RIGHTS-CHINA: Tibetans Confident of Change – at Last

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Mar 10 1998 (IPS) - Supporters of autonomy or independence for Tibet – whose cause has suffered nothing but setbacks for nearly half a century – are confident that at last they may see a change in Chinese rule.

They point to the greater visibility of the Tibetan campaign in the United States – including calls for boycotts of Chinese goods – and indications that China, which invaded Tibet in 1950, has become more flexible in dealings in in its dealings with territorial disputes – such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

As more than 500 people rallied in New York on behalf of freedom for Tibet Tuesday – the 39th anniversary of a failed national uprising against China – even the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, acknowledged the changing situation.

“The reforms initiated by (late Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping have altered not only the Chinese economy, but also the political system, making it less ideological, less reliant on mass mobilisation, less coercive, and less stifling for the average citizen,” the Dalai Lama said in a message to the rally, delivered by his New York representative, Dawa Tsering.

“Moreover, the post-Deng Xiaoping leadership in China seems to have become more flexible in its foreign policy,” the Dalai Lama said. he noted last year’s peaceful transfer of power in Hong Kong and a softening in Beijing’s approach toward the rival Republic of China in Taiwan. “In short, there is no doubt that China today is a better place to live in than (it was) 15 or 20 years ago.”

Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama, who lives most of the year in exile in India, warned that Tibet’s situation has worsened in recent years following Beijing’s ‘Strike Hard’ campaign against Tibetan and Buddhist culture.

“This campaign of repression, initially confined to monasteries and nunneries, has now been extended to cover all parts of the Tibetan society,” the Dalai Lama argued. “In some spheres of life in Tibet, we are now witnessing the return of an atmosphere of intimidation, coercion and fear, reminiscent of the days of the Cultural Revolution.”

Although the demonstration Tuesday marked the anniversary of the 1959 uprising in which some 87,000 Tibetans were killed after calling for independence, some argue that modern Tibet – if less violent – is just as brutal.

Reed Brody, a member of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists, wrote in the Asian Wall Street Journal this week that some 600 Tibetans are detained for political reasons presently, and many of them are believed to have been tortured. Meanwhile, he argued, Chinese-language education policies have left much of the population lagging behind the rest of China in literacy.

“The Chinese government has intensified its repressive policy” in Tibet, contended Thupten Thokmey, acting president of the Tibet Association of New York and New Jersey. He added that “patriotic” education, which encourages Tibetans to denounce the Buddhist and feudalist tradition of the Dalai Lama’s predecessors, “is still being introduced in Tibetan monasteries.”

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a seven-year-old boy designated by the Dalai Lama as the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, continues to be held incommunicado by Chinese authorities in Tibet, Tsering noted. Meanwhile, he added, China has settled 7.5 million ethnic Chinese in the province in recent years – more than the population of 6 million Tibetans, in what Tsering called “ethnic cleansing”.

Despite such hardships, Tibet campaigners believe that their movement is becoming steadily more powerful, especially in the United States. Douglas Weiner, president of the U.S. Tibet Committee, has been pushing for a consumer boycott of all Chinese goods until Tibet is liberated – a project which is steadily becoming more popular on U.S. college campuses.

Concern for Tibet rivals the success of the campaign for Burmese democracy, or the drive during the 1980s against South African apartheid, on U.S. college campuses, argued I-Chung Lai of the Taiwanese Collegiate Independence Movement.

U.S. trades unions, already upset at their workers’ increasing competition with low-wage Chinese labour as Washington and Beijing strengthen trade and investment ties, have seized on Tibet’s problems as a wedge to discourage Chinese business.

Jeff Fiedler, president of the Food and Allied Service Trades (FAST) union of the AFL-CIO, told IPS that his organisation has drawn up a list of some 30 Chinese companies working in the United States that are directly owned by the military, which is blamed for the crackdown in Tibet.

“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to have companies that operate freely (in the United States), and our government allows it to continue,” Fiedler said. “We will soon launch a campaign to kick the PLA out of the USA…Unlike our government, we stand with the victims, not the oppressors.”

Many U.S. officials also have joined the campaign for Tibet, which has become particularly high-profile since the recent release of two Hollywood movies – ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ and ‘Kundun.’ The pro-Tibet movement’s visibility was raised when demonstrators dogged Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s U.S. trip last year.

“While we are working to overcome the obstacles put before us by Red China, the United States must show complete support for occupied Tibet,” said Jesse Helms, the right-wing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a letter to the U.S. Tibet Committee last week.

Several other Republican leaders, including House of Representatives International Relations Committee Chairman Ben Gilman and New York Governor George Pataki, also lent theur support to the commemoration activities of the Mar. 10, 1959 uprising.

Despite such heightened visibility, President Bill Clinton’s administration is wary of upsetting Beijing by pursuing the question of human rights in Tibet and the United Nations in recent years has treated the issue as China’s internal affair.

“The current situation in Tibet and the lack of any substantive progress in resolving the Tibet problem is no doubt causing an increasing sense of frustration among many Tibetans,” the Dalai Lama said. “I am concerned that some might feel compelled to look for avenues other than peaceful resolutions.”