Tibet
SUMMARY: Recent developments suggest that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is escalating a systematic campaign to assimilate ethnic minorities—signaled most visibly by Xi Jinping’s highly symbolic September visit to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and reinforced through tightened laws and policies in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) engages in systematic efforts to curtail historical inquiry into subjects deemed “sensitive,” such as the Tiananmen Massacre; control narratives regarding the history of the CCP; and erase the culture of repressed peoples, including Tibetans, Mongolians, and Uyghurs. Writers, artists, and independent historians are currently engaged in efforts to preserve history and language in the face of CCP repression.
(Washington)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), held a hearing to explore efforts by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to curtail historical inquiry into subjects deemed “sensitive,” such as the Tiananmen Massacre; control narratives regarding the history of the CCP; and erase the culture of repressed peoples, including Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, and Uyghurs.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) engages in systematic efforts to curtail historical inquiry into subjects deemed “sensitive,” such as the Tiananmen Massacre; control narratives regarding the history of the CCP; and erase the culture of repressed peoples, including Tibetans, Mongolians, and Uyghurs. Writers, artists, and independent historians are currently engaged in efforts to preserve history and language in the face of CCP repression.
(WASHINGTON)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Cochair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), released today a letter urging the Secretaries of Commerce, State and Treasury to impose export controls on technology used by People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s Public Security Bureaus and other entities in Tibet to collect biometric data which is used by PRC police for political identification and racial profiling.
Tibet faces new and worsening challenges from the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive rule. Threats to Tibet’s linguistic, religious, and cultural heritage have expanded in recent years, and now an estimated 80 percent of all children in the Tibet Autonomous Region are separated from their families and educated in a massive system of colonial boarding schools--a deeply troubling manifestation of the Party’s program of forced assimilation of ethnic and religious minority groups. In recent years, police have conducted mass DNA collection and iris scanning programs in wide swathes of Tibetan society, including in monasteries and primary schools.
(Washington)— Commissioners from the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released a letter to Marc Casper, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific expressing concerns that products made by his company are being used for mass DNA collection in Tibet which “could enable further gross violations” of the human rights of ethnic minorities in China.
(Washington)—Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Chair and Cochair respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released a letter to Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, asking for a UN investigation of children being forcibly separated from the families in Tibet.