east coast.

Even after stepping down as leader, Jiang was able to control politics from behind the scenes as a factional head, analysts say.

Lehberger said that Jiang manipulated and hobbled his successor Hu Jintao until 2012, although Jiang had officially retired from all his posts in 2004.

When Xi came to power in 2012, Jiang hoped that his faction could do the same and “manipulate him as some sort of ‘puppet,’” said Lehberger.

Passang noted that Jiang’s death may be good news for Xi.

“His death may be detrimental to his supporter base in the party which means a full opportunity for Xi Jinping,” he said

Lehberger noted that there were rumors in mid-November that Jiang had died, and suggested that Xi had decided to divulge it at a time when historic mass COVID protests were rocking China. But he conceded that there was no way to prove the rumors.

The analyst believes that Xi will now start purging the most influential players left in the Shanghai fraction. “Because it seems Jiang had some sort of tacit agreement on Xi holding still, postponing major persecutions, until Jiang’s death,” said Lehberger.

*Venus Upadhayaya reports on wide range of issues. Her area of expertise is in Indian and South Asian geopolitics. She has reported from the very volatile India-Pakistan border and has contributed to mainstream print media in India for about a decade. Community media, sustainable development, and leadership remain her key areas of interest.

Twitter: @venusupadhayaya

This article was first published in The Epoch Times. Link to the original article

Join the London protest to show your support and solidarity with the Tibetans, the Uyghurs and the Hongkongers who are still being persecuted in their homelands by the brutal Chinese Communist regime.

Every year on 10th of December, the world celebrates Human Rights Day, the very day when, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Supported by various human rights organisations, London-based Tibetan, Uyghur and Hong Kong communities are staging a public protest to highlight the continued gross violations of human rights committed by the Chinese State in their home countries. Speakers from these communities will share their own stories and call upon the UK government and others to take strong action against the brutal CCP regime.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is one of the world’s greatest human rights abusers. From violently crushing calls for democracy in Hong Kong, to erasing Tibetan identity, to committing genocide against the Uyghurs – they represent a global threat to international standards of human rights. Xi Jinping has recently secured his third term in office and it is certain that his regime will engage in further crackdowns on all persecuted communities in China and its occupied territories over the next five years. So, it is vital that we speak up.

The protest will start in Whitehall, opposite 10 Downing Street, the heart of the UK Government and it ends at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, 49 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL.

Programme:

1.00 pm: Gather opposite 10 Downing Street, Whitehall

1.15 pm: Speeches

1.45 pm: March starts. Route: Trafalgar Square – Piccadilly Circus – Regents Street – Oxford Circus – Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

2.30 pm: Rally starts

3.00 pm: Protest ends.

This London protest is organised by:

World Uyghur Congress

Tibetan Community UK

Stop Uyghur Genocide

Free Tibet

Hong Kong Aid

Uyghur Community UK

Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities

Protest 2: Meet outside London Apple Store, Oxford Circus by Labour Movement Solidarity with Hong Kong (UK)

Organised by the Labour Movement Solidarity with Hong Kong (UK) this first lobby will be at London’s Regent Street Apple store on December 10 at 1pm. The protesters will then join others at the Chinese Embassy.

Publicity shared by the Labour Movement Solidarity with Hong Kong states: “, “Since the #Foxconn revolt and following the #Urumqi tragedy hundreds of thousands of workers and students have taken to the streets across #China.

“We need to mobilise in solidarity – not only to demand that the Apple Corporation ends their complicity with the anti-worker policies of the Chinese regime but also to support all Chinese workers and students currently fighting against the dictatorial and authoritarian regime.”

The publicity further added, “This Saturday we will be going ahead with a protest outside Apple Store at 1pm and afterwards joining the Chinese dissident student group China_Deviants at their picket at the Embassy.”

Follow on Twitter LabSolidarityHK

Protest 3: London Human Rights Day – They Shouldn’t Be Forgotten by China Deviants

China Deviants join in forces with likeminded causes to mark the International Human Rights Day on 10th December this year in London. China Deviants stand with all the voiceless peoples in China, who cannot speak for themselves. China Deviants also stand with the Hongkongers, Tibetans, Uighurs, feminist activists and workers’ rights. Please join us from 2pm to 5pm outside the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, 49 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL.

China Deviants is a decentralised non-profit organisation. We are committed to awakening the Chinese people against the dictator, letting the Chinese people and the international community realise that: a non-elected government cannot represent the voice of the Chinese people. We need democracy and freedom, and we reject dictatorship. We hope to unite more siblings and work together for the realisation of democratic China.

For more information, please visit https://chinadeviants.org/

Rights groups have condemned China and its official agents in the UK for committing savage acts against peaceful protesters on 16th October in Manchester, north-west of England.

A group of human rights protesters, who belong to China’s persecuted communities from Hong Kong, Tibet and East Turkestan, staged a peaceful protest outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester. Their aim is to draw the world’s attention to Xi Jinping’s brutal oppressions in China’s occupied territories.

The protest coincided with the ongoing National Congress of the People’s Republic of China, which began on 16th October in Beijing. Delegates at the National Congress are expected to extend dictator Xi Jinping’s term in Office for at least another five-year as China’s president. Xi was anointed as the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China in November 2012. A few months later in March 2013, he became the President of the People’s Republic of China.

Outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, bandits wearing facemasks approached the peaceful protesters, who then dismantled the protest banners and removed them. CCP agents then used force and dragged some of the protesters inside the Chinese Consulate’s compounds, where they started beating them mercilessly. Footages of the brutal acts were all shared on news and social media channels.

China’s persecuted communities are convinced that the Chinese regime resorting to such illegal acts on foreign soil is simply to silence its critics overseas. They also believe that CCP agents were attempting to kidnap dissidents overseas and bring them back to China and its occupied territories to face the consequences for their opposition against the Chinese Communist Party.

So, it is pertinent that rights groups join in forces and stage protests in London and Manchester to showcase their solidarity with the China’s persecuted communities whilst highlighting the brutal Chinese regime’s violent acts.

Through these forthcoming protests in London and Manchester, rights groups will also urge the UK government once again to take appropriate action against the Chinese Embassy and its agents for their illegal acts on British soil.

Nobody in the UK should feel threatened or threatened by any forces, including China, for simply exercising their basic democratic rights such as free speech through peaceful protests.

Rights groups – Hong Kong Aid, Free Tibet, Britons in Hongkong, Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, Good Neighbour Church England and Hong Kong Liberty are all involved in the London protest. There will be rallies in Whitehall and outside the Chinese Embassy. The protesters will march to the Chinese Embassy after their rally in Whitehall.

London Protest – 23rd October 2022

Manchester Protest – 23rd October 2022

Sunday, 23rd October 2022 at 4pm
St. Peter’s Square
Manchester (for details please click the link)

Joint Statement of Manchester Hongkongers and Organisations on Violent Attack on Peaceful Protestors at Chinese Consulate in Manchester: 16 October 2022

Joint Statement of Manchester Hongkongers and Organisations on Violent Attack on Peaceful Protestors at Chinese Consulate in Manchester: 16 October 2022

We express our deepest concern about the violence inflicted by the Chinese Consulate upon peaceful Hong Kong protesters in Manchester today. Such violence is in clear violation of UK citizens’ freedom of expression and right to security. It should by no means be tolerated.

As shown by several online footage, a peaceful protest was held outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester by a group of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters on a public pavement in front of the Consulate. Video evidence showed several men walking out from the Consulate and brutally destroying personal properties of the protesters. The protester was subsequently dragged behind the gates of the Consulate and beaten aggressively by a gang of at least five to six men.  

This appalling incident evidenced that the Chinese Government’s oppressive arms are not confined only within its claimed territories, but reaching far beyond to the British streets.

We strongly urge the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and our Foreign Secretary James Cleverly MP to investigate the violation of international law in this violent incident.

Any brute force and violence to peaceful protesters should not be tolerated. We strongly condemn the savage acts committed by members of staff of the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, of illegal detention of British Nationals, and exploitation of individual’s right to liberty and security, along with their freedom of assembly and demonstration.

Our thoughts are with those peaceful protesters in Manchester. 

16th October 2022

Useful Links:

The Telegraph

Manchester Evening News

Britons in Hong Kong

British Ambassador Simon Manley delivered a general remark after a vote on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (aka East Turkistan), on 7th October 2022 at the 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council. The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities welcomed the continued support from United Kingdom and likeminded countries.

“Thank you, Mr President

Permit me to make a few remarks after the vote in relation to the Draft Decision to hold a debate on the Human Rights Situation in Xinjiang.

Members of the core group that proposed the Decision align themselves with this statement.

Let me begin by thanking every member of this Council who voted in favour of the Draft Decision, as well as every nation which co-sponsored the draft. We welcome the support of each and every one of you.

Our aim in proposing this Draft Decision was to bring before the Council an issue, which clearly warrants this Council’s attention. No state should be free to avoid scrutiny over allegations of possible crimes against humanity, whatever their region, whatever their size, or whatever their influence. And to be clear, that includes the UK.

It has been clear from talking to colleagues over recent weeks, that almost everybody in this room acknowledges that there are serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang. The recent OHCHR assessment confirms these concerns with meticulous rigour, drawing extensively on first-hand testimonies and information published by Chinese authorities.

While the Decision was not adopted, the many discussions around the draft decision in Geneva and in Human Rights Council member capitals, have served to highlight the scale, and the nature, of the terrible violations being faced by Uyghur and other Muslims in Xinjiang.

It was therefore correct for the Core Group to seek a debate at the Council. To have done otherwise would have been to ignore the plight of those subjected to arbitrary detention, torture or ill-treatment, forced labour, sexual and gender-based violence, forced sterilisations and enforced disappearance. It would have been to disregard the testimony of those who have experienced these violations first hand and helped to bring them to light, despite huge personal risk. It would have been to look the other way, when faced with allegations of possible crimes against humanity, committed against huge numbers of people from minority groups based on their ethnicity and religion.

Mr President, dear colleagues,

Problems don’t go away by ignoring them. So, we will continue to raise our concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, in international fora. We will continue to urge China to change course, and to cease the practices which the OHCHR assessment has described to us, in such clear and disturbing detail.  And we will not forget the plight of the Uyghurs in China.

Thank you”

Source: UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

More and more Tibetans are now exploiting modern technology for good. They record events happening in their localities and share with people around the world through YouTube and other social media channels.

Today, we are pleased to share a video blog by Dolma Lhamo from India – His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Teaching in Lingshed Village, Ladakh!

After a gap of several years due to COVID-19 lockdowns, His Holiness the Dalai Lama travelled to Ladakh in August 2022 where the Tibetan spiritual leader gave Buddhist teachings to his followers.

Ladakh, often referred to as a “Little Tibet”, is a favourite place of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Tibetans and the Ladakhi people share the same Tibetan Buddhist cultural and religious traditions. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is highly revered in this northern region of India too.

This year the Tibetan spiritual leader gave Buddhist teachings at the Lingshed Gonpa, a Gelugpa Buddhist monastery which is located in the south west of Shaam region of Leh district. Ladakh is a Union Territory of India. Lingshed Gonpa is one of the most prominent and oldest monasteries of Ladakh.

It was founded in the 1440s by Changsem Sherab Zangpo on a holy site. Changsem Sherab Zangpo was a disciple of noted Tibetan perceptor Je Tongkhapa, It is said that Shesrab Zangpo, having founded karsha and Phugtal monasteries to the south of Lingshed travelled across Hanuma-la (a pass), where he had to spend a night, from where he saw an “auspicious shining light” shining on a rock on hillside at Lingshed. He built a stupa over that rock and this became the sanctum sanctorum of the monastery.

In 1779, the Ladakh king Tsewang Namgyal bestowed upon the lands of Lingshed and its surrounding villages to Lobsang Gelek Yeshi Dragpa, the 3rd incarnate of the Ngari Rinpoche lineage. Ever since then, the monastery belonged to the religious estate of Ngari Rinpoche and hence the present head of the monastery is Tenzin Chogyal, the 16th Ngari Rinpoche and the youngest brother of the XIV/ Dalai Lama.

Lingshed Monastery is popularly known as” Skubum TashiOdbar”. Skubum meaning: “A Hundred Thousand Images/Statues” and Tashi Odbar: “An Auspicious Shining Light”.

How to reach: It takes around 8 hours to reach Lingshed from Leh. You have to cross Wanla and then, Shirshir la. You will reach at Photoksar. From there, you have to cross Singye la and it takes half an hour to one hour to reach Lingshed.

For further details, please visit: Dolma Lhamo’s YouTube Channel

On 29th September 2022, Dharamsala-based Central Tibetan Administration (aka Tibetan Government-in-exile) issued a Statement affirming its position on the issue of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation.

In its Statement, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration, said, “The system of recognising reincarnated spiritual beings is a religious practice unique to Tibetan Buddhism. The fundamental thought behind this philosophy is to accept the principle of life after death.

“No government nor any individual has the right to interfere in this matter.”

For full statement, please see below and visit the CTA’s website.

Kashag’s Position on the Issue of Reincarnation of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

The government of the People’s Republic of China adopted the so-called law on ‘Management Measures for the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism’, in 2007. Since then, the PRC has taken over the management of all monastic administrations and in particular, took complete control over the power to recognise reincarnated Lamas/Living Buddhas, and continue to use it to meet their political ends.

Moreover, the PRC government, in real-time, conducts workshops, discussion forums, talk shows and uses various means to promote a false narrative on the issue of reincarnation in general; and on the reincarnation of the present Dalai Lama in particular. These activities are conducted on all the ordained and laity throughout Tibet.

It is also a fact that the issue of reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama continues to be discussed within our community and without as well. Therefore, The Kashag/Cabinet of the Central Tibetan Administration felt the need to present this Position Paper for everyone’s information.

1. The Kashag has firm belief that His Holiness will live to the ripe age of 113 as per propitious prescient and the repeated assurances of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
2.  The system of recognising reincarnated spiritual beings is a religious practice unique to Tibetan Buddhism. The fundamental thought behind this philosophy is to accept the principle of life after death.
3. While extending our sincere appreciation and thankfulness to those freedom-loving democratic countries around the world, including the United States of America for their complete endorsement of His Holiness’s thoughts on this matter; we will pursue with due diligence to obtain similar support from as many like-minded countries as possible.
4. With regards to the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness’s repeated statements since 1969, the official pronouncement of September 24, 2011, or any guidance in future is inherently discretionary. No government nor any individual has the right to interfere in this matter.
5. This religious activity has to be conducted as per the responsibilities that His Holiness the Dalai Lama enshrines and entrusts. We have full confidence in the leadership of the Central Tibetan Administration at the time to take responsibility as entrusted.
6. The Kashag is in the process of working on other related matters that need to be addressed concerning this issue.

May all be assured.

Useful Links

Central Tibetan Administration (link to the original article)

Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

GATPM | London | 2nd October 2022

Ever since the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 through military force the People’s Republic of China celebrates 1st October as their National Day. But for the peoples of East Turkestan and Tibet this was the beginning of dark period.

Exactly 73 years ago on this day, Mao Tsetung ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to invade Tibet and East Turkistan. Tibetans and Uyghurs resisted their occupations and they have been enduring unimaginable sufferings under the brutal CCP regimes over the past seven decades. Under Xi Jinping dictatorship, the freedoms the people of Hong Kong enjoyed for generations had snatched away through force.

So, to mark this dark day in history, London-based Hong Kong, Tibetan and Uyghur communities staged “Resist CCP Day” protest on 1st October to highlight the Chinese regime’s atrocities and their continued gross violations of human rights in the occupied territories.

The rally kicked off in Piccadilly Circus at 6pm where protesters chanted “Free Tibet”, “Free East Turkestan”, “Free Hong Kong”, “Free Southern Mongolia” and “Free Hong Kong”. They also sang their respective countries national anthems. Prominent speakers from Uyghur, Free Tibet and Hong Kong movements spoke at the rally.

In his video message to the ‘Resist CCP Day’ London rally, Tim Loughton, Co-Chair of The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet (APPG Tibet) and Member of the International Alliance on China (IPAC), said, “I’m one of the seven British parliamentarians who have been sanctioned by the Chinese government, something that we all wear as a badge of honour.

“In Parliament, in world assemblies, in parliaments across the world, parliamentarians like myself have joined together, through associations like IPAC, to make sure that China is firmly on the agenda of governments throughout the world and those governments take action to make sure that China’s abuses inside and outside of China don’t go unnoticed, that they are called out and that they have consequences. And that’s why in the UK parliament we’ve been bringing in legislation which restricts those tentacles of the Chinese Communist government involved in the infrastructure projects we have in the UK, in the business boardrooms and increasingly in our universities and in our schools.”

The senior MP from the ruling Conservative Party also added, “Our cause is a just one – the freedom- and peace-loving people of Tibet, the Uyghurs and in Hong Kong will triumph eventually. And we will succeed. And we will carry on the fight.”

Tim Loughton is a long time advocate on Tibet and other persecuted minorities in the UK Parliament.

Please watch Tim Loughton’s full video message.

Message from Tim Loughton MP

“Hello, my name is Tim Loughton. I’m the MP for East Worthing and Shoreham in Sussex; I’m the Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet.

But most importantly of all, I’m one of the seven British parliamentarians who have been sanctioned by the Chinese government, something that we all wear as a badge of honour.

Now I’m sorry I can’t be with you at your Resist CCP Day march. I wish everybody there the very best and we’re very supportive of everything you are there to do and all the campaigning that you do, day in, day out.

The last year has again been one of wholesale human rights abuses by the Chinese Communist Party government, 

– whether it be the continued abuses of the Tibetan people within Tibet for now more than 62 years and Tibetans throughout the world;

– whether it be the notorious human rights abuses and what we have defined as genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang;

– or of course the increasing oppression and suppression of freedom-loving people in Hong Kong, many of whom are leaving that part of the world and coming out of China to the UK and other parts of the world, to seek the freedom that they’ve been used to for so many generations.

So, we will continue to call China out.

In Parliament, in world assemblies, in parliaments across the world, parliamentarians like myself have joined together, through associations like IPAC, to make sure that China is firmly on the agenda of governments throughout the world and those governments take action to make sure that China’s abuses inside and outside of China don’t go unnoticed, that they are called out and that they have consequences.

And that’s why in the UK parliament we’ve been bringing in legislation which restricts those tentacles of the Chinese Communist government involved in the infrastructure projects we have in the UK, in the business boardrooms and increasingly in our universities and in our schools.

We’re going to continue calling them out and it’s really important that the organisations represented here today take that important message out into the communities, out into the country and out into countries around the world to stand up against Chinese oppression.

Because that is the only thing that they take notice of, and it needs to lead to action and consequences.

We’ve seen what happens when the world looks the other way with the recent Russian invasion and brutal violence against the people of Ukraine.

And of course, China is looking with evil violent eyes at Taiwan as well.

And it’s really important that first of all Russia does not get its way in Ukraine, which will only give confidence to China to think they could get their way with Taiwan.

That’s why it’s so important that all the Western democracies continue to support Ukrainian people because the fight is not just for the people of Ukraine, it’s for freedom and democracy throughout the world.

And we’ve seen by the failure of the Chinese government to condemn those blatantly violent actions by the Russians in Ukraine what their real intentions are.

So, the fight goes on.

I send our very best wishes on behalf of me and all of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet members and many other parliamentarians throughout Westminster.

Our cause is a just one – the freedom- and peace-loving people of Tibet, the Uyghurs and in Hong Kong will triumph eventually.

And we will succeed.

And we will carry on the fight.”

This video message was requested by the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities on behalf of the “Resist CCP Day” protest organisers: Free Tibet – Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities – Hong Kong Aid – Power to Hongkongers – Stop Uyghur Genocide – Tibetan Community in Britain – Uyghur Community UK – World Uyghur Congress

Useful sites

Tim Loughton MP

London | 29^th September 2022

Contact: Tsering Passang, Founder and Chairman, Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities (GATPM) | Email: info@gatpm.com

A Statement by the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities concerning Tibet, East Turkestan and Hong Kong

The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities condemn Pakistan and other China-puppet countries for their recent Joint Statement concerning Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and Hong Kong. Pakistan delivered the Joint Statement on behalf of a Group of 68 countries at the 51^st session of the UN Human Rights Council, on 26^th September 2022.

China’s puppet countries, led by Pakistan, deliberately portray Tibet and East Turkestan as “China’s internal affairs” but this is historically inaccurate. Tibet, a landlocked Buddhist nation with a population of six million, and East Turkestan (Ch: Xinjiang), a peaceful Uyghur Muslim nation, were independent countries before Communist China’s illegal occupation and annexation. After coming to power in 1949 Mao Tsetung ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to invade Tibet and East Turkestan on 1st October 1949. Both Tibet and East Turkestan resisted their occupation and are held only by military force. The CCP does not speak for the Tibetan or Uyghur peoples.

Over a million Tibetans died as a direct result of Communist China’s illegal occupation. In its 2022 Annual Report, the independent watchdog organisation, Freedom House reported Tibet as the least free countries in the world alongside South Sudan and Syria. Right now, nearly a million Tibetans, many as young as six, are forcefully being entered into China’s colonial boarding schools with the long-term object of annihilating Tibetan identity, language, culture, history, and their religion. The Chinese authorities are collecting DNA samples of Tibetan children, some as young as three, without their parents’ consent. This is a matter of great concern, and it must be stopped.

The Uyghur Tribunal, an independent tribunal in London, made a ruling in 2021 that the Chinese State has committed genocide against the Uyghur Muslims and other minorities. Whilst welcoming this independent ruling, governments and parliaments worldwide have condemned the Chinese State for genocide against the Uyghurs and other minorities.

Pakistan and other China-puppet countries must also not ignore the ongoing gross violations of human rights in Hong Kong. Like any other people in the world, the people of Hong Kong should be allowed to continue to enjoy their fundamental rights as enshrined in the UN Declaration on Human Rights and which the CCP agreed to recognise at the time of the handover from the U.K. in 1997.

The CCP’s expansionist aims to deny freedom of expression and belief to both Buddhist Tibet and Muslim East Turkestan while utilising its soft power to fuel infrastructure development projects in China-puppet countries including Pakistan, and at the same time seeks to annex Taiwan and gain absolute control of the South China Seas in defiance of international law. Such double standards cannot be ignored. All member states on the UN Human Rights Council must carry out their duty and moral responsibility to defend and protect human rights violations, wherever this is taking place, including in within China, Tibet, East Turkestan, and Hong Kong.

The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities condemn Pakistan and other China-puppet countries as members of the UN Human Rights Council for failing to uphold the very principles of the UN Charter on Human Rights. China must be held accountable for its gross violations of human rights in the territories it controls, and Pakistan and other China-puppet countries must stop pandering to the dictators and blindly supporting brutal regimes in China and Russia.

-Ends-

Joint Statement delivered by Pakistan on Behalf of a Group of 68 countries at the 51st session of the Human Rights Council, on 26th September 2022

“Mr. President,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of 68 cross-regional countries. Respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states and non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states represent basic norms governing international relations. Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet related issues are China’s internal affairs. We oppose politicization of human rights and double standards, or interference in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.

We maintain that all parties should abide by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, adhere to the principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, and respect the right of the people of each state to choose independently the path for development in accordance with their national conditions. All human rights should be treated with the same emphasis, with sufficient importance attached to economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development in particular.

Today human beings are faced with multiple challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic. The international community should uphold multilateralism, strengthen solidarity and coordination, and respond jointly to global challenges, advance world peace and development, and promote and protect human rights.

Thank you, Mr. President.”

List of Co-sponsors:

Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Comoros, Congo, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, DPRK, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Turkmenistan, UAE, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

References:

Xinhua Global Service

Tibet Action Institute

Freedom House

The Uyghur Tribunal

Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland

A coalition of UK-based rights groups have written to Prime Minister Liz Truss ahead of the China’s National Day. The 1st of October is celebrated as the official founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China since the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 after defeating the Nationalist Party through brutal force.

Chairman Mao Tsetung on 1st October 1949 declared the invasion of Tibet and East Turkistan. Ever since the illegal occupation of these peaceful countries, the people of Tibet and East Turkistan continued to endure inhuman sufferings to this day. They continue to fightback the brutal CCP regime through peaceful means. It is time we support all the persecuted communities under the Chinese rule including the people of Hong Kong.

Joint Letter to the UK Prime Minister:

Dear Prime Minister,

We write to you as representatives and members of Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hongkonger advocacy movements to draw your attention to the threats that our communities and peoples face, and to request the support of this new UK government. 

On 1 October, the Chinese government will mark 73 years since the formation of the People’s Republic of China. There will be festivities in Beijing, but our communities will not be celebrating. The past 73 years have seen Chinese authoritarianism evolve, harden and metastasise. As you noted during your campaign to become Prime Minister, the Chinese government poses a grave threat to the human rights of all living under its rule, and also beyond these borders.

Tibet, invaded in 1950, remains under occupation and is now seeing its unique religion, culture, language and way of life being systematically eradicated. Close to one million Tibetan children between the ages of four and eighteen have been forced into colonial boarding schools and pre-schools, where they face intense indoctrination. Meanwhile, Tibetan people have been forced to live under constant surveillance and face arrest, detention and torture for criticising the government or expressing their Tibetan identity.

These oppressive methods of control have been replicated in the Uyghur region, which has been turned into a high-tech totalitarian open-air prison. Uyghur people have suffered repression and crackdowns for decades, but since 2017 the Chinese government has been perpetrating a genocide against them. This has involved state-mandated programmes of forced sterilisations and abortions, an Orwellian network of digital and in-person surveillance, forced labour and child separations. Millions of Uyghurs have now been held in concentration camps from which reports of torture, systemic sexual violence and even organ harvesting have emerged.

Hongkongers have paid a painfully high price for the international community’s indifference to the Chinese government’s human rights violations. Whilst Hongkongers’ rights and freedoms have been eroded for decades, their oppression has become drastically more overt since 2014. In 2019 hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy activists took to the streets; they were met with state-mandated mob attacks, police brutality and live ammunition. Following these protests, and the international community’s failure to take action to protect Hongkong’s democracy, the draconian National Security Law was introduced. This law has since been used to suppress freedom of press, freedom of speech, judicial independence and all forms of political opposition.

Left unchecked, these violations will endanger international human rights standards and affect not only those living under Chinese Communist Party rule, but also people in the UK. As the new Prime Minister of the UK, we urge you to draw on the concerns you raised during the leadership campaign and show global leadership and action. We are therefore asking for your newly formed government to implement the following concrete steps:

• To place sanctions on CCP officials responsible for the oppression our communities face, including the architect of repression in Tibet and the Uyghur region, Chen Quanguo
• To introduce a UK-wide ban on companies that enable China’s human rights abuses, including, Hikvision and Dahua, which are facilitating and profiting from the atrocities taking place across Tibet, the Uyghur region and Hong Kong
• To introduce meaningful legislation to tackle forced labour – as has been widely reported in both Tibet and the Uyghur region – in UK supply chains
• To urge China to cease all policies that threaten our peoples’ religion, language, culture and way of life, including closing down the residential boarding schools system in Tibet
• A formal recognition that the Chinese government is carrying out genocide against the Uyghur people.

The Chinese government’s threat to our way of life is more severe than ever. It is crucial that your government engages with our communities’ concerns in a meaningful and sustained way. We request a meeting between yourself, the new Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs and representatives from our communities to discuss how we can work together to secure change for our people that continue to suffer under CCP rule.

Signed

London Protest on 1st October 2022

A coalition of UK-based Tibetan, Hong Kong and Uyghur communities are
staging a public protest in central London to highlight the CCP regime’s continued brutal crackdown and curtailment of freedom of speech and human
dignity in their countries.

British rights groups and NGOs such as Free Tibet, World Uyghur Congress and Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities are supporting these communities, who are calling for their basic freedoms, human dignity and democracy.

Resist the CCP Day – Joint London Rally 

Date: Saturday, 1st October 2022 | From 6.00pm – 9.00pm

6pm – We meet in Piccadilly Circus (Piazza), where a brief ceremony will be held.

7pm – We begin our march from Piccadilly Circus (Piazza) to the Chinese Embassy, 49 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL. We march via Regent Street and Oxford Circus.

The Main Rally will be held at 8pm opposite The Chinese Embassy. Speakers from concerned communities will remind the CCP regime about China’s continued atrocities in their occupied nations.

Please join us, show your support and solidarity with the peoples
of East Turkistan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Organisers:

• Free Tibet
• Tibetan Community in Britain
• Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities
• Hong Kong Aid
• Power to Hongkongers
• Stop Uyghur Genocide
• Uyghur Community UK
• World Uyghur Congress

To mark the 73rd founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China

A coalition of UK-based Tibetan, Hong Kong and Uyghur communities are
staging a public protest in central London to highlight the CCP regime’s continued brutal crackdown and curtailment of freedom of speech and human
dignity in their countries.

British rights groups and NGOs such as Free Tibet, World Uyghur Congress and Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities are supporting these communities, who are calling for their basic freedoms, human dignity and democracy.

Resist the CCP Day – Joint London Rally 

Date: Saturday, 1st October 2022 | From 6.00pm – 9.00pm

6pm – We meet in Piccadilly Circus (Piazza), where a brief ceremony will be held.

7pm – We begin our march from Piccadilly Circus (Piazza) to the Chinese Embassy, 49 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL. We march via Upper Regent Street and Oxford Circus. The Main Rally will be held at 8pm opposite The Chinese Embassy. Speakers from concerned communities will remind the CCP regime about China’s continued atrocities in their occupied nations.

Please join us, show your support and solidarity with the peoples
of East Turkistan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Organisers:

• Free Tibet
• Tibetan Community in Britain
• Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities
• Hong Kong Aid
• Power to Hongkongers
• Stop Uyghur Genocide
• Uyghur Community UK
• World Uyghur Congress

By Venus Upadhayaya | Epoch Times | 10th September 2022

NEW DELHI–The Communist regime in China has started an arbitrary collection of DNA from residents in many towns and villages throughout the Tibetan region, according to a new report.

The Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala, India, said that these efforts indicate the extent of the regime’s surveillance state, describing DNA sampling as a long-term tactic to control the Tibetan population.

“The [Chinese regime’s] escalation of the illicit collection of Tibetan’s DNA samples for the purpose of ‘crime detection’ originates from its desperate attempts to establish legitimacy to rule Tibet, and therefore such efforts are solely meant to secure their stability,” Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson of Central Tibetan Administration, also called the Tibetan government-in-exile, told The Epoch Times.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based non profit said in a Sept. 5 report that the Chinese regime is systematically collecting blood samples for DNA collection across the regime–even from children at kindergartens.

This comes along with a significant increase in “policing,” according to the Human Rights Watch, which cited government reports of 2019 from the region’s police calling for bids from contractors to build DNA databases or announcing the construction of one. The report said that the ongoing efforts are to “establish police presence” at the grassroots level throughout the Tibetan region.

“China is a surveillance state where they are putting so much money on internal security. Inside Tibet, China installed more security cameras than doors and windows,” said Lekshay.

Since 2008, due to increased surveillance at the border, only a handful of Tibetans could escape to neighboring India unlike in previous years, according to Lekshay.

“China’s collection of genetic samples without consent violates Tibetan rights under international law and strengthens its already ruthless surveillance regime,” he said.

Tsering Passang, the chairman of the advocacy group Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities, said the communist regime was stepping up efforts to repress the local population.

“The mass DNA collection is probably their last resort to control Tibetans through biotechnology,” said Passang, adding that the DNA sampling shows that the Chinese regime believes the Tibetans have become too political.

The Human Rights Watch study said that the latest campaign carried out in January was called “The Three Greats” meaning, “Great One-by-one Inspection, Great Investigation, and Great Mediation.” This campaign involved police in the newly-established village police stations visiting each household and questioning residents about their views.

Reports about the Chinese regime collecting genetic information in Tibet and other regions are not new. In 2017, Human Rights Watch reported about the collection and acceleration of the indexing of DNA in the northwest Xinjiang region for a nationally-searchable database.

Work on the latter titled the “Forensic Science DNA Database System” started in the early 2000s as part of a larger police information project known as the Golden Shield, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) issued another study in 2020 about the Chinese regime building the world’s larrgest police-run DNA database in close collaboration with industry partners from across the globe.

“Yet, unlike the managers of other forensic databases, Chinese authorities are deliberately enrolling tens of millions of people who have no history of serious criminal activity,” said the report.

Read more at Epoch Times

Venus Upadhayaya reports on wide range of issues. Her area of expertise is in Indian and South Asian geopolitics. She has reported from the very volatile India-Pakistan border and has contributed to mainstream print media in India for about a decade. Community media, sustainable development, and leadership remain her key areas of interest.

London [UK], September 4 (ANI): Tsering Passang, a London-based Tibetan rights activist, said that democracy is one of the best gifts Dalai Lama has given to the people of Tibet.

However, he added that the Chinese Communist Party has become the No. 1 enemy of democracy, freedom and justice as persecution continues in China, Tibet and East Turkistan. 

The radical political reforms, introduced by the Dalai Lama on September 2, 1960, became the watershed period for Tibetans. Ever since that, this date has been celebrated as Tibetan Democracy Day among the Tibetan diasporas.

Tibetans worldwide celebrate their 62nd “Democracy Day” on September 2. As part of the Tibetan Democracy Day celebration, speeches and traditional cultural performances are organised each year on this day.

Mangtso Sar-zhe, a specially composed Tibetan Democracy song, is also sung on this day to cherish the Dalai Lama’s gift to his people. Tibetans elect their political leaders directly through elections.

Tsering Passang, Founder and Chairman of the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, in his social media post on September 2 also wrote, “We thank and remember the Dalai Lama once again today – 2nd September – the Tibetan Democracy Day.”

Tibetan Democracy Day Celebrated in London

In London, the small Tibetan Community organised the Tibetan Democracy Day event, which was attended by nearly 50 people. Lobsang Chodon Samten, the Secretary at the Office of Tibet, addressed the gathering.

The Tibetan Community also used the occasion to hold their Annual General Meeting (AGM) afterwards. After presenting their work report to the members, the community leaders were thanked for their full voluntary service whilst also facing scrutiny from the members over the financial accounts.

The outgoing council members welcomed and introduced the new community leaders by offering ceremonial Khatas (a Tibetan ceremonial scarf that represents purity, respect, auspiciousness and good wishes), who was recently elected through voting.

The incoming and outgoing council members were presented Khatas by the Office of Tibet. To mark the 62nd Anniversary of Tibetan Democracy Day, an event was organised at Aubert Community Centre in London on Saturday.

The event was attended by TCB (Tibetan Community in Britain) Board members, Tsering Passang, Founder and Chairman of the Global Alliance for Tibet and Persecuted Minorities (GATPM) and the Tibetan Diaspora in the UK.(ANI)

Further useful links:

Statement of Tibetan Parliament in Exile on the commemoration of 62nd anniversary of Tibetan democracy

Statement of the Kashag on the Sixty-second Anniversary of the Tibetan Democracy Day

Born in Taktser, Amdo, north-eastern Tibet, in 1935, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama turns 87 today, July 6th. The Tibetan Spiritual Leader’s birthday is celebrated by Tibetans and their friends worldwide.

Whilst wishing His Holiness a very Happy 87th birthday, the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Communities are very pleased to organise warm tributes from our friends in the UK to the Dalai Lama on this special occasion.

Hon. Tim Loughton | Member of the UK Parliament | British Minister (2010 – 2012)

“Hello, I’m Tim Loughton, member of the United Kingdom Parliament here at Westminster, in London, and I am the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, and it’s my privilege, on behalf of the All-Party Group, to send our very best wishes and happy birthday to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion of his 87^th birthday.

Now this year we’ve been celebrating, recently in the United Kingdom, the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Well, your Holiness, Her Majesty has a few years on you, we’ve just celebrated her 96^th anniversary, but I think your enthronement back in 1940 means your reign is 12 years longer than Her Majesty’s. But the thing you both have in common is, through all those troubled years, in good times and in bad, you have both been a symbol of continuity, of constancy, of strength and of peace. And for that we give great thanks and congratulate you on everything you have achieved in such an eventful 87 years, despite all the adversity.

It’s been my privilege to welcome you here to Parliament in previous years and to come to Dharamsala, the last time in 2018, where you granted us the honour of an audience. And that, of course, was just before the pandemic and the lockdown which changed the world so much. So this year, for the first time in a few years, I’m sure that Tibetans and supporters of yourself and the Tibetan people around the world will have the best party ever to celebrate your 87^th birthday.

Our cause, your cause, the cause of peace and freedom and the fight against abuses of human rights by the Chinese government, is perhaps louder now than it ever has been. You have seen the violence and the aggression that’s been waged on the Tibetan people, both within Tibet and outside, over so many years. Many of us have joined that cause to give our support and raise the voices of those people in Tibet who are unable to be heard themselves because of the oppression by the Chinese. More recently, people have come to understand just how cruel the Chinese government can be, with the atrocities in Xinjiang against the Uyghur people, the oppression we’re now seeing in Hong Kong. But this is nothing new to those people who followed the Tibetan cause, and you have been a strength and a sign of hope and freedom for millions of Tibetans and supporters of Tibetans around the world. Here in Parliament, virtually every week now in the United Kingdom, the whole issue of China and human rights abuses is regularly raised. We called for and we got our government to boycott the Beijing Olympics, to not give the Chinese government that propaganda platform they so crave. We’ve recognised the genocide officially that is going on in Xinjiang and we will continue to fight the cause of the Tibetan people. That cause, I’m sure, will be ultimately successful, because it is a right cause, it’s a cause of goodness, of truth and of peace, which are all values that you represent and with which you inspire so many people worldwide.

So let me repeat our heartiest congratulations and good wishes for your 87^th birthday from all your many friends and supporters, here in Parliament in London and across the United Kingdom. And I hope you’re going to have quite a party as well, because many people will want to celebrate you from around the world in just a little while’s time, to celebrate your 87^th birthday. So your Holiness, the very best for your 87^th birthday, and may there be many, many more to come.”

Benedict Rogers Esq. | Human Rights Advocate | Co-founder & CEO, Hong Kong Watch | Co-founder and Vice Chairman, Conservative Party Human Rights Commission

“On the occasion of the 87^th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, I’d like to join with others, with Tibetan friends and friends of Tibet around the world, in paying tribute to His Holiness, sharing some brief reflections on the significance of his life, his example, the values that he teaches and embodies, and also to wish His Holiness a happy birthday.

When he was just two-and-a-half years old, he was recognised as the 14^th Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist people and, in 1940, he was enthroned as the Dalai Lama. So for most of his life he has served in the role of spiritual leader for the Tibetan people. And he has embodied the values of peace and justice, he’s been a courageous, non-violent defender of the rights of the Tibetan people, an outspoken voice of conscience against the appalling injustices inflicted on his people. But he’s also been an inspiring advocate of peace and reason: his advocacy of the Middle Way, a willingness to talk with Beijing and to try to find solutions, which has only been rebuffed by the brutal dictators in Beijing but was an example of how to seek dialogue, how to reason, or how to try to reason, with a brutal dictator. He has been a model of reason and of peace and of dialogue, but never losing that central commitment to justice, because peace can never be achieved without justice. Peace and justice go together and I think he embodies that teaching.

He is loved and respected around the world, and rightly so, and has been an inspiration to so many people. In my own work in human rights around Asia, both throughout China, in Hong Kong, for the people of Tibet, for the Uyghurs, and also in places like Myanmar or Burma, I have always been inspired and encouraged by His Holiness’s teachings. I’ve read his autobiography, I’ve read some of his other writings, I’ve recently written a new book on the human rights situation under the Chinese Communist Party regime throughout the territories that the CCP currently rules. The book looks at Tibet, the Uyghurs, Hong Kong, repression in mainland China, threats to Taiwan, and the Chinese regime’s complicity with Myanmar and North Korea. And, for the chapter on Tibet, I learnt so much through the research that I did for the chapter. I interviewed Tibetans who have escaped from Tibet and who shared their stories with me, and I had the great privilege of interviewing, via email, His Holiness, and I was profoundly grateful for the insights and comments that he and his office shared with me specifically for my forthcoming book. You can read those when the book is published.

But I want to say that, as the world increasingly focuses on the human rights situation in China, and rightly so, and long overdue – as we reflect and focus much more than we have in the past on the genocide of the Uyghurs and the dismantling of freedom in Hong Kong and the threats to Taiwan, let us never, ever forget the tragedy in Tibet. It is so important that we continue to remember Tibet, that we stand with Tibet, and that we learn from Tibet, because what is happening in Hong Kong and to the Uyghurs has been happening to Tibet for decades, and there is much that we can learn from Tibet’s experience. And above all, there is so much that we can learn from His Holiness’s example.

So I wish again His Holiness a happy birthday. I hope he will have many more years to continue to inspire us and teach us and encourage us. Thank you very much – and I stand with the people of Tibet, today and every day.”

Dr Richard Moore | Philanthropist/Motivational Speaker | Author – “Can I Give Him My Eyes?” | Founder/C E O Children in Crossfire

“I’d like to wish His Holiness a very happy 87^th birthday – and that’s from everyone at Children in Crossfire here in Ireland and also at a personal level. I first met His Holiness back in 2000 when visited Derry, in Northern Ireland, to speak to a group of victims who were affected by the conflict here. I was also affected by the conflict. I lost my sight as a ten-year-old boy growing up in Derry when I was shot by a burly soldier back in 1972. But that day, when I heard His Holiness speak to everyone, it was the first time that I’d seen my story and my experience in the context of forgiveness. His Holiness spoke a lot about forgiveness that day and his words resonated with me and resonated with other victims in the room. So it’s at times like this that you realise the value that His Holiness is, to me, to other people and to the rest of the world. When you consider the suffering and the hardship that the Tibetan people have had to experience, when you consider the fact that His Holiness has had to live in exile for most of his life, but yet he still talks about peace, he still talks about forgiveness, he still holds out the hand of friendship to the people that you might think injured him and hurt his people so much. To me, that is an amazing example of compassion.

And on this day of his 87^th birthday, I think the world, and especially leaders throughout the world, should redouble their efforts to support someone who has only ever promoted a peaceful approach to a very difficult situation. Your Holiness, I hope you have a fantastic birthday, and I appreciate who you are, I appreciate all your support and I am so grateful to know you and to call you my friend.”

Useful links:

http://www.DalaiLama.com

http://www.Tibet.net

http://www.TimLoughton.com

http://www.HongKongWatch.org

http://www.ChildreninCrossfire.org

(From Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities | 2nd July 2022)

The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities are delighted to present Tributes from United Kingdom to celebrate the 87th Birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. As part of the celebration, we will be highlighting His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Four Principal Commitments.

The Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities would like to thank our amazing friends – Hon. Tim Loughton MP, Benedict Rogers Esq. and Dr Richard Moore for sharing their warm Tributes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his 87th Birthday.

So, please tune in!

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, LSE IDEAS China Foresight hosts a webinar discussing Professor Ho-fung Hung’s latest book City on Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule.

Happening today – July 1st 2022 | 1pm – 2.30pm

The 2019 protests and the 2020 National Security Law ushered in a new phase for Hong Kong’s existence as a global metropolis, financial centre, and enclave at the edge of a great power. In the context of local social and political grievances, the gradual undermining of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ has long been met with fierce resistance on part of Hong Kong society.

As the City’s freedoms seem all but extinguished, what future is possible for a Hong Kong under Chinese rule? What lessons should be drawn from the City’s experiences over the last decades and what does this mean for our assessment of China’s future as a global power as well as the country’s relationship with the West?

Register here:
https://lse.zoom.us/…/register/WN_2gy57pNBRK-LOpjondUwMg

More information about the event and speakers:
https://www.lse.ac.uk/…/events/2022/06/hong-kong/hong-kong

“Stand with Hong Kong, Fight for Freedom.” by Studio Incendo CC BY 2.0

Contact: https://www.facebook.com/lseideas

Meet the speakers and chair

Tania Branigan is a Guardian leader writer. She spent seven years as the Guardian’s China correspondent.

Bi-yu Chang is Deputy Director of the Centre of Taiwan Studies and Senior Teaching Fellow at SOAS, University of London. Her research interests are in the areas of identity politics, nation-building, cultural politics, and theatre. In recent years the focus of her research has taken a spatial turn, including place identity, spatial construction, and cartographic representation. Since 2016, she has been researching the politics of Taiwan’s tourism, unpicking the intricate relationship between identity, place, and power. She has twice been awarded Taiwan Fellowship (2016, 2019) and is now working on a new project on the relationship between textbooks after education reform and Taiwan’s identity politics. She is co-editor of and contributor to many books and has published articles in journals both in Chinese and English.  In recent years, she published her monograph Place, Identity, and National Imagination in Post-war Taiwan(2015) and co-edited a book Positioning Taiwan in a Global Context: Being and Becoming(2019), both by Routledge. In 2021, her chapters appear in Taiwan: From Language to Identity and Ideology (edited by Chris Shei),  Taiwan’s Contemporary Indigenous Peoples, (edited by Dafydd Fell, et al.), and in Italian Journal di Limes (il numero 9/21, special edition “Taiwan, l’anti-Cina”).

Ho-fung Hung is the Henry M. and Elizabeth P. Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. The author of the award-winning The Protest with Chinese Characteristics (2011) and The China Boom (2015), he has been featured or cited in media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC News, The Guardian and South China Morning Post.

Christopher R. Hughes is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he also served as Director of the Asia Research Centre from 2002 to 2005. His PhD (from the LSE) was on the topic Taiwan and Chinese Nationalism: National Identity and Status in International Society and was awarded the British International Studies Association best thesis of the year prize for 1995. He teaches specialist courses in the International Politics of the Asia Pacific, Chinese Foreign and Security Policy and Foreign Policy Analysis. His research focuses on the Asia-Pacific with special reference to Chinese foreign policy and politics, with monographs on Taiwan and Chinese Nationalism (Routledge 1997), China and the Internet: Politics of the Digital Leap Forward (edited with Gudrun Wacker, Routledge 2003) and Chinese Nationalism in the Global Era (Routledge 2006). He has various articles on Chinese politics and foreign policy, the international politics of the Asia Pacific, international relations theory and foreign policy in leading academic journals.

On 5th July, human rights campaigners are organising two major public events in central London to expose the killing and persecution of innocent Uyghurs by the Chinese authorities. The Commemoration event will be held in front of the British Parliament. The loud public Protest will be held outside the Chinese Embassy.

2022 marks the 13th anniversary of the Urumqi Massacre by China. On 5th July 2009, a peaceful protest – demanding justice for two Uyghur factory workers murdered by a racist mob – was violently crushed down by the riot police. This sparked widespread clashes and riots and the deaths of dozens of people, both Uyghur and Han nationals. A violent crackdown by the authorities killed, disappeared and arrested thousands of Uyghurs. 

Organised by the Stop Uyghur Genocide and Uyghur Community UK, these protests will bring UK parliamentarians, activists as well as labour unions, human rights and community groups together in support of the Uyghur people’s freedom struggle.

At 4:30pm, a number of UK parliamentarians will show their support to the Uyghur cause by attending the photographs display of Uyghur detainees, sourced from the leaks, in Parliament Square, Westminster.

This will be followed by a strong rally with cross-community speakers outside the Chinese Embassy from 6pm. Loud chanting of “Stop Uyghur Genocide” and “Free East Turkistan” is expected to echo the walls of the Chinese Embassy.

Urumqi is the largest city in East Turkistan (Ch: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The annual demonstration in front of the Chinese Embassy also coincides with the monthly solidarity protest at this site, which is regularly organised by the Uyghur Solidarity UK with its partners. 

East Turkistan was invaded soon after Mao Tsetung and his comrades established the Peoples’ Republic of China on 1st October 1949. In 2021, the Independent Uyghur Tribunal made a ruling that the Chinese State has committed genocide against the Uyghur minorities in their homelands. Subsequently, parliaments around the world have also passed resolutions to this effect and continue to call for action against China. Over a million Uyghur Muslims are locked up in “concentration camps” who are being persecuted by the Chinese State.

Tsering Passang, Founder and Chairman of the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, said, “It is time that leaders in China take responsibility for their brutal actions against the persecuted communities including Uyghur minorities. I welcome and appreciate the continued support the UK parliamentarians have given to the persecuted communities including the Uyghur Muslims. Their voice in the UK parliament plays a vital role in exposing China’s brutalities against the people of East Turkistan, Tibet, Hong Kong and others. I urge our parliamentarians to continue their support.”

Useful links:

http://www.stopuyghurgenocide.uk

http://www.uyghursolidarityuk.org

http://www.facebook.com/GATPM2020

Chushi Gangdruk was formally established on June 10 1958. Commander Andruk Gonpo Tashi was the founder of this pioneering Tibetan organisation which aimed at unifying Tibetans, whilst pursuing armed resistance against the invading Red Chinese forces. Chushi Gangdruk translates to the “Four Rivers, Six Ranges” in Tibetan. 

Each year, Tibetans in diasporas commemorate the founding anniversary of Chushi Gangdruk, which started in Tibet soon after Tibet was invaded by Communist China’s PLA from the eastern frontiers.

Hosted by Sonam Wangchen from Toronto (Canada), this discussion with Professor Carole McGranahan provides a detailed account of the origin of Chushi Gangdruk and the Tibetan resistance under Andruk Gonpo Tashi.

Based at the University of Colorado, Boulder Prof. Carole McGranahan is an anthropologist and historian specializing in contemporary Tibet, whose research focuses on issues of colonialism and empire, history and memory, power and politics, refugees and citizenship, nationalism, senses of belonging, gender, war, and anthropology as theoretical storytelling. Since 1994, she has conducted research in Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal on the history and politics of the guerilla army Chushi Gangdrug, culminating in my book Arrested Histories: Tibet, the CIA, and Histories of a Forgotten War (Duke University Press, 2010).

Background

When the Communist Chinese government ordered its so-called People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to march into Tibet in 1949, the people of Tibet’s eastern region were the first to experience the threat of Chinese invasion. The people of Kham and Amdo rose up and confronted the Chinese army at the onset of the invasion of our motherland. Pitched battles were fought under the command and banner of local chieftains. However, there was no proper organization and strategy, no unity, and only uncoordinated efforts to combat the common enemy were made.

In 1956 the Chinese introduced the so-called “Democratic Reforms” in Kham starting with the eastern region of Tibet. They began to impose communist ideology and destroyed Tibetan religion and culture. They conducted mass arrests and executions of Tibetan religious leaders and other prominent leaders. People of these areas could not tolerate the brutal Chinese atrocities and rose up in arms against them. Disorganized and ill-equipped volunteer fighters could not withstand the mighty Chinese army that overwhelmed them, grasped their territory and spread like oil drops on paper. Volunteer defenders gradually retreated toward Central and Western Tibet.

Kalachakra Initiation

By 1957 a large number of volunteer defenders from various parts of the eastern region of Tibet had gathered around Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The Khampas felt the need to form a united organization to confront the Communist Chinese aggression. But by that time, the Chinese had started to exert pressure and our government’s position was rather helpless. So, in order to evade Chinese suspicion and surveillance on our activities and also to enable the different groups of the defenders to come in close contact with each other, the late Andruk Gonpo Tashi from Lithang and other leaders from the eastern regions made a camouflage plan to make extensive religious offerings at Lhasa. Accordingly, with the consent of the Tibetan government, the preparations for making the now famous golden throne of Chushi Gangdruk for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama were underway. Then the leaders made a request to His Holiness the Dalai Lama to bestow the Kalachakra Initiation and His Holiness kindly accepted the request. However, since a similar request had been made earlier by one Amdo Jimpa Gyatso, the two parties co-sponsored the Second Kalachakra Initiation in 1957. In appreciation of the Initiation and for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a grand Tenshuk (Longevity) Offering Ceremony was performed by the Khampas. The offering of Tenshuk to His Holiness on the new golden throne was meant to symbolize the enthronement of His Holiness as ruler of the entire Tibetan territory and also for reaffirmation of faith in His Holiness as supreme being.

Formation

Meanwhile the Khampa volunteer leaders were having secret meetings, busy in laying out future plans and strategies. As a result of their common efforts it was finally and unanimously decided to form a united resistance organization against the common enemy, the Communist Chinese aggression. The leaders then signed a statement pledging their commitment to risk everything to resist the Communist Chinese. Upon the completion of religious ceremonies, the Khampa leaders and volunteer members gradually moved out of Lhasa in different routes towards the Lhokha area, south of Lhasa, and eventually assembled at Chaktsa Dri-Guthang (Chosen Rendezvous). The formal announcement of the formation of the Chushi Gangdruk (Land of Four Rivers and Six Ranges) Defend Tibet Volunteer Force was made on the 16th of June 1958 and since then it is commemorated every year to mark the anniversary of Chushi Gangdruk. It was the first time that all the regions of Kham and the Khampas of all regions came together under one organization and fought under one banner since the splitting up of Tibet during the reign of the last and evil King, Lang Tharma. Chushi Gangdruk included people from both Kham and Amdo regions, but since the number of Amdos were small , they served as one of the 37 allied forces in the organization. Later in exile, Amdo withdrew from the allied organization to form an Amdo party.

The leaders then turned their attention to the choice of formation insignia of the organization and the colour of the banner or the flag. After long debate they finally agreed upon and designed the organization’s insignia as a crossed sword on a yellow background. The significance of the background being such is that the Buddhist colour is yellow and the organization’s main intention was to defend Buddhism from Chinese Communism. The symbolic reasons for crossed swords were that the flaming sword representing the wisdom sword of Manjushree severs the roots of ignorance which was the root cause of communism. The other sword was the symbol of bravery and it was the only weapon that the Khampas or the Tibetans themselves could make. A great deal of importance was attached to it because in 1944, when a Tibetan delegation to the Afro-Asian Conference in Delhi made a point to meet Mahatma Gandhi, founder of the non-violence movement, as a traditional way of greeting the delegation it offered him white scarves, but Gandhi-ji wanted to know if the scarves were made by the Tibetans. When told that they were from China, he refused to take them, saying that he would like only something that the Tibetans themselves made with their own hands and methods.

Source: https://www.chushigangdruk.ca

As part of the Woolwich Heritage Action Zone programme, the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) team are providing their first training course to discover the history of Powis and Hare Streets in Woolwich.

Expert archaeologists from MOLA will deliver the FREE 2 day training course for Woolwich residents on 27th and 28th July 2022 from 11am to 4pm.

Over the two day trainees will take part in practical activities and learn how to:

• Read historic maps
• Record heritage buildings
• Engage in the social history of Woolwich

No previous historic or archaeological experience is necessary. This training may be of interest for those wishing to understand more about their local heritage or to learn new skills.

Minimum age is 10 years old (with supervision) 16 years old (can go unsupervised.) Anyone above this age can apply.

The organisers also welcome trainees with specific learning (SENDS+) needs and accessibility (physical or mental) needs but support will be required for those under 25 years old – email MOLA team to discuss further.

Although this free training course is initially reserved for Woolwich residents only (Royal Borough of Greenwich) but local applicants are encouraged to register their interests who will be placed in waiting list.

Tsering Passang, Chairman of the Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities (GATPM), said: “We welcome this wonderful free training opportunity from the MOLA team. I know the organisers have been engaging with the local stakeholders when developing this course. The encouragement the organisers have given to the minorities groups is admirable. We are very pleased to be associated with the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and its partners through the Woolwich High Street Heritage Action Zone (Woolwich-HSHAZ). We have already reached out to various stakeholders and continue to encourage all minorities groups in the Royal Borough of Greenwich to take up this free training offer. In addition to benefitting from acquiring new skills, this initial training could lead the trainees to new opportunities.”

As the places are limited, the organisers are encouraging early registration to avoid disappointment. So, please register it today!

Registration via: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/woolwich-communities-building-archaeology-training-course-tickets-371327038167?aff=EmailLink  For more information email communityengagement@mola.org.uk

GATPM Note: Any candidate from minorities groups who wishes to have an informal chat about the training programme may contact Tsering Passang, Woolwich HSHAZ Steering Group – 07927 376532 | info@gatpm.com.

Over 100 delegates from 26 countries attended the 8th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet (WPCT) in Washington D.C. from 22nd to 23rd June 2022. After intensive deliberations and sharing, The Washington DC Declaration was released.

Mrs Dolma Tsering Teykang, the Deputy Speaker of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, remarked that “Tibet is the Guinea Pig of Non-Violence” and she called for continued support from parliamentarians and governments worldwide.

Organised by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, this latest convention in Washington DC was in continuation of the previous 7 WPCT sessions, with an object of strengthening and coordinating support by parliamentarians from different countries to resolve the China-Tibet conflict.

The first WPCT was held in 1994 in New Delhi and the subsequent conventions were held in Vilnius, Lithuania (1995); Washington D.C., USA (1997); Edinburgh, Scotland (U.K.) (2005); Rome, Italy (2009); Ottawa, Canada (2012); and Riga, Latvia (2019).

According to the press statement before the convention, the TPiE said, “By holding the 8th WPCT in the United States, a country with fundamental values of democracy and equality, we honor the important role played by the United States Congress in formulating policy initiatives on Tibet, including institutionalising support through several legislations.”

The convention also announced the revival of the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet (INPaT).