Kalon Ngodup Tsering with the Education Officer of DoE and principal of Mewoen Peton school, 1 October 2015.

DHARAMSHALA: Kalon Ngodup Tsering of the Department of Education paid a visit to Lower Tibetan Children’s Village school and Sambhota Mewoen Peton School on 1 October to observe the Classroom Reading Corner and interacted with the students.

As part of its effort to improve primary education, the Department of Education is providing Class Room Reading Corner facilities for 193 classrooms of 54 Tibetan schools across india wherein these schools will receive 400 children’s story books for each reading corner.

The Department of Education have already established reading corners for Lower Tibetan Children’s Village School and Sambhota Mewoen Peton school. It is soon going to establish reading corners for rest of the Tibetan schools by providing books, financial assistance and Guidelines based on the above two schools.

in order to foster reading habits in children, the department has already provided early grade reading workshops to 2657 teachers in the past two years and will continue to provide the same to 119 primary school teachers in the coming years to cover the entire primary teachers in Tibetan schools.

The programs are funded by USAID through The Tibet Fund.

– Report filed by Department of Education –

Education Kalon at Lower TCV school with education officer and the school principal.

Books for reading in special pouches at corner reading corners in the two schools.

Home Kalon Dolma Gyari

DHARAMSHALA: Kalon Dolma Gyari and Secretary Sonam Topgyal Khorlatsang of the Central Tibetan Relief Committee, Department of Home, thanked the Government of India on behalf of the Central Tibetan Administration today for providing a 40-Crore grant-in-aid.

The FRR Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has recently provided a grant-in-aid of Rs. 40 Crore for a period of 5 years commencing from 2015 – 2016 to 2019 – 2020 to the extent of Rs. 8 crore per annum. The aid is provided to supplement the administrative expenses incurred by Tibetan settlements in India.

The initial grant for the first year 2015-2016 has also been received recently.

The Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) assured the Government of India, that the grant-in-aid approved by Government of India shall never be used for any other purpose other than the object stipulated in the plan.

– Report filed by Department of Home –

His Holiness greets members of Minnesota’s Tibetan community upon arrival to the Mayo Civic Center on Wednesday morning for a private gathering.

DHARAMSHALA: Hundreds of Tibetans, dressed in their finest traditional attires, lined up the street leading to the Mayo Civic Centre in Rochester for a brief private meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Wednesday morning, 30 September.

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s motorcade arrived, the Tibetan American Association of Minnesota performed a traditional welcome dance for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who in turn called them over, held their hands and blessed them.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, beaming with energy and high spirits, spoke to the Tibetans for over an hour. He urged the Tibetans not to worry and declared that he was in good health.

Addressing the Tibetan community, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said: “As some of you may know, for the last 10 years or so, I’ve been coming to the Mayo Hospital almost every year for routine physical check-ups. Even in India, I go for physical check-ups every 6 months or so at New Delhi. And that’s why I’m here this time also.”

“The last time I went for a check-up at New Delhi, the doctors told me that I am in excellent health with no major ailments whatsoever,” His Holiness explained.

“However, for the last 2 or 3 years, I’ve had some minor issues with my knees. Therefore, a good friend of mine recently recommended a German doctor, who is a renowned bone specialist. “

“After examining some X-rays of my knees, the German doctor told me that these things are normal at my age. He even said to me jokingly that I am 80, not 18 anymore. I believe what he said is true. As you age, your physical body deteriorates, so you need to be aware of your health, do check-ups and take care of small issues and symptoms,” His Holiness said.

“Overall, I’m very well, and there’s no need for any of you to worry,” His Holiness announced, drawing a huge applause from the Tibetans.

His Holiness however added that doctors have advised him to rest more as he did feel more fatigue after long trips with sustained activities as compared to before. Some of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s planned trips and activities in the next couple of months have been curtailed as a result.

“However, the remaining Lamrim teachings in South India will go on as scheduled. I am also participating in a Mind and Life conference with scientists in South India. I intend to enjoy and carry out these events in a relaxed manner,” His Holiness said.

His Holiness also spoke about the importance of Tibetan language for an in-depth understanding of Buddhism and the role and responsibilities of a Tibetan during the private meeting.

He further called for the need of religious harmony in the world. “Love and compassion are the root essence of all religions irrespective of the minor philosophical differences,” His Holiness said.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in the US for a series of public talks and meetings last week. However, all his US engagements have been cancelled after doctors advised complete rest for several weeks following a medical checkup.

His Holiness is currently discharged from the Mayo Clinic and will arrive in Dharamshala on 3 October.

The Tibetan American Association of Minnesota performs a special welcome dance for His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his arrival at the Mayo Civic Centre.

Tibetan students watch their spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama on television speak with a group of Tibetans in Minnesota at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamshala, India, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay (file photo)

DHARAMSHALA: Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan people, will be bestowed the prestigious Presidential Medal by Salisbury University on 13 October.

The Presidential Medal is the highest honor that the University bestows on an individual for community leadership and forward thinking.

The decision to bestow the medal on Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay was announced after the University System of Maryland Board of Regents met and recommended Sikyong for the award.

Dr. Janet Dudley-Eshbach, President of Salisbury University, will present the medal to Sikyong on 13 October prior to his scheduled speech on ‘Democracy and the Third Way’.

Sikyong will be at the Salisbury University in October to speak at the invitation of the University’s Bosserman Centre for Conflict Resolution. The speech is part of a lecture series ‘One Person Can Make a Difference’ organised by the Centre.

Past speakers at the lecture series include several former Heads of State and many Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay was also awarded the Gold Medal of the College Historical Society of Trinity College, Dublin, for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse in 2012.

Earlier in September this year, Sikyong was appointed as a member of the governing council of the Bharatiya Chaatra Sansad, along with other notable individuals and educationists. Bharatiya Chaatra Sansad or the Indian Student Parliament is one of the largest student organisations in the world with annual participation of over 10,000 students.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay being presented the Gold Medal of the College Historical Society of Trinity College, Dublin in 2012.
Photograph: Bryan O’Brien

Click here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wjLq8pPC3Ev to watch live webcast of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s meeting with several members of Minnesota’s Tibetan community at Mayo Civic Center at 09:00 am (USA, Central Time) and 07:30 pm (Indian Standard Time) on Wednesday, 30 September 2015.

The meeting was requested by Tibetans residing in Minnesota for a chance to see His Holiness while he was resting in the state. The event is expected to last between 30 and 45 minutes at the most.

Tibet was not Part of China but Middle Way
Remains a Viable Solution

Central Tibetan Administration’s Response to China’s White Paper on Tibet

The Dalai Lama is like a ray of sunshine, which is impossible for any one group of people to obscure. The ray of Buddhist faith will shine on everyone through him.
– Manchu emperor Kangxi to the 7th Dalai Lama (1720)

Executive Summary

This response to the Chinese white paper on Tibet challenges Beijing’s claims that the legitimacy of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet rests on China’s recognition and approval. This response provides comprehensive explanation with regard to Communist China’s schemes of picking the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and its claims of not only territorial sovereignty over Tibet but also sovereignty over the soul of the Tibetan people.

This response argues that there will be an international pushback to such a Chinese move. The pushback will not only come from the Tibetan people but millions of Buddhists who traditionally share Tibet’s spiritual culture and others in the rest of the world who have benefitted from the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These include a growing number of Chinese Buddhists who flock to India and follow His Holiness the Dalai Lama around the world to receive his teachings. Such a move on the part of China will create an international furor comparable to China muscling its way into the South China Sea.

This response also argues that there is a way to resolve the issue. Till now, China has repeatedly rejected the Middle Way Approach. However, if wiser Chinese heads look into the Tibetan proposal of not seeking independence but autonomy for all the Tibetan people under a single administration, they will find in the proposal a solution that respects Tibet’s distinct cultural and national identity and preserves the territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China. Increasing number of Chinese intellectuals within and outside China support this peace initiative, including Liu Xiaobo, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate. Their support, Twelve Suggestions for Dealing With the Tibetan Situation, is published as an open letter to the Chinese authorities.

Any move by China to meet the concerns of the Tibetan people along the lines of the Middle Way Approach will pave the way for the restoration of strategic trust between India and China. This will open the borders between the two and free their militaries from entanglements. This in turn will improve the economic and cultural development of the Himalayan region and contribute to lasting peace in Asia.
In such a political atmosphere, Tibet could resume its traditional role of being the centre of Buddhist learning for the whole of the Buddhist Himalayas which will greatly boost the spiritual richness and facilitate economic and cultural interaction of the peoples of the Himalayas.

An approach based on the Chinese constitution to the Tibetan people could send a positive message to the people of Hong Kong that their concerns will be respected by Beijing. Chinese authorities giving meaningful autonomy to the Tibetan people will serve in restoring the confidence of the people of Hong Kong. This will give real meat to the bone of President Xi Jinping’s China Dream. When China starts respecting Tibet as a global commons which has immense environmental and development importance to the rest of Asia rather than a colony to be exploited, the people of Hong Kong will no longer be fearful of a common future.

Recognising the just aspirations of the Tibetan people can greatly enhance China’s soft power around the world. China does not need to spend millions of dollars in the form of Confucius Institutes across the globe to expand its influence. Millions who have benefitted from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings will come to Tibet to deepen their knowledge and bringing with them international goodwill and laying the groundwork for China’s moral ascendency. More than flexing any military or economic muscle, a just settlement will assure China the international respect it wants. This will be the start of China’s new Long March to global leadership.

Introduction

Starting on 1 September, Beijing commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ in Lhasa. This was preceded by a two-day meeting of the 6th Tibet Work Forum held in Beijing from 24 to 25 August. This meeting was attended by the top Chinese leadership in the party, military and government. The meeting was presided over by President Xi Jinping.
At the meeting, President Xi Jinping said, “Key efforts in the Work for Tibet should be spent on ensuring national unity and consolidating ethnic unity, with realising long-term and comprehensive social stability as an obligatory task.” Xi Jinping said the country should “firmly take the initiative” in the fight againts separatism.

The ground work for all this was prepared by the white paper on Tibet China issued on 15 April. The white paper reiterated China’s focus in Tibet on the twin efforts of economic development and political repression. The key message of the white paper said that there would be no change in this policy.

The publication of the white paper by the State Council on which China’s current policy announcements are made comes in the aftermath of an unprecedented debate on policy towards China’s minorities. Arrayed on one side of the debate were ultra-nationalists and hardline thinkers. These scholars recommended that the status of non-Chinese as minorities of China should be scrapped and they be subsumed in the melting pot of the majority Chinese identity. Some also suggested that large autonomous regions like Tibet be broken up into smaller administrative units and some of the divided units merged into provinces like Sichuan.

Making counterpoints to this radical thinking were Chinese Communist Party (CCP) scholars who made the argument that treating the 14th Dalai Lama as an “enemy” would alienate all Tibetans. Rather, they suggested, the Party should seek his active cooperation with the aim of identifying his successor so as to avoid the embarrassment of having “two Dalai Lamas” in the future.

That Beijing with its latest white paper has decided to stick with the status quo in its policy towards Tibet comes as a huge disappointment to all Tibetans who had hoped for a more liberal and flexible policy in the wake of the widespread and peaceful protests that erupted throughout Tibet in 2008 and the ongoing self-immolations. All the 142 Tibetans in Tibet who have set themselves on fire have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and for freedom for the Tibetan people.

That the Party will not change its spectacularly failed policy is clearly reflected in its heightened criticism of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This criticism, based on out- of- context quotes of the Tibetan leader and quotes that are altogether cooked up, amounts to the Party saying that it can rule Tibet without any assistance from him. However, recent comments made by Party functionaries make it also clear that the Party entertains the hope of identifying and appointing the 15th Dalai Lama. In fact, the Party thinks that it can rule Tibet without the 14th Dalai Lama, but is not too sure it can rule Tibet forever without Tibet’s incarnate lamas giving some helping hand and a form of legitimacy to its shaky rule on the plateau.

The Party saying that it wants the 15th but not the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet to stabilize its rule in Tibet flies in the face of the logic of reincarnating lamas and of plain statecraft. The Party being picky of its choice of Tibet’s spiritual leaders reveals its inability to continue to rule Tibet without the legitimising influence of the lamas of Tibet. In its insistence in doing this, the Party has put itself in a corner where it is trapped in its own contradictory rhetoric, leaving it with no other policy option.

One clear contradiction is the determinist view of history the Party brings into its polemics on Tibet. As it is clear from the title, the white paper tries to develop the argument that regardless of the efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people, some inscrutable historical force, in this case, the Party, has already decided Tibet’s fate. The white paper says, “Tibet’s path of development is imposed by history and chosen by the people.”

In making these assertions, China’s latest white paper carries with it all the ideological confusion and historiographical revisionism of the CCP. Instead of a pragmatic and solution-oriented response to a vexed issue that the CCP has been grappling with since 1951, the optimistically named report, Tibet’s Path to Development Is Driven by an Irresistible Historical Tide, consists of apportioning credit and blame. The Party takes credit for all the accomplishments in Tibet and all failures are attributed to “the Dalai clique.”

The timing of the white paper between the recent barrage of Party leaders “ordering” His Holiness the Dalai Lama to reincarnate and the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) on 1 September 2015 reveals the Communist Party’s nervousness of losing its grip on Tibet. Firstly, the Communist Party’s nervousness dawns from the realisation that despite its six decades of rule, His Holiness the Dalai Lama remains the irreplaceable jewel in the hearts and minds of the Tibetan people. This includes the third generation of Tibetans who have never seen the Tibetan leader, and yet strive for his continued leadership and their fundamental human rights. Secondly, the fiction of autonomy in TAR and other Tibetan areas has failed to curb the Tibetan people’s aspiration for basic freedom and their wish to be masters of their own land. All the Tibetan self-immolators echo the overwhelming desire of the Tibetan people for greater freedoms in their homeland.

China’s Master Plan for Tibet: Rule by Reincarnation

There are two principal reasons why the Party wants to grab Tibet’s institution of the Dalai Lama and yet rejects the current office holder who has given the institution international gravitas and unprecedented shine within its traditional parish. One is the institution’s past geopolitical importance in the volatile politics of China, Mongolia and Tibet and how the Dalai Lamas of Tibet kept the peace between the marauding Mongol Khans and Manchu China. The second reason is the Party’s internal assessment that it cannot rule Tibet forever without the legitimising influence of the Dalai Lama over the Tibetan people.
Starting from the 13th century when Genghis Khan led his nomadic horsemen from the grasslands of Mongolia onto the pages of world history, the Mongol Khans realised early on that their expanding empire needed a cultural and spiritual glue that would hold the empire in a tighter embrace other than pillage and conquest. Goden and later Kublai Khan thought this glue was Tibetan Buddhism, a universal religion bolstering a world empire. Tibetan Buddhism became the court religion of the Mongol dynasty in China and its foremost lamas the empire’s spiritual preceptors. Thus was born the cho-yon or priest-patron relations, an exchange of services, the priest providing spiritual ministry to the emperor and the patron protection of the realm of the priest. From a court religion of the Mongol Khans, Sonam Gyatso, the third Dalai Lama, made Tibetan Buddhism the Mongol people’s religion. The fourth Dalai Lama, Yonten Gyatso, was born in Mongolia and since then the devotion of all Mongolia to the Dalai Lamas of Tibet knew no bounds. The cho-yon relationship reached a milestone in 1642 when Gushri Khan, chief of the Qosat Mongols, helped the Fifth Dalai Lama to become the temporal and spiritual leader of all Tibet.

Mongolia’s devotion to the Dalai Lamas of Tibet and the successive Manchu emperors’ need to stop Mongol harassment of their imperial fringes gave the cho-yon relations real political and diplomatic clout. Tibet’s influence with the Mongols, if not always, largely kept the peace between the Mongols and Manchu China.

By demanding that the 14th Dalai Lama reincarnate and in its determination to appoint his reincarnation the Party is claiming this spiritual resource of Tibet which at its whim could be turned into a highly potent political tool.

The second reason why the CCP does not want the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet but wishes to retain the system of reincarnating lamas, over which he presides, is to do with the Party’s ability or inability to provide effective governance. The Party realises the total collapse of the Tibetan people’s trust in its administration. The peaceful protests that erupted throughout Tibet and the ongoing self-immolations are a symptom of the Communist China’s consistent failure to win the trust of the Tibetan people. Within the Chinese establishment in Tibet, Tibetan discontent, though muffled, reaches the top echelon. Around a dinner table in Beijing, one senior Tibetan functionary of the Party burst out, “There is no law in Tibet. There are only police and soldiers, but no law” (Fischer, Andrew. 2013. The Disempowered Development of Tibet in China: A Study in the Economics of Marginalisation).

The predatory nature of the Chinese state in Tibet and the lawlessness it spawns has driven Tibetans to the arms of their traditional leaders, the lamas of Tibet who, teaching simple living, give them a sense of cultural unity and spiritual belonging at a time of great uncertainty and disorientation.  In many cases, the prestige of the Tibetan lamas outshines the Party’s representatives in these imperial outposts. The result is that many of these lamas land up in prison simply because the people listen to them and not to the Party functionaries.

If ordinary Tibetan lamas in Tibet are able to overshadow local Party officials in terms of influence, what happens if the Dalai Lama is allowed to return to Tibet? The Party’s fear of the influence of the Dalai Lama in China is best expressed by former President Jiang Zemin. He said even a visit by the Dalai Lama to China would make all Tibetans go mad. The Mongolians would join in this Tibetan madness, so would Chinese democracy activists and all those disgruntled elements in society. In such a situation what should the Party do? If the Party cracked down, there would be an international outcry. If the Party didn’t, it would lose power.
This is a risk the Party has no stomach for. Now, the Party wants to wait for the passing away of the 14th Dalai Lama and then select a pliant successor to continue its rule in Tibet. In this effort the Party is making frantic preparations. On 10 June 2015, Xi Jinping received the Party-recognised and people-rejected Gyaltsen Norbu (the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama) in audience at Zhongnanhai. Amongst those present at the encounter were Yu Zhengsheng, a member of the standing committee of the Politburo and head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body, Sun Chunlan, head of the United Front, Li Zhanshu, President Xi’s chief of staff and Wang Luning of the Policy Research Office of the Central Committee. Khata in hands and head slightly bowed, Gyaltsen Norbu swore undying allegiance to the Party and to its sitting general secretary. In the Party’s game plan, Gyaltsen Norbu would be pivotal in helping the Party to impose a 15th Dalai Lama on the Tibetan people.

By making such a move China is laying claims of sovereignty over not only territorial but also spiritual Tibet. To effectively control the heart of Tibet and the soul of its people, China will not only continue to occupy and colonise Tibet but it is also determined to occupy and colonise the Tibetan people’s spiritual realm. By making a move in this direction, China is trying to draw on the Tibetan plateau and on Tibet’s Buddhist civilisation its version of the nine dash lines it has drawn in the South China Sea to establish the Party’s supremacy over Tibet’s spiritual realm and that of millions of non-Tibetans around the world. So far China has made claims of sovereignty of territorial Tibet. Now it is making claims of sovereignty over the soul of Tibet.

But will the Party’s 15th Dalai Lama plan for Tibet work?

If past behavior of Party-approved Tibetan lamas is any indication, such a plan would prove to be a disaster for the Party. The 10th Panchen Lama, the lama who stayed back in Tibet, in 1962 wrote a blistering critique of Chinese mis-rule in Tibet and a few days before his untimely death publicly said that Tibet had lost more than it had gained under China. The 17th Karmapa who was recognised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and approved by the Party escaped Tibet in 2000 to India. So did Arjia Rinpoche, the abbot of Kumbum Monastery, who witnessed the Party’s trickery in selecting the China-appointed Panchen Lama before the statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Jokhang Temple in 1995. “The lamas recited prayers and cheered ritually, but with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. We returned to the hotel about five o’clock that morning, and later, when we turned on the TV, a newsman announced: ‘At ten o’clock this morning, the Golden Urn ceremony was held at the Jokhang Temple.’ In the close-up on TV it appeared that the ivory lot selected by Bumi Rinpoche stood slightly above the others, but only lie we recognised for certain was the time of the ceremony” (Rinpoche, Arjia. 2010. Surviving the Dragon: A Tibetan Lama’s Account of 40 Years under Chinese Rule).

These lamas have shown that their loyalty to their spiritual inheritance far outweighs any obligation they might have for the Party. But more than the individual preferences of Party-appointees, the Party’s dabbling in the spiritual life of the Tibetan people will prove dangerous and inflammatory. Leave alone the Tibetan people who are alienated already, the Party will be provoking the wrath of all believers of the world. This will be a foreign policy disaster worse and more enduring than China’s muscling its way into the South China Sea. All the “soft power” China is trying to build around the world will be undone by this act of the Party assaulting the citadel of a major religion of the world. In trying to impose a Dalai Lama on the Tibetan people and the world, the Party miscalculates this as the best way to strengthen its rule in Tibet.

Such a move will have other un-intended consequences. Till now, in dealing with Tibet, the Party has been up against the Tibetan people alone. If the CCP decides to manipulate this, the most exalted of Tibetan Buddhism’s spiritual institution, to make it serve as a tool to buttress the Party’s fading credibility, it would outrage the world of Tibet’s Buddhist civilisation which would see this as communist China playing God to Buddhist Tibet.

The Tibetan people, the Tibetan Buddhist Church, which includes the heads and followers of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Bon, Tibet’s native religion, and all those who fall within the ambit of Tibet’s Buddhist civilisation will reject the Party’s choice. Their rejection will be stronger and fiercer because of the Party’s past assault on Tibet’s spiritual traditions and the Party’s and Mao Zedong’s expressed belief that “religion is poison.” The Party’s real attitude to the spiritual beliefs of the Tibetan people has not changed. At a state dinner hosted by President Bill Clinton to President Jiang Zemin at the White House in 1997, Hillary Clinton pressed the Chinese President on Tibet. Jiang Zemin denounced the Tibetans as “necromancers,” calling them “victims of religion … now freed from feudalism” (Clinton, Hillary R. 2014. Hard Choices).
Jiang Zemin goes further. In a lengthy conversation with Jacques Chirac, the former French President, the Chinese leader even attributes a political motive to the Tibetan tradition of prostration. He told Chirac, “I am an atheist; you are doubtless a believer, but some beliefs exceed all understanding. I think of those processions in Lhasa in which Tibetans move forward by making full prostrations with each step. There are political reasons. Why those prostrations? Why?” (Chirac, J. 2012 My Life in Politics)

Even a suggestion that China make Lhasa the spiritual centre of the country was brusquely dismissed by Jiang. Chirac recounts, “’Whatever the world says, responded Jiang, ‘what is important for us is the stability of Tibet. The Dalai Lama does not need to return, but if he accepts our two conditions (accepting Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China – Ed), we could negotiate. In any case, China will not accept that Lhasa become a new Jerusalem” (Chirac, J. 2012. My Life in Politics).

Regardless of such expressed Chinese disdain of their beliefs, the Tibetan people whose faith has sustained the system of reincarnating lamas down the centuries believe, without exception, that the Dalai Lama alone has the right to decide the time, place and circumstances of his re-birth. This is the right of the Dalai Lama alone because in their eyes he is the manifestation of Chenresig, the Buddha of Compassion and protector of the Land of Snows. He alone has this right because of his spiritual realisation. No other choice or imposition will be tolerated.

Nor will this act be tolerated by the world. The international community will judge how the Party treats Tibetans today as an accurate indicator of its behavior to the rest of the world. Even hardnosed reporters fear of the Party’s behavior. “For now, Tibet, its religion, its god-king all seem impossibly exotic, like an endangered orchid deep in the jungle. Perhaps it was a species on the brink of extinction. I didn’t have a clue whether it could be saved. What I did sense, though, was that there might be something even more important than the endgame for Tibet. Perhaps more crucial would be to observe how a rising China behaves toward those it feels are weaker and in its way.

“Today, it is the Tibetans. Tomorrow, those harmonizing about the glorious blue skies of China could be you and me” (Johnson, Tim. 2011. Tragedy in Crimson: How the Dalai Lama Conquered the World but Lost the Battle with China).

If the Party is allowed to get away with what in Tibetan eyes is appointing false gods, this will be the unhappy prelude to the Party’s bigger endgame for the world. This endgame is expressed in the China Dream, China regaining its global primacy as during the height of the Manchu empire. In such a system, according to Henry Kissinger, China “considered itself, in a sense, the sole sovereign government of the world,” in which the emperor’s jurisdiction was “not the sovereign state of China” alone, but “All Under Heaven, of which China formed the central, civilized part” (Kissinger, Henry. 2014. World Order).

Such a day may not come to pass. The Tibetan people and the world will not let a Party-appointed Dalai Lama come to pass too because on the issue of his reincarnation His Holiness the Dalai Lama has the last and final word. His Holiness issued a public statement on 24 September 2011.  Here is what he said:

When I am about ninety I will consult the high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not. On that basis we will take a decision. If it is decided that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama should continue and there is a need for the Fifteenth Dalai Lama to be recognised, responsibility for doing so will primarily rest on the concerned officers of the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust. They should consult the various heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the lineage of the Dalai Lamas. They should seek advice and direction from these concerned beings and carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition. I shall leave clear written instructions about this. Bear in mind that, apart from the reincarnation recognised through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the PRC.

Lest anyone forgets, in a recent interview His Holiness the Dalai Lama reminded the world, “Reincarnation is not the business of the communists” [Tibet’s Road Ahead: Dalai Lama’s 80th Birthday Invites Celebration and Contemplation by Barbara Demick in Los Angeles Times dated 4 July 2015].

To make his point clear, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, jokingly, that for China to have any say in his reincarnation the communist leaders themselves must believe in the concept of reincarnation. He said, “The Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than the Dalai Lama,” said the Dalai Lama, laughing. “The Chinese Communists should accept the concept of rebirth. Then they should recognize the reincarnation of Chairman Mao Zedong, then Deng Xiaoping. Then they have the right to involve themselves in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation”
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/opinion/nicholas-kristof-dalai-lama-gets-mischievous.html].

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay articulates the Tibetan people’s deepest emotions on the issue. He says,  China now claims the right to identify the reincarnation of the Tibetan spiritual leader whom they call ‘the devil.’ How incredible that the Chinese communist leaders whose ideology regards religion as the opium of the people, and whose founding figure, Mao Zedong, famously told His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Beijing that ‘religion is poison,’ now orders the Dalai Lama to reincarnate on the Party’s terms. Despite more than 50 years of state-sponsored rampage and destruction, the Tibetan people have not lost hope. The source of their hope is His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the power of spirituality. As long as the Tibetan people continue to suffer in their homeland, no Dalai Lama, either the present or those of the future, will become a tool of the Party’s rule in occupied Tibet.

An early indication of how the international community would view China’s interference in the spiritual life of the Tibetan people is expressed by the United States government. At the “Lockdown in Tibet” event in Geneva on 15 June 2015, Sarah Sewall, the State Department’s Special Coordinator for Tibetan Affairs said, “The basic and universally recognised right of religious freedom demands that any decision on the next Dalai Lama must be reserved to the current Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leaders, and the Tibetan people.”

Historical Status of Tibet

On Tibetan history, the current white paper intrudes the furthest. The white paper on Tibet in 2004 claims, “Tibet became part of the territory of China in the 13th century.” On the other hand, the Chinese Republican-era scholars assert that Tibet became a vassal state of China during the Qing period (1644-1911). Now, with its latest white paper, China has again shifted the goal post and states that Tibet has been an integral part of China since “antiquity”. Even Chinese historians have refuted the claim. Writing for the China Review magazine in 2007, Prof. Ge Jianxiong of Fudan University in Shanghai stated that such claims were a “defiance of history” as the “Tubo/Tufan (Tibetan empire) was a sovereign/ independent of the Tang Dynasty”.

Ancient Tibet

According to Tibetan annals, the first king of Tibet ruled from 127 BC, but it was only in the seventh century AD that Tibet emerged as a unified state and a mighty empire under Emperor Songtsen Gampo. With his rule, an era of political and military supremacy and territorial expansion started that lasted for three centuries. The King of Nepal and the Emperor of China offered their daughters to the Tibetan Emperor Songtsen Gampo in marriage. Tibetan Emperor Trisong Detsen (755-797) expanded the Tibetan empire by conquering parts of China. In 763 Chang’an (modern Xian), the capital of Tang China, was occupied and China had to pay an annual tribute to Tibet. In 821/823 a treaty was concluded which laid down the borders between Tibet and China. A pillar inscription at the Jokhang in Lhasa bears witness to this border demarcation. The text of this treaty, both in Tibetan and Chinese, was inscribed on three stone pillars. It reads, “Tibet and China shall abide by the frontiers of which they are now in occupation. All to the east is the country of great China; and all to the west is, without question, the country of great Tibet. Henceforth, on neither side shall there be waging of war nor seizing of territory.”

Even Chinese historians have refuted the Chinese government’s claim that Tibet had been ‘part of China since ancient times’. As mentioned earlier, in 2007, Prof. Ge Jianxiong also stated, “China (Zhongguo) only officially became the name of our country with the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. Before this, the idea of China (“Zhongguo”) was not clearly conceptualized.” And he added, “Tubo/Tufan (Tibetan empire) was a sovereign/independent of the Tang Dynasty.”

The late Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, a Vice-chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Chinese parliament, in a speech he gave in 1989, stated, “Some historians claim that Tibet had been a part of China from antiquity, some others claim since the time of Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo through his marriage to the Chinese princess. I do not agree with both these views. When you talk about antiquity, there is no time line or if it is from the time of Songtsen Gampo’s marriage, we all know that the first queen of Songtsen Gampo was Nepal’s princess in which case Tibet should be part of Nepal. How can we explain this?”

Relations with the Mongol Khans (1240-1350)

The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol empire and its ruler Genghis Khan and his successors conquered vast territories in Europe and Asia, including China. By 1279, the Chinese Song dynasty in southern China fell before the advancing Mongols. The Mongols’ conquest of China was complete. Today, China claims the Yuan Dynasty to be its own dynasty and, by doing so, it lays claim to all Mongol conquests, at least in the eastern half of the Mongol Empire.

Prince Goden, grandson of Genghis Khan, dispatched an expedition to Tibet in 1240 and invited one of Tibet’s leading religious hierarchs, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen (1182-1251), to his court, thus establishing an enduring Tibeto-Mongol relationship. Here began the unique cho-yon (priest-patron) relationship. Kublai Khan, who succeeded Goden Khan, embraced Tibetan Buddhism and appointed Drogon Choegyal Phagpa, nephew of Sakya Pandita, as his spiritual mentor. This cho-yon relationship resulted in Kublai Khan adopting Buddhism as his empire’s state religion, and Phagpa became its highest spiritual authority. In gratitude, Kublai Khan offered his Tibetan lama political authority over all Tibet in 1254, conferring various titles on him. This Tibeto-Mongol relationship continued to exist even after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty.

China’s white paper claims that, “It was during the Yuan Dynasty that China’s central government formally incorporated Tibet into the central administration.” In fact, none of the Mongol rulers ever attempted to administer Tibet directly. Tibet did not even pay taxes to the Mongol empire. Tibet broke its political relationship with the Mongols in 1350 when the Tibetan king, Changchub Gyaltsen (1302-1364), replaced the Sakya lamas as the most powerful ruler of Tibet. Changchub Gyaltsen did away with Mongol influence in the Tibetan administrative system and introduced a new and distinctly Tibetan one. He also enacted a code of law (Trimyig Shelchey Chonga, 15-article code), for the administration of justice in the kingdom. China regained its independence from Mongol rule and established the Ming Dynasty eighteen years after that of Tibet.
The year of Mongol military expedition to Tibet in 1240 preceded the Mongol invasion of China’s Song Empire in 1279 by 39 years. This debunks China’s claim over Tibet based on relations between Mongol Empire and Tibet’s Sakya Lamas.

Relations with Ming Emperors (1368-1644)

Because the relations between Mongol Khans and Tibetan lamas predated the Mongol conquest of China and because Tibet broke away from the Mongol Khans before China regained its independence from them, Chinese Ming emperors inherited no legacy in Tibet from the Mongols. On the other hand, even after the Mongols were driven back to their homeland in Mongolia, various Mongol Khans continued to maintain their intensive religious and cultural ties with Tibet, often in the form of cho-yon relationship, for centuries afterwards. Even if the Mongols did exercise influence in Tibet, it is still too presumptuous on the part of the CCP to claim inheritance of Tibet through erstwhile Mongol rulers of China when an independent Outer Mongolia today exists as the only legitimate representative of the Mongolian people and nation.
Contacts between Tibet and Ming China were spasmodic and largely limited to visits by individual lamas of various, sometimes rival, monasteries to China, and the granting of honorific imperial titles or gifts by the Ming emperors to the visiting lamas.

Prof. Elliot Sperling of the Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, notes, “An examination of the events surrounding the presentation of these titles shows clearly that the recipients held power and /or influence in Tibet prior to their being granted. As such, the titles did not bestow power, but rather acknowledge it, and their granting must be seen as something akin to the not uncommon presentation of honours, titles, or awards by one country to nationals of another” (Blondeau, Anne, M, and Buffetrille, Katia. 2008. Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China’s “100 Questions”).

These exchanges are recorded in Tibetan histories from fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, but there is no evidence whatsoever of political subordination of Tibet or its rulers to China or the Ming emperors. In 1578, abbot of the Drepung Monastery, Sonam Gyatso, was received by the ruler of Tumed Mongols, Altan Khan, and was bestowed the title ‘Dalai Lama.’  Earlier on, in 1550, Altan Khan had led an army against Ming China and captured Beijing briefly. A punitive trade agreement was imposed on Ming China.

In 1644 the Ming emperors were once again overthrown by foreign conquerors. The Manchus succeeded in establishing their own imperial dynasty, which ruled over a large empire, the most important part of which was China. The Manchus called their new conquest the Qing Dynasty.

Relations with the Manchus (1639-1911)

In 1642, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama, with the help of his Mongol patron Gushri Khan, became the supreme political and religious ruler of unified Tibet. Since then, Tibetans have regarded him as their “Gongsa Chenpo” or the Supreme Sovereign. His prestige was recognised far beyond Tibet’s borders. The Fifth Dalai Lama not only maintained a close relationship with the Mongols but also developed intimate ties with the Manchu rulers.
In 1639, before the Dalai Lama acquired supreme political power and before the Manchu conquest of China and the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Manchu Emperor Tai Tsung invited the Dalai Lama to his capital, Mukden (present-day Shenyang). Unable to accept the invitation personally, the Dalai Lama sent his envoy who was treated with great respect by the emperor. Thus, the cho-yon relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Manchu rulers was established.

As was true of the Tibetan relationship with the Mongol emperors, the links developed between Tibetans and the Manchu emperors did not involve China. On this score, Owen Lattimore points out in reference to the Qing Dynasty, “What existed in fact was a Manchu Empire, of which China formed only one part” (Lattimore, Owen. 1962. Studies in Frontier History: Collected papers 1928-1958).

Having conquered China and annexed it to the Manchu empire, Emperor Shunzi invited the Fifth Dalai Lama in 1653 for a state visit to the imperial capital. In an unprecedented sign of respect, the Manchu emperor made a four-day journey outside his capital (Peking) to receive the Tibetan sovereign and foremost spiritual leader of Central Asian Buddhists. Commenting on the Dalai Lama’s visit, W.W. Rockhill, an American scholar and diplomat in China, wrote: “(The Dalai Lama) had been treated with all the ceremony which could have been accorded to any independent sovereign, and nothing can be found in Chinese works to indicate that he was looked upon in any other light; at this period of China’s relations with Tibet, the temporal power of the Lama, backed by the arms of Gushri Khan and the devotion of all Mongolia, was not a thing for the Emperor of China to question” (Rockhill, W.W. 1910. The Dalai Lamas of Lhasa and their Relations with Emperors of China 1644-1908).

As for the white paper’s assertion that the Great Fifth was given the title of the Dalai Lama by emperor Shunzhi is a case of constantly updating history to suit the ruling regime’s current political needs. Such a blatant attempt to re-write history is to re-arrange “facts” and establish nine-dash lines in Tibet’s spiritual realm for the CCP to claim when the need arises. The fact is that Altan Khan in 1578 conferred the title of the Dalai Lama to the Third Dalai Lama, Sonam Gyatso, almost a century ago.

In 1792, the Gorkhas of Nepal invaded Tibet following a dispute between Tibet and Nepal and the Dalai Lama appealed to the Manchu emperor for help. The emperor sent a large army that helped Tibet drive out the Gorkhas, and mediated a treaty of peace between Tibet and Nepal. Since this was the fourth time the emperor was asked to send troops to fight for the Tibetan Government, a “regulation” was suggested which was made in the context of the emperor’s protector role, rather than an order from a ruler to his subjects. This emerges clearly from the statement made by the imperial envoy and commander of the Manchu army, General Fu K’ang-an, to the Eighth Dalai Lama, which goes thus:

The Emperor issued detailed instructions to me, the Great General, to discuss all the points, one by one, in great length. This demonstrates the Emperor’s concern that Tibetans come to no harm and that their welfare be ensured in perpetuity. There is no doubt that the Dalai Lama, acknowledging his gratitude to the Emperor, will accept these suggestions once all the points are discussed and agreed upon. However, if the Tibetans insist on clinging to their age-old habits, the Emperor will withdraw the Ambans and the garrisons after the troops are pulled out. Moreover, if similar incidents occur in the future, the Emperor will have nothing to do with them. The Tibetans may, therefore, decide for themselves as to what is in their favour and what is not or what is heavy and what is light, and make a choice on their own (Hanzhang, Ya. 1991. Biographies of the Dalai Lamas).
Rather than accepting or rejecting the Emperor’s suggestion, Tibetans adopted some of the twenty-nine points, which were perceived to be beneficial to them, and disregarded those they thought to be unsuitable. As the 9th Panchen Lama said, “Where Chinese policy was in accordance with their own views, the Tibetans were ready to accept the Amban’s advice; but … if this advice ran counter in any respect to their national prejudices, the Chinese Emperor himself would be powerless to influence them” (Diary of Capt. O’Connor, 4 September 1903).

Among the important suggestions of this “twenty-nine-point edict” was the emperor’s proposal for the selection of great incarnate lamas, including the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas, by drawing lots from a golden urn. This important task, however, remained the responsibility of the Tibetan Government and high lamas, who continued to select reincarnations according to Tibetan religious traditions. Thus, even on the first occasion when the golden urn should have been employed for the selection of the Ninth Dalai Lama in 1808, Tibetans disregarded it.

Another important point of this “edict” was the role of Ambans. The Amban’s role resembled that of an ambassador, at times, and that of a resident in a classical protectorate relationship, at other times. It is best defined in the explanation Amban Yu Tai gave in 1903 to Mortimer Durand, the Foreign Secretary of the Government of India. Foreign Secretary Durand said, “He was only a guest in Lhasa – not a master – and he could not put aside the real masters, and as such he had no force to speak of” (Sykes, Percy. 1997. The Right Honourable  Sir Mortimer Durand: A Biography).

Similarly, two Lazarist missionaries, Huc and Gabet, who were in Lhasa in the mid-nineteenth century, described the position of the Ambans as follows: “The Government of Tibet resembles that of the Pope and the position occupied by the Chinese Ambassadors was the same as that of the Austrian Ambassador at Rome” (Huc, M. 1933. Decouverte du Thibet, 1845-1846).

This ground reality and the wisdom of leaving Tibet alone was realized by Qing China’s last empress dowager Cixi before the Manchus abruptly changed their policy and invaded Tibet. “It seems she (Cixi) understood that the Tibetans’ desire to be left alone was non-negotiable, and came to the conclusion that only by respecting it she could keep Tibet in the empire” (Chang, Jung. 2013. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine who Launched Modern China).

However, the unprecedented invasion of Tibet by Manchu troops in 1908 was a turning point in relations between Tibet and the Manchu emperor. Previous imperial military expeditions had come to assist the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan Government at their invitation. However, this time, the Manchu emperor attempted to establish his authority in Tibet by force, largely to ‘remove increasing British influence in Tibet’. In 1910, the Dalai Lama fled to neighbouring India, but the occupation of Tibet was short-lived. When the Manchu Emperor tried to “depose” the Dalai Lama in 1910, the Dalai Lama declared the termination of the cho-yon relationship. The protector had attacked his lama, his protected, and, thereby, violated the very foundation of their relationship. Resistance to the invasion succeeded when the Manchu Empire collapsed in 1912 and Tibetans forced the occupation army to surrender. That summer Nepalese mediation between Tibet and China resulted in the conclusion of the “Three-Point Agreement” providing for formal surrender and the expulsion of all remaining imperial troops. After returning to Lhasa, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama issued a proclamation reaffirming the independence of Tibet in February 1913.

Tibet and Republican China

Tibetan government signed several bilateral treaties with other countries including one in 1913 with Mongolia and in 1914 with British India known as the Simla Agreement. This proves the independent status of Tibet. In response to a letter from Chinese President Yuan Shikai, the Thirteenth Dalai Lama rejected the invitation to join the Republic, explaining courteously but firmly that Tibetans did “not approve” of the Chinese government due to past injustices. He stated, “The Republic has only just been proclaimed and the national foundations are far from strong. It behooves the President to exert his energies towards the maintenance of order. As for Tibet, the Tibetans are quite capable of preserving their existence intact and there is no occasion for the President to worry himself at this distance or to be discomposed” (Guomin Gongbao, 5 January 1913).

On Tibet’s independence and the border territories that China had occupied, the 13th Dalai Lama said, “Under the priest-patron relationship that prevailed so far, Tibet has enjoyed wide independence. We wish to preserve this. We feel that there will be long-term stability if the territories we have lost to outsiders are returned to us” (Record of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s communication, dated 15th day of the 4th Tibetan Month, Iron Horse Year, 1930).

Irrespective of proclamations issued by the Tibetan government and the Chinese government at that time, which could be construed as biased, we have the judgment of international bodies and independent scholars to consider. The International Commission of Jurists endorsed the fact that “At least prior to 1950, Tibet remained an independent country.”  Warren Smith Jr. writes in his book, The Tibetan Nation, “Despite the Chinese Communists’ attempt to construe the 17-Point Agreement as an internal affair, the 17-Point Agreement has some of the characteristics of an international treaty. The very necessity of a treaty between Tibet and China is indicative of their separate political status. No other region of PRC required such an instrument of incorporation.”

In an official correspondence from the Secretary of State for External Affairs of Canada dated 21 November 1950 to the Canadian Ambassador in Washington DC included the following paragraph. “The question is, should Canada consider Tibet to be an independent state, a vassal of China, or an integral portion of China. It is submitted that the Chinese claim to sovereignty over Tibet is not well founded. Chinese suzerainty, perhaps existent, though ill-defined, before 1911, appears since then, on the basis of facts available to us, to have been a mere fiction. In fact, it appears that during the past 40 years Tibet has controlled its own internal and external affairs. Viewing the situation thus, I am of the opinion that Tibet is, from the point of view of international law, qualified for recognition as an independent state.”

Republican China’s last head of mission in Lhasa, Shen Tsung-Lien, wrote after leaving the country in 1948 that “Since 1911 Lhasa (Tibetan government) has to all practical purposes enjoyed full independence” (Shen, T. and Liu, S. 1973. Tibet and the Tibetans).

Tibetan independence was a geopolitical reality which Republican China internally acknowledged. This reality was something which Republican China wanted Tibet to continue to enjoy. During his student days in Nanjing, Gyalo Thondup, the elder brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, said President Chiang Kai-shek expressed his thinking on the issue. “Chiang was also willing for Tibet to remain independent. With the Dalai Lama running Tibet and me by his side, if Tibet still wanted independence without foreign exploitation, Chiang said, he would support it. Tibet was China’s back door. The two countries would always have close ties” (Thondup, Gyalo, and Thurston, Anne, F. 2015. The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet).

Mao Zedong himself, when he passed through the border regions of Tibet during the Long March, and was given food and shelter by local Tibetans, remarked, “This is our only foreign debt, and some day we must pay the Mantzu (sic) and the Tibetans for the provisions we were obliged to take from them” (Snow, Edgar. 1961. Red Star Over China).

The Recognition of the 14th Dalai Lama and Republican China

On the enthronement of the 14th Dalai Lama, the white paper says, “On 22 February, following established historical traditions, the central government representative Wu Zhongxin and the Tibetan Regent Reting Hutuktu presided over the enthronement ceremony of the 14th Dalai Lama. Lhamo Thondup’s enthronement as the 14th Dalai Lama owed its legality to the central government’s regulations on the Dalai Lama system, and approvement (sic) by the government of the Republic of China.”

In reality, the CCP’s claims on the institution of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet are based on doctored history. The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet was selected on 28 June 1939 according to the age-old religious beliefs and spiritual traditions of the Tibetans. No approval of the Chinese Government was needed or sought. In 1939, before Wu Zhongxin, arrived in Lhasa, Regent Reting had already announced the name of the present Dalai Lama in the Tibetan National Assembly as the authentic reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, which was unanimously confirmed by the Assembly.

When the enthronement ceremony took place on 22 February 1940, the Chinese envoy, Wu Zhongxin, like envoys from Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal and British India, had no special role. The fictitious account by Wu Zhongxin, which communist China today repeats with revolutionary zeal, reflects what China had intended to do, but did not take place. Chinese propaganda used a news report featuring a photograph of the Dalai Lama with Wu Zhongxin. The photograph was captioned as having been taken during the enthronement ceremony.

However, according to Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC, this photo was taken a few days after the ceremony, when Wu was granted the favour of a private audience with the child Dalai Lama.

“Wu Zhongxin’s claim of having presided over the enthronement ceremony on the basis of this photograph is a blatant distortion of historical facts,” Ngabo said in Tibet Daily on 31 August 1989.

The Middle Way Approach

One striking feature of China’s latest white paper on Tibet is its attempt to distort the Middle Way Approach. The white paper gives the usual Chinese official argument that the Middle Way Approach is to “split” China and is a “disguised” form of Tibetan independence. The new argument the white paper now gives is that the aim of the Middle Way Approach is to create “a state within a state.” In the rest of the world this form of governance is called a federal system. India and the United States are good examples. To borrow the white paper’s terminology, these two countries could be defined as “many states within a state.” The federal form of governance is working well in these two countries because they give the states within their national boundaries much leeway in terms of making laws, allocating resources, developing a liberal education system and a host of other rights that do not conflict with the central governments’ core responsibility of defending national interests.

This federal system is practiced by China with Hong Kong in the form of “one country, two systems.”

Whatever the current attitude of the Chinese government to the Middle Way Approach, a vast number of independent Chinese scholars consider the Middle Way Approach the most reasonable solution to preserving the integrity of China and preventing Tibet from spinning out of PRC’s control.

The Middle Way Approach is a pragmatic policy that is based on the principles of justice, compassion, non-violence, friendship and in the spirit of reconciliation. It does not envisage victory for oneself and defeat for others.

China’s growing defensiveness on Tibet can also be gauged from its reaction to the popular support and acceptance the Middle Way Approach has garnered over the years within China and internationally.
Zhu Weiqun, Chairman of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, on 16 April 2015, unintentionally revealed the amount of pressure the Chinese government receives from the international community to open a dialogue with the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama based on the Middle Way Approach. He said, “In recent years, the Dalai Lama ‘group’ has actively campaigned for the Middle Way Approach internationally. Even though we (Chinese government) have criticised it, there are those who support it. Some international forces claim the Middle Way is a win-win situation for China and Tibetans.”

Instead of addressing the contents of the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People, the white paper distorts facts and manufactures quotes in an attempt to denounce the Middle Way Approach. Similar observations on China’s reluctance to engage in constructive dialogue were made by Beat U. Wieser of Neue Zuercher Zeitung in an article following his interview with Zhu Weiqun in 2013. He wrote, “The representatives of the Dalai Lama present their ideas of a Tibetan autonomy within the Chinese framework point by point, with exact reference to the Chinese constitution and the Law on Regional National Autonomy (LRNA), whereas the Chinese representatives sweep aside everything, making blanket accusations as if they had not read at all the submitted texts”
[http://tibet.net/2013/12/chinese-functionary-rules-out-tibet-autonomy-criticizes-divisive-nature-of-dalai-lama-clique/].

In stark contrast to the allegations leveled by the white paper, the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy neither seeks independence nor “a state within a state… [with] the ultimate goal of full independence”. The Middle Way Approach aspires for meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people to live under a single administration within the scope of the constitution of PRC. This is the aspiration of the Tibetan people and one which they deserve.

The white paper’s attempt at sullying the stature of His Holiness the Dalai Lama will fail to convince the international community and more importantly the Chinese people. This is because His Holiness the Dalai Lama remains a true friend of the Chinese people and the best hope for a peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet. In the mid-1990s when US government was discussing whether to grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status to China, His Holiness the Dalai Lama publicly stated that “as the world’s most populous nation, China deserved it.”

Similarly, he supported Beijing’s bid to stage the Olympic Games in 2008 even when there was a worldwide protest against this decision. The Chinese government must realise that their vilification campaign against His Holiness the Dalai Lama will breed resentment that no amount of material development by China in Tibet can compensate.

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) firmly believes that dialogue is the only way forward to resolve the issue of Tibet. Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay has reiterated the Tibetan leadership’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet through dialogue between envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and representatives of the Chinese leadership. The Middle Way Approach, which seeks to accommodate China’s core interests while protecting those of the Tibetans, has evolved since it was first enunciated.

In 1974, His Holiness the Dalai Lama in consultation with the exile Tibetan leadership decided not to seek independence for Tibet and to work towards the realisation of meaningful autonomy for a united Tibet. This later came to be known as the Middle Way Approach. When the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, made contacts with the exile Tibetan leadership in 1979, he told His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s elder brother, Gyalo Thondup, that “Except Independence, everything is negotiable. Everything can be discussed.” In view of this, His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent four fact-finding missions to Tibet and two exploratory delegations to Beijing from 1979 to 1985.

The urgency for an early settlement of the Tibetan issue was further compounded in 1985 when the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi announced its government’s intention to “change both the ecological imbalance and the population lack” not just in Tibet but also in other “sparsely populated outlying regions.” The announcement said, Chinese “migration should be welcomed by the local population, and should result in a population increase of sixty million over the next thirty years in those regions.” The announcement went on to say, “This is a very conservative estimate. As a matter of fact, the increase might swell to a hundred million in less than thirty years” (Movement Westward, Reference Material No. 2, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), New Delhi, 4 February 1985).

In 1987, the moderate Party general secretary Hu Yaobang was deposed for his sympathy for Tibet and for liberal reforms in China. Around the same time, anti-Dalai Lama propaganda resurfaced with the venom and invectiveness reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, leading to a cycle of protests and imprisonment. These protests from 1987 to 1990s, staged by the new generation of Tibetans born under Chinese rule, were quelled with the use of force and declaration of martial law in Lhasa from March 1989 through April 1990.

Undeterred, His Holiness the Dalai Lama presented his Five-Point Peace Plan for Tibet at the US Congress in 1987 and the Strasbourg Proposal at the European Parliament in 1988. Chinese government rejected these proposals and employed harsher policies to quash the Tibetan people’s spirit.  Owing to the lack of response from the Chinese government to his proposals, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was compelled to declare on 10 March 1992 the Strasbourg Proposal invalid as the basis of future discussion, though he said he and his administration “were committed to the path of negotiations.”

In 1995 His Holiness the Dalai Lama called for a referendum to decide the future course of the Tibetan people’s struggle.  64% of Tibetans who participated in the preliminary opinion poll expressed their wish that there was no need to hold a referendum, and that they would support whatever policy His Holiness the Dalai Lama pursued. Based on this opinion poll, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile adopted a unanimous resolution in 1997 which made the Middle Way Approach the foundation of the Tibetan people’s non-violent struggle.

On 6 July 2000, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the governments of its Member States to “give serious consideration to the possibility of recognising the Tibetan Government in exile as the legitimate representative of the Tibetan people if, within three years, the Beijing authorities and the Tibetan government in exile have not, through negotiations organised under the aegis of the Secretary General of the United Nations, signed an agreement on a new Statute for Tibet”.

Dialogue with China resumed in 2002, which eventually led to nine rounds of talks. During the 7th round of talks in 2008, the Chinese government asked the Tibetan leadership to put in writing the nature of autonomy it sought.  Accordingly, the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama presented to the Chinese leadership the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People. The Memorandum explicitly states that the genuine autonomy sought by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the CTA for the Tibetan people is based on the framework of the Chinese constitution and the LRNA.

The Memorandum calls for the exercise of genuine autonomy for Tibetans under a single administration to self-govern 11 basic aspirations of the Tibetan people. These include Tibetan language, culture, religion, education, environmental protection, utilisation of natural resources, economic development and trade, public security, regulation on population migration and cultural, educational and religious exchanges with other countries.

Contrary to what the white paper alleges, the Memorandum does not propose the withdrawal of the (People’s Liberation Army) PLA from Tibet. However, with Tibetans facing greater marginalisation from the state-induced massive influx of Chinese settlers and migrant workers, the Memorandum proposes to regulate population migration as enshrined in Article 43 of the LRNA under China’s constitution. The article says that “in accordance with legal stipulations, the organs of self-government of national autonomous area shall work out measures for control of the transient population.” Population migration is of great concern as large numbers of non-Tibetans have settled in Tibetan areas in the last few decades. This has resulted in Tibetans becoming minority in their own land.

The proposal contained in the Memorandum in no way implies a denial of the authority of the NPC and other organs of the Chinese state. Any form of genuine autonomy entails a division and allocation of power and responsibilities, including that of making laws and regulations, between the central and the autonomous local governments. Of course, the power to adopt laws and regulations is limited to the areas of competency of the autonomous region. This is true in unitary states as well as in federal systems.

A quick review of the history of  the evolution of the Chinese constitution and the Party’s policy on Tibet reveals the steady dilution of rights of minorities from the right of secession to self-determination in the 1930’s and to a limited  and even restrictive autonomy under a unitary state today.

While in principle, the constitution of the PRC makes provisions on autonomy for broad decision-making authority at the provincial level, this provision is missing in autonomous regions such as Tibet. In making laws, the autonomous regions need ‘approval’ from the central government while provinces could ‘report’ to the central government the laws they have already made.  It is clear that the provincial governments appear to enjoy more autonomy in amending and modifying national laws than autonomous governments” (Sangay, Lobsang. 2005. Proceedings of the Seminar on China’s National Regional Autonomy Law: Theory and Practice in Tibet).

Instead of issuing white papers, there is an urgent need for China to withdraw its failed Tibet policy and replace it with a new policy based on the reasonable aspirations of the Tibetan people. The widespread protests throughout the Tibetan plateau in 2008, the security force’s disproportionate use of force, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary detentions of scores of Tibetans has left a deep political scar on the minds of the Tibetans. Coupled with this, decades of economic marginalisation, cultural assimilation, and other policies aimed at identity erosion have contributed to deepening the Tibetan people’s resentment. With no effective redress mechanism in place, this resentment burst out in the form of self-immolation by a young monk called Tapey in February 2009. That single protest has engulfed the whole of Tibet. Till now, 142 Tibetans have set themselves on fire, calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to his homeland and freedom for the Tibetan people.

Tibetan desire for a single autonomous administration has a precedence

Tibetans in Tibet have repeatedly called on China to bring all of Tibet under one single administration. Many Chinese leaders, including Premier Zhou Enlai, Vice Premier Chen Yi and Party Secretary Hu Yaobang, supported the consideration of bringing all Tibetan areas under a single administration. Some of the most senior Tibetan leaders in the PRC, including the 10th Panchen Lama, Ngapo Ngawang Jigme and Bapa Phuntsok Wangyal had supported the idea. They noted this would accord with the PRC’s constitution and its laws. In 1956, a special committee, which included senior Communist Party member Sangye Yeshi (Tian Bao), was appointed by the Chinese government to make a detailed plan for the integration of the Tibetan areas into a single autonomous region, but the work was later sabotaged by Chinese ultra-leftists.
In 1980, a group of Tibetan communist cadres from Gansu’s Gannan Autonomous Prefecture wrote a petition to the Chinese government expressing desire to establish a United Autonomous Region of Tibetan Nationality.

In a series of letters sent to President Hu Jintao, Bapa Phuntsok Wangyal stated that “With regard to the question of establishing a United Autonomous Region of Tibetan Nationality, some concerned people think that this is a point of view suggested by overseas Tibetans, which is a big misconception since such ideas had already been there” (Wangyal, Bapa, P. 2007. Witness to Tibet’s History).

Why Tibet Continues to Burn

The white paper says, “In August 2011, the new leader of the so-called Tibetan government-in-exile announced a new commitment to non-violence. Subsequently, the Dalai group leadership began to incite Tibetan lamas and lay followers inside China to engage in acts of self-immolation, leading to a series of such incidents in a number of regions.”

On the contrary, the CTA has repeatedly appealed to Tibetans in Tibet to desist from self-immolation. This chorus has been joined in by high Tibetan lamas, including the 17th Karmapa, which has urged Tibetans in Tibet to cherish life and not to set themselves on fire. In fact, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has issued a longstanding invitation to Beijing to send an investigation team to Dharamsala to search for evidence whether “the Dalai clique” has any links with protests in Tibet, self-immolation or other forms.

The job of any responsible ruling regime is to address problems and not apportion blame. Beijing so far has not done this for the simple reason that all its problems in Tibet are triggered by its repressive policies and its unprecedented intrusion into the lives of the Tibetan people. Those who have self-immolated so far have two simple demands: the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for the Tibetan people. These are within the power of Beijing to do so. If these two demands are met, China’s Tibet headache will vanish and Tibet will enjoy true stability within a confident and tolerant China.

Tibet’s Economic Development and China’s ‘Boomerang Aid’

While the Chinese government attempts to rationalise its occupation of Tibet stating that it was backward and feudal, Tibet today is far from current international standards in terms of human development. Tibet today is off-limits to any scrutiny by independent international media and rights groups. On the issue of the current state of Tibet’s development, the United Nations Development Programme says, “Tibet still lags behind other areas of China in terms of human development. Harsh conditions, scarce resources, and insufficient infrastructure limit potential sources of economic growth. Meanwhile, the growth that does take place is concentrated in cities and yields little benefit to many ethnic Tibetans, most of whom live in rural areas and lack skills compared to migrant workers from other parts of China.”

There is an acute need for a shift in the basic approach towards the development of Tibet. Beijing’s approach has led to chronic dependence on subsidies, referred to as “blood transfusion economy” by economists. There is massive central government aid to Tibet to develop infrastructure, highways, railway lines, airports and communications system, all aimed to facilitate Beijing’s control of Tibet. But what the central government’s right hand gives to Tibet is also taken away by its left hand. Economists define this sleight of hand as “boomerang aid.” Tibet’s expanding network of highways and railway lines is helping Beijing to exploit the region’s abundant natural resources. Tibet’s water and hydro energy resources and its minerals are exploited with no or little compensation for the local Tibetans.

On the other hand, Beijing’s focus on urbanisation and infrastructure, plus settling the Tibetan plateau with immigrants, has not really helped to improve the life of the majority of Tibetans but has increased their marginalisation. Nor has there been a transfer of skills to Tibetans. Tibet continues to rely on outside aid, both capital and labour. “This urban-oriented growth has contributed to rapidly increasing income disparity between urban and rural areas, and between Han and Tibetan populations” (Holcombe, Arthur. 10 June 2002. Testimony to US Congressional Executive Commission on China).

The Chinese government often talks about spending millions on boosting development in Tibet, but how much of that money is actually spent on improving health, education, job and social welfare that benefit the local Tibetans is a big question. China’s own statistics show that most of the money as part of China’s Western Development programme is being spent on mega projects like extending and expanding highways, railways and airports to transport minerals from Tibet and bring in tourists, officials and Chinese migrants to the plateau.

What Tibetans actually need are good schools with qualified teachers, hospitals with modern facilities and doctors, jobs and employment opportunities in their own villages and towns.

Conclusion: Some Suggestions to Beijing

For China the benefits of resolving the issue of Tibet far outweigh any potential risks. The only risk, as articulated by the Chinese leaders, is that the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama might serve as a rallying point for all the disgruntled elements in the Chinese society. But that risk originates from the imagination of risk-averse Chinese leaders than from the track record of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s leadership. He has consistently advocated the virtues of reconciliation, compromise and non-violence. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a healer, not a wrecker.
Apart from this imagined risk, here are some of the enormous benefits of a speedy and just resolution to the issue of Tibet.

Tibet: Bridge Between India and China

China’s willingness to resolve the issue of Tibet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama will remove the biggest strategic mistrust between the two Asian giants. This strategic mistrust originated during the Great Game when three empires, British India, Tsarist Russia and Manchu China warily eyed each other’s intentions on the sprawling Tibetan plateau. When British India invaded Tibet in 1904, it provoked the worst fears of Manchu China of the real possibility of a great power invading China through what it considered its backdoor.  In an attempt to restore the strategic balance in its favour, China invaded Tibet in 1949 which was the larger cause of the border war between India and China in 1962.

Any move by China to meet the concerns of the Tibetan people along the lines of the Middle Way Approach will pave the way for the restoration of strategic trust between India and China. This will open the borders between the two and free their militaries from entanglements. This in turn will improve the economic and cultural development of the Himalayan region and contribute to lasting peace in Asia.
In such a political atmosphere, Tibet could resume its traditional role of being the centre of Buddhist learning for the whole of the Buddhist Himalayas which will greatly boost the spiritual richness and facilitate economic and cultural interaction of the peoples of the Himalayas and beyond.

Tibet: A Model for Hong Kong

An approach based on the Chinese constitution to the Tibetan people could send a positive message to the people of Hong Kong that their concerns will be respected by Beijing. Chinese authorities giving meaningful autonomy to the Tibetan people will serve in restoring the confidence of the people of Hong Kong. This will give real meat to the bone of President Xi Jinping’s China Dream. When China starts respecting Tibet as a global commons which has immense environmental and development importance to the rest of Asia rather than a colony to be exploited, the people of Hong Kong will no longer be fearful of a common future.

China’s Global Soft Power Enhanced

Recognising the just aspirations of the Tibetan people can greatly enhance China’s soft power around the world. China does not need to spend millions of dollars in the form of Confucius Institutes across the globe to expand its influence. Millions who have benefitted from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s teachings will come to Tibet to deepen their knowledge and bringing with them international goodwill and laying the groundwork for China’s moral ascendency. More than flexing any military or economic muscle, a just settlement will assure China the international respect it wants. This will be the start of China’s new Long March to global leadership.

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at the White House on Friday, 25 September 2015.

DHARAMSHALA: In a big boost to the Tibetan movement and the Middle Way Approach of the Central Tibetan Administration, US President Barack Obama yesterday urged Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is currently on his first official visit to the US, to engage in dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives.

Addressing a joint press conference with the Chinese President at the White House on 25 September, the US President said, “Even as we recognise Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China, we continue to encourage the Chinese authorities to preserve the religious and cultural identity of the Tibetan people and to engage with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.”

President Obama reaffirmed the US government’s unwavering support for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including freedom of assembly and expression, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.

He also added that the Chinese government’s prevention of journalists, lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from operating freely, or closing churches and denying ethnic minorities equal treatment are problematic and hinders China and the Chinese people from realising its full potential.

It is not the first time that the US President has urged the Chinese leadership to engage in dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives. President Obama has earlier urged former Chinese President Hu Jintao, during their meeting in 2011, to engage in constructive dialogue with representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for a resolution on the Tibet issue.

President Obama has also repeatedly reiterated his support for the Middle Way Approach of the Central Tibetan Administration during his meetings with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in February 2010, July 2011 and February 2014.

dalailama.com

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in the United States for a medical check-up. The doctors have advised His Holiness to rest for the next several weeks. As a result, His Holiness’ planned October U.S. visit has been cancelled. We deeply regret the inconvenience caused by this decision and apologize to all the people who have worked so hard in organizing the visit as well as to the public. We thank you for your support and understanding.

The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Dated: September 25, 2015

Speaker Penpa Tsering of the Tibetan Parliament delivering the concluding remarks of the 10th session of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-exile, 25 September 2015.

DHARAMSHAL: The 10^th and the final session of the 15^th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile concluded this afternoon after ten days of active deliberation and discussion on a wide range of issues facing Tibet and the Tibetan people. The 10^th session also discussed the activities and annual reports presented by the various departments of the Central Tibetan Administration.

Speaker Penpa Tsering, in his concluding remarks, gave a brief overview of the proceedings that took place during the 10th session and lauded the parliamentarians for their wholehearted participation in the discussions to resolve the critical situation inside Tibet.

“All the parliamentarians actively participated and expressed heartfelt and rational opinions during the discussion on the resolution of solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet,” the Speaker said, adding, the responsibility shown by the parliamentarians have sent a strong message to everyone particularly the Chinese government.

“During the discussion, we have been able to make our opinions and views very clear to the Chinese government regarding their policies in Tibet, their whitepapers, the celebration of the 50^th founding anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region and the over-all political situation inside Tibet,” he stated.

The Speaker also recalled late Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and his immense efforts towards the preservation of Tibetan culture and heritage. He raised the question of Rinpoche’s death in Chinese prison and the Chinese government’s brutal policies of repression in Tibet.

At the same time, Speaker Penpa Tsering explained that the Tibetan Parliament didn’t propose a separate resolution of mourning for Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche as the parliament has already written to various world leaders and international bodies regarding Rinpoche’s sudden death in prison. These letters, in turn, have elicited a huge outpouring of grief and solidarity from all corners of the world.

Besides the political situation inside Tibet, the 10^th session also devoted considerable time to discuss the recommendations made by the parliamentary academic committee on the Basic Education Policy of the Tibetan exiles; the workings of the Central Council of Tibetan Medicines and Norbulingka Institute of Tibetan Arts and Crafts, etc..

Sikyong speaking during the final day of the 10th session, 25 September 2015.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Speaker Penpa Tsering, Deputy Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel with Mr. Tsangyang Gyatso, president of Jonang Well-Being Association.

DHARAMSHALA: Jonangpas appealing for a seat in the Tibetan Parliament on the basis of their distinct religious tradition have suspended their sit-in after Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Speaker Penpa Tsering and Deputy Speaker Khenpo Sonam Tenphel offered them water this morning.

Mr. Tsangyang Gyatso, President of the Jonang Well Being Association, explained that they are temporarily calling off their sit-in based on the advices of the Gaden Phodrang, the Kashag, the Tibetan Parliament and the desires expressed by general devotees of the tradition.

Jonangpas have been appealing for an amendment in the Tibetan Charter to provide seats for the tradition in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.

They have also submitted a seven-point petition to be met by the Tibetan Parliament. Out of which four of the points – to allot same number of seats during special meetings, to allot same number of seats during religious meetings, to teach about Jonang tradition in Tibetan schools, and provide equal seats in the Tibetan Buddhist scholars committee – have been accepted.

However, the Tibetan Parliament has not accepted to provide parliamentary seats for the tradition, upholding their earlier resolution. At that time, the Speaker allowed time for deliberations but none of the parliamentarians availed the opportunity. So, the request was not adopted.

Mr. Tsangyang Gyatso announcing their decision to suspend the sit-in.

On 6 September, the Peoples Republic of China’s government issued yet another white paper on so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (which does not include all areas of the traditional Tibet). The white paper comes in the run up to the “celebration of the 50th anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous region” claiming Tibet has entered its “golden age” citing numerous questionable statistics. Such report in addition to presenting a distorted interpretation of Sino-Tibetan relations is a vain attempt to whitewash its repressive occupation so long as independent journalists and rights groups are not given free access to Tibetan areas to judge for themselves.

Contrary to Chinese claims, the ground reality offers a drastically different situation with a complete lockdown and extreme security measures taken to orchestrate the anniversary celebration in Lhasa. In addition to massive deployment of security personnel, on 11th August 2015, the Chinese government issued another circular directing all postal departments to intercept all communications to and from so-called ‘TAR’ within 20 August to 5 September.

Despite the infrastructural investments and various socio-cultural projects cited in the latest paper, the fact remains that Tibetans are not free to fully exercise their rights, religious and otherwise. For example, movements by Tibetans, within the Tibetan plateau, are more than ever restricted with endless requirements for permits; monasteries are run by the Communist Party, nomads are forcefully removed from their traditional pasture, mining and dam building projects are carried out without local consultation and participation. Since 2009, at least 142 Tibetans are known to have self-immolated as an act of protest against Beijing’s misrule in Tibetan areas. The latest one being, Tashi Kyi, a mother of five from Labrang  (Eastern Tibet) who set herself on fire on 28 August 2015.

The Central Chinese government’s genuine concern for the welfare and happiness of the Tibetan people is questionable so long as it does not fulfil their aspirations for freedom and the return of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to his homeland. This, for the Tibetan people, will truly be a ‘golden age’.

The Central Tibetan Administration has reiterated the Middle Way Approach as a viable solution through its response to China’s white paper.

Kashag

9 September 2015

From left: DIIR Secretary Mr. Tashi Phuntsok, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, Tibet Policy Institute Director Mr. Thubten Samphel and DIIR Secretary Mr. Sonam Norbu Dagpo at the press conference, 1 September 2015.

Press Release

The Central Tibetan Administration’s Response to the Chinese White Paper on Tibet
Dharamsala, 1 September – Starting today on 1 September, Beijing commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ in Lhasa. This was preceded by a two-day meeting of the 6th Tibet Work Forum held in Beijing from 24 to 25 August. This meeting was attended by the top Chinese leadership in the party, military and government. The meeting was presided over by President Xi Jinping.

At the meeting, President Xi Jinping said, “Key efforts in the work for Tibet should be spent on ensuring national unity and consolidating ethnic unity, with realising long-term and comprehensive social stability as an obligatory task.” Xi Jinping said the country should “firmly take the initiative” in the fight against separatism.

The ground work for all this was prepared by the white paper on Tibet China issued on 15 April. The white paper reiterated China’s focus in Tibet on the twin efforts of economic development and political repression. The key message of the white paper said that there would be no change in this policy.

The Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration today issues its response to the Chinese white paper. The Central Tibetan Administration’s(CTA) response to the Chinese white paper challenges Beijing’s claims that the legitimacy of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet rests on the Chinese Communist Party’s recognition and approval.

The CTA’s response provides comprehensive explanation with regard to communist China’s scheme to pick the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and its claims of not only territorial sovereignty but also its claims of sovereignty over the soul of the Tibetan people.

If communist China goes ahead with its plan to pick the reincarnation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, there will be an international pushback. The pushback will not only come from the Tibetan people but from millions of Buddhists who traditionally share Tibet’s spiritual heritage and millions more in the rest of the world who have benefitted from the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

However, CTA’s response argues that there is a way to resolve the issue. Till now, China has repeatedly rejected the Middle Way Approach. However, if wiser Chinese heads look into the Tibetan proposal of not seeking independence but autonomy for all the Tibetan people under a single administration, they will find in the proposal a solution that respects Tibet’s distinct cultural and ethnic identity and that which preserves the territorial integrity, unity and stability of the People’s Republic of China.

Note: Full text of the CTA’s response to the Chinese white paper on Tibet is available here

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay (centre) with Religion and Culture Kalon Mr. Pema Chhinjor (left) and Security Kalon Mr. Ngodup Drongchung (right) at the press conference held today, 31 August 2015, at DIIR hall.

The Kashag has earlier announced that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has consented to give the Kalachakra Initiation at Bodh Gaya in January 2016. However, His Holiness has had an extensive program this year including the 80^th birthday celebrations and the grand long life prayer offering ceremonies.

His Holiness has an extensive schedule lined up in the coming months including a week-long visit to England in September; a three-week visit to the US in October; teaching programs and visits in India in November and a three-week teaching program in South India in December. Particularly, the preparation for next year’s Kalachakra requires longer time than other rituals to be performed by His Holiness, which are highly strenuous.

Moreover, the second special general meeting of the Tibetan people and the Head of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bon tradition during the 80^th birthday celebrations have requested to make His Holiness’ programs less exhaustive. There have been similar requests from concerned people including Tibetans inside Tibet.

In view of the above reasons, the Central Tibetan Administration has requested His Holiness to reduce his schedule to which he has kindly agreed. Therefore, the Central Tibetan Administration would like to announce that the Kalachakra has been postponed for one year. The Central Tibetan Administration regrets the inconvenience caused to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the sponsors and the members of the organising committee of the Kalachakra Initiation and the devotees from across the world.

The Kashag

31 August 2015

Press release, 29 June 2015

Brussels, 29 June 2015 – Tomorrow, MEPs Thomas Mann (Germany, EPP) and Csaba Sógor (Romania, EPP), the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and the Office of Tibet in Brussels will jointly hold a special event to mark the 80^th birthday of the Dalai Lama in the European Parliament.

A photo exhibition – Ways of Wisdom: Celebrating the Dalai Lama’s 80^th Birthday – recalling the most important phases of the Dalai Lama’s life dedicated to the promotion of non-violence and celebrating his message of dialogue, reconciliation and inter-religious harmony, will be displayed in the European Parliament in Brussels from 30 June – 3 July. The opening ceremony will take place on the balcony area on the 3^rd floor of the ASP building on 30 June from 18:00 – 20:00. It will then be moved to the building of the European Parliamentary Association in Strasbourg.

The event will mix politics, human rights and a rich cultural programme, including a Tibetan prayer, Tibetan dance and music performances. Besides the two co-hosts, MEPs Thomas Mann and Csaba Sógor, who will open the ceremony, and the co-organizers, who will make introductory statements, a key note speech will be delivered by the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Mr. Henri Malosse.

The sweeping crackdowns, arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as torture of demonstrators in prison have lead to the deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet. 140 Tibetans have self-immolated since February 2009. Such form of political protest is unprecedented in Tibetan history. It is the clearest illustration of the worsening of the situation in Tibet under Chinese occupation.

As this year marks the 40^th anniversary of EU-China relations and the 17^th EU-China Summit begins today in Brussels, the European Parliament demonstrates its continued support for the Tibetan cause.

Hosting this exhibition in the European Parliament is of high symbolic importance, as this institution has always been at the forefront of the battle for human rights worldwide as well as for Tibet specifically through the constant and committed work of its Tibet Interest Group.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay and DIIR Secretary Mr. Tashi Phuntsok at the press conference to launch the video greeting for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday.

Press Release

“Happy 80th Birthday Your Holiness

the Great 14th Dalai Lama!”

Tibetan Leadership launches special video greeting on behalf of the Tibetan People inside and outside Tibet, including a special tribute from Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Today the Central Tibetan Administration, the legitimate representative body of the Tibetan people, launches a video birthday greeting for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who will be 80 on July 6, 2015.

Featuring a tribute and greeting from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the video seeks to highlight the Dalai Lama’s commitment to contribute to human happiness, to foster religious harmony worldwide and to safeguard Tibet’s culture and environment.

According to Tibetan tradition, a person’s 80th anniversary bears special significance and is celebrated as a momentous life milestone. It is hoped the Dalai Lama’s supporters worldwide will share the video as a tribute to his efforts to promote peace. This year’s anniversary will be celebrated by millions throughout the world including Tibetans inside Tibet despite Chinese authorities’ restrictions.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in his genuine effort to democratize the Tibetan administration, devolved his political authority to the elected Sikyong in 2011. His Holiness is deeply loved and revered by his people both in exile and inside Tibet.

On June 21st, which corresponds to the Dalai Lama’s birthday based on the Tibetan calendar (5th day of the 5th lunar month), a special long-life prayer will be offered to His Holiness in Dharamshala, India.  The event will be attended by dignitaries and guests from around the world.

The video is available in English, Tibetan and Chinese.

The 14th North American Tibetan Associations (NATA) Conference held in Portland, Oregon, from June 5-7, 2015, has unanimously agreed and prepared this Press Release to affirm our utmost respect, faith, and commitment to follow His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s unbiased advice concerning Dolgyal alias Shugden issue for reasons including protecting the authenticity of the Nalanda Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, promoting unity and harmony among Tibetan Buddhist Traditions, ensuring the safety of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and safeguarding the well-being of Tibet and Tibetans. Most unfortunately, sectarian followers and activists of Dolgyal have stalked His Holiness the Dalai Lama across the globe including in the United States of America and Europe and shouted hostile and false slogans to tarnish the image of His Holiness. Under the disguise of religious freedom, which they enjoy completely, they have verbally attacked the very person of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, leader of millions of Tibetans and Buddhists around the globe. His Holiness had simply advised Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism about the demerits of cultivating Dolgyal as protector, but has never forbidden to follow it. His Holiness has clearly said that it is up to the individual Tibetans whether or not they follow his advice about Dolgyal and if they do they should not come to his spiritual teachings especially commitment empowerments. Dolgyal advocates and protestors have hurt the feelings of Tibetans and admirers of His Holiness with their hostility and most disrespectful activism towards His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

His Holiness will be visiting the United States of America in July during which His auspicious 80th Birthday will be celebrated by Tibetans and admirers in Texas, California and New York. NATA has organized Tibetan Gratitude Event in NY on July 9 and 10, 2015 to offer Long Life Prayer Ceremony to His Holiness and also thank him for dedicating his life to global peace, inter-religious harmony and Tibet. His Holiness is not only the undisputed leader of Tibetans but he is also a Nobel Peace Laureate and unparalleled global moral leader. Falsely accusing him of banning religious freedom amounts to undermining global peace and harmony. Dolgyal protestors and activists have accused His Holiness the Dalai Lama as “Fake Dalai Lama” an allegation that even the Chinese government, their master, has not done. Therefore, NATA issues this press release to condemn the false propaganda and accusation of His Holiness and also inform the world that most Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet stand with His Holiness and his advice on Dolgyal issue. To Clarify Dolgyal alias Shugden question, we recommend interested individuals to visit www.tibet.net.

By North American Tibetan Association

Dated: June 7, 2015

Press Release

26 April 2015

In an emergency meeting of the Kashag held today, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has expressed its deep shock and sadness at the horrific devastation to life and property caused by the massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Nepal, the northern parts of India and Tibet on 25 April 2015.

The meeting further decided that the CTA would hold a special prayer session tomorrow at 4 pm at Tsuglagkhang, Mcleod Ganj, Dharamshala to offer prayers to those who have lost their lives in this natural disaster.

The Kashag, CTA, will also donate a sum of NPR 20 Lacs to the government of Nepal as a token of contribution from the Central Tibetan Administration towards its rescue and relief efforts in the country.

The Kashag has instructed its Representatives abroad and the Settlement Officers to collect donations from their respective areas towards relief efforts in Nepal.

The Kashag further instructed all Tibetan settlements, monasteries and communities in Nepal to actively engage in rescue and relief efforts in their localities.

While expressing his grief and sadness, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the political leader of the Tibetan people, said, “At this dark and painful time, words fail to convey how deeply we feel for the people affected in Nepal, Tibet and India”

“On behalf of the Central Tibetan Administration and the entire Tibetan people, I express my profound sympathies and condolences to those who have lost their loved ones and whose lives have been severely devastated by this horrific natural calamity.”

“Our sincere prayers are with the people affected by the earthquake and the governments at this time of national tragedy,” he said.

PRESS RELEASE:

On 17 May 2015, International Solidarity Day with Tibet, Tibetans and their supporters  to make an impassioned plea for the release of the 11^th Panchen Lama

Dharamshala, 21 April 2015– International Solidarity Day with Tibet, 17 May 2015, is to coincide with the anniversary of the disappearance of the 11^th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, one of the most revered religious leaders in Tibet. The Central Tibetan Administration calls upon the international community to join us in an appeal for his release. This year will mark the 20^th anniversary of his gone missing at age six. Till date, his whereabouts and well-being remain unknown.

On 14 May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, aged six, was recognised by His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 10^th Panchen Lama. Within three days of the announcement, he was abducted making him one of the youngest political prisoners in the world. Declaring his case an enforced disappearance in April 2011, the United Nations’ Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances held China responsible for his disappearance and stated that the Chinese authorities have “continually refused to divulge any information about him or his whereabouts, making his case an enforced disappearance”.

The Panchen Lama’s disappearance has attracted international attention due to his young age. Arbitrary detention and sentencing in prison without due process is common in Tibet today. According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, there are currently over 2,000 Tibetan political prisoners.

The Central Tibetan Administration further states in the appeal letter released today “A number of human rights bodies including the UN Committee against Torture, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, have all called for the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts to be made known. However, China has turned a deaf ear to these pleas to allow contact with the Panchen Lama and continues to detain him.”

Tibetans have suffered and continue to suffer under Chinese occupation and oppression. The cycle of protests, including 138 self-immolations in Tibet reflect the Tibetan people’s categorical rejection of the People’s Republic of China’s policies in Tibet. The latest self-immolator on 16 April, Ney Kyab, called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the release of the Panchen Lama.

At various times and places in Tibet’s history, the Panchen Lama’s lineage has played a vital role in Tibetan society. The 10^th Panchen Lama in particular, played a significant role in preserving Tibetan culture, tradition and language.

“The case of the Panchen Lama is not only the story of an innocent six-year old child disappearing for 20 years, but also a blatant symptom of political repression and lack of religious freedom. The enforced disappearance of the 11^th Panchen Lama is a vivid case of China’s aggression against Tibetan people by hijacking a centuries-old traditional Buddhist practice of reincarnation for political ends.” said Kalon Dicki Chhoyang, head of the Department of Information and International Relations for the Central Tibetan Administration.

The Central Tibetan Administration has appealed to Tibet supporters worldwide to call for the release of the Panchen Lama and all political prisoners in Tibet through different channels including social media. The campaign’s Facebook handle is “solidarity with tibet” and hashtag is #Releasepanchenlama

For more information, please contact Mr. Tsering Wangchuk, Press Officer +91 8679208465

PRESS RELEASE:

On 17 May 2015, International Solidarity Day with Tibet, Tibetans and their supporters  to make an impassioned plea for the release of the 11^th Panchen Lama

Dharamshala, 21 April 2015– International Solidarity Day with Tibet, 17 May 2015, is to coincide with the anniversary of the disappearance of the 11^th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, one of the most revered religious leaders in Tibet. The Central Tibetan Administration calls upon the international community to join us in an appeal for his release. This year will mark the 20^th anniversary of his gone missing at age six. Till date, his whereabouts and well-being remain unknown.

On 14 May 1995, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, aged six, was recognised by His Holiness the 14^th Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the 10^th Panchen Lama. Within three days of the announcement, he was abducted making him one of the youngest political prisoners in the world. Declaring his case an enforced disappearance in April 2011, the United Nations’ Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances held China responsible for his disappearance and stated that the Chinese authorities have “continually refused to divulge any information about him or his whereabouts, making his case an enforced disappearance”.

The Panchen Lama’s disappearance has attracted international attention due to his young age. Arbitrary detention and sentencing in prison without due process is common in Tibet today. According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, there are currently over 2,000 Tibetan political prisoners.

The Central Tibetan Administration further states in the appeal letter released today “A number of human rights bodies including the UN Committee against Torture, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, as well as the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, have all called for the Panchen Lama’s whereabouts to be made known. However, China has turned a deaf ear to these pleas to allow contact with the Panchen Lama and continues to detain him.”

Tibetans have suffered and continue to suffer under Chinese occupation and oppression. The cycle of protests, including 138 self-immolations in Tibet reflect the Tibetan people’s categorical rejection of the People’s Republic of China’s policies in Tibet. The latest self-immolator on 16 April, Ney Kyab, called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the release of the Panchen Lama.

At various times and places in Tibet’s history, the Panchen Lama’s lineage has played a vital role in Tibetan society. The 10^th Panchen Lama in particular, played a significant role in preserving Tibetan culture, tradition and language.

“The case of the Panchen Lama is not only the story of an innocent six-year old child disappearing for 20 years, but also a blatant symptom of political repression and lack of religious freedom. The enforced disappearance of the 11^th Panchen Lama is a vivid case of China’s aggression against Tibetan people by hijacking a centuries-old traditional Buddhist practice of reincarnation for political ends.” said Kalon Dicki Chhoyang, head of the Department of Information and International Relations for the Central Tibetan Administration.

The Central Tibetan Administration has appealed to Tibet supporters worldwide to call for the release of the Panchen Lama and all political prisoners in Tibet through different channels including social media. The campaign’s Facebook handle is “solidarity with tibet” and hashtag is #Releasepanchenlama

For more information, please contact Mr. Tsering Wangchuk, Press Officer +91 8679208465

Press Release:

15 April 2015

China’s State Council Information Office (China’s Cabinet) released another frenzied white paper on Tibet that clearly indicates the Chinese government’s nervousness over its grip on occupied Tibet. A Tibetan nun was the latest to self-immolate. The actions of  the 137 Tibetans who have self-immolated so far clearly reflect the deepening anguish and resentment of the Tibetan people at the conditions in their homeland.

Since the early 1990s, China has issued 13 white papers on Tibet. This means Beijing has issued a white paper on Tibet for almost each of the two years within this intervening period. White papers by nature are authoritative guides on complex issues that need to be resolved or commercially as sales and marketing documents. For the Chinese government to issue 13 white papers on Tibet means that it is having great difficulty in convincing potential customers to buy its arguments on Tibet. These white papers are a dozen too many, too unconvincing and too late to arrest the worsening conditions in Tibet.

In recent times, the US State Department, the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters without Border and other NGOs have pointed out the political repression, economic marginalization, social exclusion and cultural assimilation of the Tibetan people and environmental destruction on the Roof of the World. Even Chinese scientists talk about the worsening environmental degradation on the plateau of Tibet also called Third Pole.

Unlike China’s 12 other white papers on Tibet, the latest white paper seems to be a belated reaction on the part of Beijing to the renewed, ongoing campaign on the Middle Way Policy launched last year by the Central Tibetan Administration to create greater awareness of this policy within the international community. The Chinese government’s attempt to portray the Middle Way Policy as an attempt by Tibetans to strike out for independence is deliberately misleading, a huge indication of the government’s total failure to come up with better ideas. On the contrary, the Middle Way Policy seeks genuine autonomy within the framework of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China which is a win-win proposition for all parties and one lauded throughout the world including various governments. Several points raised in the Middle Way Policy are found here and here.

Unlike other white papers, this particular white paper tries to belittle His Holiness the Dalai Lama by questioning his sincerity in dealing with China. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, admired around the world and revered by the Tibetan people, does not need any certificate on his motivation from the Chinese government. His Holiness the Dalai Lama remains the unquestioned leader of the Tibetan people and also admired by Chinese people around the world.

Media organizations have often stated that international media’s access to Tibet is worse than that of North Korea, of which China is a staunch ally. Instead of issuing white papers on Tibet, China should open up Tibet to both international rights groups and media. Let them do the objective report on issue of Tibet and let the world be the judge.

Sangye Tso
(Photo/TCHRD)

DHARAMSHALA: Showing no respite in the spate of self-immolation protests against the Chinese government, a 36-year-old Tibetan woman died after setting herself on fire on Wednesday, 27 May. The woman, Sangye Tso burned herself in front of the local Chinese police headquarters in Chone County, Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Incorporated into China’s Gansu Province).

“Within minutes, authorities arrived at the scene and seized the charred remains of her body,” a source was quoted as saying in media reports.

It was also reported that Chinese authorities later visited her home to conduct an investigation.

Sangye Tso is survived by her husband Tamdrin Wangyal and her two children: son Tsering Dondrub and daughter Khatso.

The latest self-immolation by Sangye Tso brings the total number of Tibetan self-immolation protests against the Chinese government inside Tibet to 140. At least 121 out of the 140 have died while the status and whereabouts of the rest remain unknown.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan people, expressed his solidarity with the sufferings of the Tibetan people inside Tibet and urged the Chinese government to addres the genuine grievances of the Tibetan people at a prayer service held yesterday to mourn the demise of the two latest self-immolators.

Tenzin Gyatso

DHARAMSHALA: Tenzin Gyatso, a father of four children in his mid thirties, died after setting himself on fire around 8:00 p.m on 20 May in an apparent protest against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet.

The fiery protest took place in Khangsar township of Tawu (Ch: Daofu) County, Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province).

The self-immolation is believed to be an expression of protest by Gyatso against a massive deployment of security forces in Tawu County, where Tibetans have been planning to celebrate the upcoming 80th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

“He staged his protest near a bridge close to government buildings in Khangsar,” a source reportedly told media persons in exile. “While he was burning, security personnel stationed in the area rushed to put out the fire and took him away,” he said.

It is currently unclear as to whether Tenzin Gyatso has survived the self-immolation. Gyatso has a wife Sonam Dolma and four young children.

Following the self-immolation protest, additional numbers of security personnel were deployed in Khangsar, and restrictions on movement and communications have been imposed in the area, reports say.

Since 2009, at least 139 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet. Most of the self-immolators have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans.

Tsewang Choephel, monk from Tawu Nyitso monastery, Tawu County.

DHARAMSHALA: Chinese police detained Tswang Choephel, a Tibetan monk from Nyitso monastery in Tawu county, Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province) at around 10:30 am on 18 May, media reports say.

Chinese authorities have not disclosed the reason for the monk’s detention. However, local Tibetans believe the detention could be linked to the Chinese authorities’ suspicion that Choephel was involved in Ven. Kelsang Yeshi’s self-immolation protest against the Chinese government in December last year.

During the self-immolation, Choephel has stopped the Chinese policemen from seizing Ven. Kelsang Yeshi’s body. He had also participated in the subsequent protest against the Chinese government in the aftermath of the self-immolation.

“At the time, he displayed his dislike of the police and helped prevent them from taking [Yeshe’s] body away, which may have brought him to the attention of the authorities.” a source told a Tibetan radio service.

After his detention, monks from Choephel’s monastery rallied to the local police station and staged a peaceful protest, demanding his immediate release from detention. However, Chinese authorities refused to release him.

Tsewang Choephel is known for his deep commitment towards preserving Tibetan language and heritage among his peers.

Kasur Kirti Rinpoche at the prayer service for Tibetan self-immolater Yeshi Khando and Ney Kyab, 22 April 2015.

DHARAMSHALA: The Department of Religion and Culture of the Central Tibetan Administration organised a prayer service yesterday for the Tibetan self-immolators, particularly Tibetan nun Yeshi Khando and Ney Kyab, who died after setting themselves on fire in protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese government on 8 and 16 April respectively.

The prayer service was attended by members of the Kashag, Tibetan parliamentarians, Tibetan justice commissioners and officials of the Central Tibetan Administration. The local Tibetan community of Dharamshala along with Tibet supporters also came out in large numbers at the prayer service to pray for the deceased self-immolaters. The service was presided over by Kasur Kirti Rinpoche, the head lama of Kirti monasteries.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan people, delivered the condolence remarks of the Kashag.

Despite the repeated appeals of the Central Tibetan Administration urging the Tibetan people not to resort to drastic actions, at least 138 Tibetans have set themselves on fire protesting against the repressive polices of the Chinese government since 2009. Out of the 138 Tibetan self-immolaters, 119 have died while the status of the rest remains unknown or critically injured.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay delivering the Kashag’s condolence remarks at the prayer service, 22 April 2015.

Yeshi Khando

DHARAMSHALA: Yeshi Khando, a Tibetan nun from Nganggang nunnery, set herself on fire on 8 April in an apparent protest against the Chinese government, media reports say. She is the 137th Tibetan since 2009 to self-immolate in protest against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet.

Drangsur-tsang Yeshi Khando, also known as Yeyang, is a 47-year-old daughter of father Sherab and mother Sonam Dolma, who hails from Drangsur village in Tsonggo township, Drango County, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Scihuan Province). She burned herself near Kubum-Shap police station after taking a circumambulation of Kardze monastery at around 09:00 in the morning .

During her self-immolation protest, she raised slogans calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans. She also shouted prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and called for unity amongst the Tibetan people.

Chinese security forces arrived shortly after the incident and seized her body. It is currently not clear whether she is alive or dead. However, it is reported that eye witnesses and local people believe she may have expired after her fiery demonstration.

“Chinese authorities have summoned Yeshi Khando’s family to the police station on 9 April to inform them that she has died. However, they refused to hand over her body to the family members. So, it’s quite difficult to ascertain whether she is dead or alive,” a reliable source informed.

Yeshi Khando has been on retreat since few years and is known to be a lady who is calm and composed, yet always took keen interest in the development of the Tibetan freedom struggle.

Kelsang Yeshi in an undated photo (RFA)

DHARAMSHALA: A Tibetan monk died after setting himself on fire yesterday protesting against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet. He was the third Tibetan to self-immolate in less than a fortnight, taking the total self-immolation toll inside Tibet to 135 since 2009. (See Factsheet)

Ven. Kelsang Yeshi, 32, a monk of Nyatso monastery in Tawu county, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province) set himself on fire in front of a police station near his monastery. The police station was apparently set up by the Chinese authorities to  monitor the activities of the monastery and its monks.

An eyewitness told contacts based in exile that “Kelsang Yeshi raised slogans calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans while burning.”

Police arrived at the site soon after the self-immolation and dispersed the crowd by firing warning shots. The authorities then seized his body, despite the local Tibetans’ attempts to prevent the authorities from doing so, he added.

Meanwhile, a video circulating on social media, purportedly showing Kalsang Yeshi’s self-immolation protest, depicts a man engulfed in flames collapsing on the ground as police arrives to seize the body.

Kelsang Yeshi hails from Thewa village in Tawu county’s Kunor township. His father’s name is Tsewang Dorje and his mother is Jampa Lhamo. He had previously come to India at the age of 15, to study Buddhist philosophy at Gaden Jangtse monastery in South India.

“He was a well-respected, civic minded monk. Upon his return to Tibet, he began a campaign against illiteracy among the elderly and taught Buddhism and Tibetan language to children,” a source said, according to media reports.

Despite the Central Tibetan Administration’s repeated appeals, at least 135 Tibetans including Kelsang Yeshi, have set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet. Out of them, 116 have died while the status or the physical condition of the rest continues to remain unknown.

Ven. Kelsang Yeshi

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Tsephe Kyi

DHARAMSHALA: A 19-year-old Tibetan girl burned herself to death in an apparent protest against the Chinese government at Meuruma township in Ngaba county, Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province), media reports say.

Tsephe, 19, set herself on fire today to protest the Chinese government’s repressive measures in Tibetan areas. Chinese authorities arrived at the site of the self-immolation within minutes and seized her body, a source from the region was quoted as saying.

Hailing from  Chidortsang household in division four of the Meuruma pastoral area, Tsephe is the fourth of six children born to father Chutho Rinchen and mother Chenpa. Her 60 year old father and 50 year old mother have reportedly been taken away by police, but it is not clear whether they have been detained, according to Kanyag Tsering, a Kirti monastery monk with close contacts in the region.

Tsephe is the 10th Tibetan to self-immolate this year. The last reported self-immolation protest was of Sangye Khar who died after burning himself on 16 December at Amchok town, Sangchu county in nearby Gansu Province.

The Central Tibetan Administration led by Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay has repeatedly urged the Chinese authorities in Tibet to address the genuine grievances of the Tibetan people to alleviate their sufferings. It has said that the blame as well as the solution for the self-immolations lies with the Chinese government and has urged the Chinese government to end its political repression, religious persecution, cultural assimilation, economic marginalization and environmental destruction in Tibet which remain the main causes of the Tibetan self-immolation protests.

At least 134 Tibetans have set themselves on fire inside Tibet since 2009 to protest the Chinese government’s repressive measures in Tibet. The Central Tibetan Administration has also consistently appealed to and discouraged Tibetans from drastic actions, including self-immolation, as a form of protest.

Chinese police arrived within minutes of Tsephe’s self-immolation protest and seized her body.

Sangye Khar

DHARAMSHALA: A Tibetan man, Sangye Khar, aged 34, set himself on fire yesterday around 9 am (local time) in front of a police station in Amchok town, Sangchu county in Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (incorporated into China’s Gansu Province). He died on the spot, according to media reports and human rights group.

Police arrived shortly after the self-immolation and forcibly removed his body. Sangye Khar was the father of two daughters. He was from Khyungri Thang village, reported London based rights group Free Tibet.

The Chinese police refused to hand over Sangye’s body to his family members despite strong protest from the local Tibetans, Radio Free Asia reported.

Security in Amchok town has been tightened and all the communication channels are being restricted following the self-immolation protest, it said.

133 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest against the repressive policies of the Chinese government in Tibet since 2009. Most of the self-immolators have called for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom for Tibetans.

On 14 November this year, an anonymous testimony by the survivor of a self-immolation protest reads: “Compared to other countries, we don’t have freedom of religious belief, freedom of speech, and our spiritual leader cannot return home. The restrictions are ongoing. I was unable to bear the suffering of living under Chinese aggression, so I thought about a self-immolation protest.”

The Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala has repeatedly appealed to Tibetans inside Tibet not to resort to drastic forms of protest including self-immolation.

The CTA released a White Paper titled “Why Tibet is Burning...” last year explaining the fundamental reasons behind the ongoing wave of self-immolations inside Tibet. The principle reasons listed in the 91-page report for Tibet’s fiery protests are political repression, Chinese communist leader’s views and policies on Tibet, and cultural assimilation, destruction of Tibetan Buddhism. Besides, social discrimination, strangling the Tibetan language, environment destruction, Tibetan Nomads and ending their way of life and economic marginalisation, population transfer and western China Development Programme are the other reasons given in the report.

By Aritz Parra, AP, 30 September 2015

LHASA, China (AP) — Ji Yunpeng misses hotpot dinners with his wife and daughter back in Beijing and fights insomnia caused by the high altitude in the Tibetan capital by playing computer games, and, occasionally, studying Tibetan Buddhism.

“It’s just out of pure intellectual curiosity,” he said, aware that genuine religious interest would be a breach of discipline in China’s nominally atheist Communist Party.

Ji is in Lhasa on a three-year loan from the Beijing municipal government to oversee the school curriculum in Tibetan classrooms. In return, he gets a double salary and a shortcut up the party ladder. Nearly 6,500 civil servants like him have been dispatched to manage hefty budgets and shape Tibet’s modernization.

They are the human face of top-down development that has poured more than $100 billion dollars into the region since 1952. Critics say that Beijing’s obsession with social stability also has led to widespread human right abuses. But as incomes finally begin to increase across the Tibetan countryside, Chinese authorities are hopeful they can dispel international criticism over their rule in Tibet while winning the hearts of Tibetans and pulling some of their loyalty away from the exiled Dalai Lama.

“The strategy for Tibet is now shifting from the overall kind of repression that we have seen in the past to actually moving toward luring sections of the community and trying to work with those who cooperate with the authorities,” Tibet researcher Tsering Shakya said in an interview from University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

For most Tibetans in exile, the region has been unlawfully occupied by China since it was overrun by the People’s Liberation Army in 1951, and no material gains justify Beijing’s repression. But even skeptics like Shakya acknowledge that “without its intervention, the disparities between the development in Tibet and in China would be even greater.”

In a sign of new confidence, authorities this month invited a handful of foreign media organizations, including The Associated Press, on a tightly scripted visit to showcase Tibet’s development, timed to the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

STRINGS-ATTACHED DEVELOPMENT

Ji oversees the $40 million dollar Lhasa-Beijing Experimental Middle School, where many of the 2,500 students are from rural Tibet. Acting as deputy to the head of Lhasa’s education bureau, Ji explains how the  pupils are entitled to nine years of free schooling.

As government minders watched, a Tibetan teacher wrote in Tibetan on a chalkboard crowned by the national flag, the Communist Party emblem and a portrait of President Xi Jinping. School officials explained that all subjects are taught in Mandarin, China’s official language, but that the curriculum includes mandatory Tibetan language.

In Lhasa, Beijing has also paid for housing projects, hospitals, an amusement park, an $80 million stadium and the Tibet Yak Museum, honoring the “hairy cow” of the grasslands.

“Beijing and Lhasa are still like two worlds apart,” Ji says. “But in a place like this, where things are still backward, there is a sense of achievement in every step forward.”

Robert Barnett, leading academic of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York, questions whether the two-decade-old policy is truly benefiting Tibetans. Economic gains of the development have for decades gone largely to migrants from China’s ethnic Han minority, who make up only 8 percent of the Tibet’s 3.2 million inhabitants. Only recently, he said, have they started to trickle down to the countryside.

“If you pour in money in that amount to an area that is fragile in its ecosystem and social composition and you just remove barriers for migration, you attract income seekers, with a huge negative effect and a domination of the economy,” Barnett said.

MOVING IN FROM GRASSLANDS

Perfectly identical “new socialist villages” have sprouted in the countryside of the Tibetan plateau during the past decade, compelling former nomads to take on a sedentary lifestyle, but also giving them immaculate two-floor villas with running water, latrines and biogas cookers.

Dawa, a 55 year-old herder resettled in Lhoka prefecture’s Gongkar county, proudly showed visiting officials and journalists how each member of the family now has a separate room. “Even in my dreams I never thought of having a house like this,” he said.

When repeatedly prompted about what he misses from his old life, Dawa paused and stared at the officials seated in his living room before answering.

“We have become selfish,” he said finally. “Now that living standards have improved, eating a piece of meat doesn’t make me as happy as eating a potato once did.”

THE INFLUX OF TOURISTS

Looking ahead, the government hopes to develop the mineral water industry, wool garment weaving workshops and factories of byproducts of traditional Tibetan medicine that will directly benefit the locals. Tourism development is, however, the biggest priority.

With plans to go from 15.5 million tourists in 2014 — five times Tibet’s population and most of them Chinese — to 20 million in the next five years, the industry already is transforming Lhasa’s landscape. Four huge pyramids of concrete and glass, the skeleton of a 2,000 room five-star resort, are joining new shopping malls, karaoke parlors and theme parks.

Visitors sweep through chambers of the labyrinthine Potala palace and compete for space with local pilgrims at the iconic Jokhang temple.

“There is a great deal of unhappiness and resentment among Tibetans over the way their culture and religion is being exploited,” said spokesman Alistair Currie of the London-based activist group Free Tibet, which is campaigning against foreign hotel chains in the autonomous region.

STABILITY ON THE PLATEAU

More than 140 Tibetans, men and women, lay people and monks, have died since 2009 protesting Beijing’s rule and demanding the return of the Dalai Lama, who fled to exile in 1959 following an aborted uprising by Tibet’s elites against the Communist Party.

Tibet’s security budget increased by 28 percent annually from 2007 to 2012, a similar pace as in Xinjiang, home to the Turkic-speaking and Islam-practicing Uighurs. The per capita spending in Tibet was 3.6 times the national average in 2012, said the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Tibet.

Penpa Tashi, an ethnic Tibetan party member who is the region’s vice chairman, blames the tight security on unrest linked to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans, many of whom revere him as a demi-god. “Only by remaining stable can we achieve development and improve people’s livelihood,” he said.

The paramilitary police who were ubiquitous following deadly riots in 2008 have retreated from the spotlight, leaving the streets in the hands of lightly-armed patrols and police stations on every block. More subtle forms of surveillance — from CCTV cameras to plainclothes agents and monitored communications —have taken the lead.

COMMUNISTS IN THE MONASTERY

The party in the past installed “special working groups” at Tibet’s county levels to ensure patriotism. Those groups now have been extended to every village and every monastery, exercising an unprecedented level of control while also funneling money and resources to groups who cooperate.

In Lhoka’s Tradruk monastery, the secular management office has obtained funds for the latest renovation of this 12-century-old institution, one of the earliest Buddhist constructions in Tibet. As Han Chinese workers placed the last slate slabs in a courtyard, congregation head Migmar Tsering explained how the monastery can get electricity, televisions and libraries in exchange for displaying the Communist leaders’ portraits and topping the complex with the red flag of China.

In addition, monks meet once a week with the monastery’s Communist Party branch to receive legal and patriotic education.

“We now enjoy complete freedom of religion,” Migmar Tsering, 43, said in an interview arranged by the county propaganda office.

Shakya said the new system is actually helping to revive Buddhism throughout Tibet, although under the controlling eyes of the party.

However, other experts dispute that there has been any revival, especially given that the government has been providing the same figure of nearly 1,800 religious sites and more than 46,000 monks and nuns in the autonomous region since the early 90’s.

“You can have television sets, roads and flags in monasteries but you are not allowing the number of people to grow,” said Barnett, the Columbia University professor. “It’s hard to have monastic life thrive if you have a cadre team overseeing them.”

DALAI LAMA’S LONG SHADOW

The current, 14th Dalai Lama, who is now 80, remains the nemesis of China’s interests in Tibet. Despite an obsessive vilification of the man by Chinese government and party officials, he remains immensely popular and influential among Tibetan Buddhists.

He has said he may not reincarnate, to undercut Beijing’s plans to pick his successor. This has forced the atheist Communist Party to embrace a practice introduced seven centuries ago by a Qing dynasty emperor to control the selection by having names drawn from a government-controlled golden urn.

The region’s vice governor, Penpa Tashi, told reporters over a dinner of yak meat that, without doubt, the 15th Dalai Lama will be approved by the Chinese government and that the 14th has been an “anomaly” who made no contribution to Tibet’s development and sought only to split the region away from China.

“His attempt to split and destroy will never be realized,” he said. “The 14th Dalai is just like a pustule or a weed. A pustule must be squeezed to make the body healthier, the same way that a weed must be uprooted.”

Published: 29 Sep 2015 07:34 GMT+02:00 http://www.thelocal. dk/20150929/copenhagen-police- face-enquiry-over-tibet-flag- supression

Copenhagen Police are under renewed scrutiny for suppressing demonstrations during a Chinese state visit in 2012 and will now face a formal enquiryThe Eastern High Court last week ruled in favour of a plaintiff who claimed he was unlawfully detained by Copenhagen Police during a state visit by then Chinese President Hu Jintao in June 2012.

Josh Moniz, jmoniz@postbulletin.com

“The Americans care for strength,” he wrote after watching a football game at the United States Naval Academy. “This reflects the American spirit — that is, to achieve a goal in a short time with power. The Americans adhere to this spirit in many fields, like the military, politics, economics and so on.”

As President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to the United States, including a day of pageantry and diplomacy at the White House on Friday, Mr. Wang was among a small group of advisers at his side.

A member of the Communist Party’s elite Politburo, Mr. Wang, 59, studied American society as a politics professor in Shanghai and an adviser to Mr. Xi’s two predecessors. In the process, he got to know American scholars and officials.

Yet, people who knew Mr. Wang back then say he has become unapproachable and ignores invitations for conversations. American officials find it difficult to talk to him casually on the sidelines of international forums.

They and other Western officials say that this icy remove is true not only of Mr. Wang, but also of other advisers with whom Mr. Xi travels, including Li Zhanshu, essentially Mr. Xi’s chief of staff, and Liu He, his top economic adviser.

The problem presents a huge challenge for the United States and other nations. By some standards, Mr. Xi’s administration is the most secretive in 66 years of Communist rule.

In past decades, foreign officials could speak with senior Chinese officials or aides and trust that those people were proxies for their leaders. The most famous example is Zhou Enlai, the Chinese premier under Mao, with whom Henry A. Kissinger secretly negotiated the United States-China rapprochement.

With Mr. Xi, those channels do not exist.

“One of the problems we have in U.S.-China relations now is that we basically don’t know these people,” said David M. Lampton, director of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “I don’t think we have a very good understanding of who below Xi Jinping speaks for him.”

The refusal of Mr. Xi’s inner circle to develop ties with Western officials is consistent with a fundamental belief that has become widespread in the system here — namely that Western ideas and influences will undermine the Communist Party and lead to a “color revolution.”

“If the party thinks it’s besieged by external and internal forces, the natural human reaction is to bring your organization more tightly together to reduce the flow of information to the outside,” Mr. Lampton said.

There is also broad agreement that Mr. Xi keeps colleagues and advisers — especially technocrats in state ministries — at more of a distance than other Chinese leaders did and that he relies mainly on his own knowledge and instincts in making decisions.

He is the head of seven of 22 “leading small groups,” opaque policy councils that weigh in on matters ranging from economics to cybersecurity. And he created the National Security Commission, another secretive group that aims to coordinate security policy to defend the party against internal and external threats.

“We’re seeing something new with Xi,” said John Delury, an author of “Wealth and Power,” a book on modern Chinese history. “Never has the gap been bigger between No. 1 and everyone else.”

That Mr. Xi keeps a tight grip on authority and does not divest power could be a result of his experiences during the Cultural Revolution. “The thing they don’t have is trust,” Mr. Delury said of that generation.

Others say Mr. Xi learned a lesson about the importance of hoarding power after seeing how his predecessor, Hu Jintao, was weakened by Jiang Zemin, the former president who kept pulling levers after his retirement.

“It taught him a lot about what not to do,” said Christopher K. Johnson, a former China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Don’t let these alternative power sources develop under you. Keep everyone a little off balance.”

So under Mr. Xi, there is no equivalent of Dai Bingguo, the chief foreign policy official of the Hu administration who met with White House officials. Yang Jiechi holds the same title, but the post is diminished.

“We built up an interesting channel between National Security Adviser Tom Donilon and Dai Bingguo,” said Evan S. Medeiros, a former White House official. “We knew Dai had a close personal relationship with Hu.”

‘The refusal of Mr. Xi’s inner circle to develop ties with Western officials is consistent with a fundamental belief that has become…

Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior Asia adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said she has been struck by how American officials who speak with their Chinese counterparts are “not really sure that these messages are getting conveyed up to Xi Jinping.”

Political insiders here say there are a handful of people whom Mr. Xi trusts. Most obvious is Wang Qishan, 67, the head of the party’s discipline and inspection commission who is overseeing Mr. Xi’s ambitious anticorruption campaign. Mr. Wang is one of seven Politburo Standing Committee members and by many accounts wields even more power than Li Keqiang, the prime minister.

Mr. Li is expected to steer economic policy, but Mr. Xi insists on having the final say, political insiders say. That is in part because Mr. Xi is able to turn to Liu He, 63, an economist who has master’s degrees from Seton Hall University and Harvard University.

Mr. Liu, head of the office of the party’s central leading group for financial and economic affairs, has written about the need for China to adopt a more consumer-oriented growth model and to embrace market forces. American officials say he says the same in meetings.

Li Zhanshu, 65, the chief of staff, is perhaps the closest to Mr. Xi. Chinese officials often bring into their inner circle other officials with whom they served in the provinces. From 1983 to 1985, Mr. Li was party chief of Hebei Province’s Wuji County, next to Zhengding County, where Mr. Xi was serving as party chief.

The two “appreciated each other” and “usually drank together,” said one person familiar with their backgrounds. Both men had fathers who worked for the Communist Party in its nascent days.

As head of the General Office, Mr. Li is in charge of Mr. Xi’s affairs. But he has also been given a central role in policy and diplomacy. In March, Mr. Li met with President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow to prepare for Mr. Xi’s visit to Russia, a task that under another president would have gone to a state councilor.

Mr. Xi also receives informal advice from members of “princeling” households, or families of the original party leaders. One such princeling is Gen. Liu Yuan, 64, a political commissar in the People’s Liberation Army. General Liu, the son of a former Chinese president, pushed an anticorruption campaign in the military that Mr. Xi supported.

“Liu Yuan plays a very important role here,” Mr. Johnson said. “He has strong views on the U.S., not particularly friendly ones. He is among Xi’s guys who promotes that whole ‘color revolution’ style of thinking.”

Yufan Huang and Mia Li contributed research.

whitehouse.gov

Rose Garden

12:22 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Please have a seat.

I want to once again welcome President Xi back to the White House.  We first hosted him here three years ago when he was Vice President.  So this is our sixth meeting.  As a result of our efforts, our two nations are working together more closely across a broader range of critical issues — and our cooperation is delivering results, for both our nations and the world.

Since I took office, American exports to China have nearly doubled and now support nearly one million American jobs.  Chinese investment in the United States helps support jobs across our country.  We partner to address global challenges, whether it’s promoting nuclear security, combating piracy off the Horn of Africa, encouraging development and reconciliation in Afghanistan, and helping to end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The historic climate change announcements that we made last year in Beijing have encouraged other countries to step up, as well, increasing the prospects for a stronger global agreement this year.  And as a member of the P5+1, China was critical to both the sanctions regime that brought Iran to the negotiating table and to the talks that produced the comprehensive deal to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

So, greater prosperity and greater security — that’s what American and Chinese cooperation can deliver.  That’s why I want to say again, the United States welcomes the rise of a China that is peaceful, stable, prosperous, and a responsible player in global affairs.  And I’m committed to expanding our cooperation, even as we address disagreements candidly and constructively.  That’s what President Xi and I have done on this visit — during our working dinner last night and our meetings today.

Let me mention some specifics.  First, with respect to our economic relationship, we agreed to step up our work toward a high-standard bilateral investment treaty that would help level the playing field for American companies.  We’ve committed ourselves to a set of principles for trade in information technologies, including protection of innovation and intellectual property.  President Xi discussed his commitment to accelerate market reforms, avoid devaluing China’s currency, and have China play a greater role in upholding the rules-based system that underpins the global economy — all of which are steps we very much support.

I raised once again our very serious concerns about growing cyber-threats to American companies and American citizens.  I indicated that it has to stop.  The United States government does not engage in cyber economic espionage for commercial gain.  And today, I can announce that our two countries have reached a common understanding on the way forward.  We’ve agreed that neither the U.S. or the Chinese government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, including trade secrets or other confidential business information for commercial advantage.  In addition, we’ll work together, and with other nations, to promote international rules of the road for appropriate conduct in cyberspace.

So this is progress.  But I have to insist that our work is not yet done.  I believe we can expand our cooperation in this area, even as the United States will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to protect American companies, citizens and interests.

Second, I’m pleased that we’re building on last year’s climate commitments.  Last month, I issued our Clean Power Plan to help reduce America’s carbon emissions.  Today, I want to commend China for announcing that it will begin a national market-based cap-and-trade system to limit emissions from some of its largest sectors.  Last year, I announced our pledge of $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help developing nations deal with climate change.  Today, I welcome China’s major commitment of climate finance for the most vulnerable countries as well.

Our two countries are also putting forward our common vision for the ambitious climate change agreements that we seek in Paris.  When the world’s two largest economies, energy consumers and carbon emitters come together like this, then there’s no reason for other countries — whether developed or developing — to not do so as well.  And so this is another major step towards the global agreement the world needs to reach in two months’ time.

Third, with respect to security in the Asia Pacific, we agreed to new channels of communication to reduce the risks of miscalculations between our militaries.  The United States and China have reaffirmed our commitment to the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.  We demand the full implementation of all relevant U.N.  Security Council resolutions and we will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state.

We did have candid discussions on the East and South China Seas, and I reiterated the right of all countries to freedom of navigation and overflight and to unimpeded commerce.  As such, I indicated that the United States will continue to sail, fly and operate anywhere that international law allows.  I conveyed to President Xi our significant concerns over land reclamation, construction and the militarization of disputed areas, which makes it harder for countries in the region to resolve disagreements peacefully.  And I encouraged a resolution between claimants in these areas.  We are not a claimant; we just want to make sure that the rules of the road are upheld.

I reiterated my strong commitment, as well, to our One-China policy based on the Three Joint Communiqués and the Taiwan Relations Act.

Fourth, we’ve agreed to do more to promote international security.  At the United Nations in the coming days, the U.S. and China will bring countries together to promote development in Afghanistan, and we’ll work with our many partners to strengthen international peacekeeping.  We agree that all parties, including Iran, need to fully implement the nuclear deal, and that U.N. Security Council resolutions need to be fully enforced.

For the first time, the U.S. and China will also formally partner to promote global development.  Building on our efforts against Ebola, we’ll work to strengthen global health security. We’ll expand our joint efforts on humanitarian assistance, disaster response, agricultural development and food security.  And given China’s success in lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty — which is one of the most remarkable achievements in human history — we will help rally the world this weekend around new development goals, including our goal to end extreme poverty.

Fifth, we had a frank discussion about human rights, as we have in the past.  And I again affirmed America’s unwavering support for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including freedom of assembly and expression, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.  And I expressed in candid terms our strong view that preventing journalists, lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from operating freely, or closing churches and denying ethnic minorities equal treatment are all problematic, in our view, and actually prevent China and its people from realizing its full potential.

Obviously, we recognize that there are real differences there.  And President Xi shared his views in terms of how he can move forward in a step-by-step way that preserves Chinese unity. So we expect that we’re going to continue to consult in these areas.

Even as we recognize Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China, we continue to encourage Chinese authorities to preserve the religious and cultural identity of the Tibetan people, and to engage the Dalai Lama or his representatives.

Finally, we’re taking more steps to expand the connections between our two peoples.  We launch a new initiative to boost tourism between our countries in the coming months.  And just as children across China learn English, we’re starting a new initiative called “1 Million Strong” to encourage 1 million American students to learn Mandarin Chinese over the next five years.

Vice President Biden pointed out that two of his children are already on track — two of his grandchildren, actually.  After all, if our countries are going to do more together around the world, then speaking each other’s language, truly understanding each other, is a good place to start.

So, overall, we’ve had an extremely productive meeting.  The particular work that has been done by our teams shows the extraordinary progress that we can make when we’re working together.  The candid conversations between President Xi and myself about areas of disagreement help us to understand each other better, to avoid misunderstandings or miscalculations, and pave the way potentially for further progress in those areas.

And, President Xi, I want to thank you again for expanding your commitment to cooperation between our nations.  I believe that it’s another reminder that as we work to narrow our differences, we can continue to advance our mutual interests for the benefit not only of our two peoples, but for the benefit of the world.

Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT XI:  (As interpreted.)  President Obama, dear friends from the press, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends  — good morning.  It’s a great pleasure for me to meet with all of you together with President Obama.  Let me begin by thanking again President Obama and the U.S. government for the gracious hospitality and thoughtful arrangements and warm reception accorded to me and the Chinese delegation.  I also want to thank the American people for a warm welcome.

Yesterday and today, President Obama and I have had in-depth discussions on our respective domestic and foreign policies, important topics in bilateral relations, international and regional situation.  Our meetings are constructive and productive, and we have reached extensive and important consensus.

During the discussions, President Obama shared with me the domestic agenda and foreign policy priorities that he has been working on.  And I congratulated him on the progress that he has made in those areas.  I appreciate President Obama’s reaffirmation to me that the United States welcomes the rise of a peaceful, stable and prosperous China.  It supports China to play a bigger role in the international arena.  And the United States supports China’s reform at opening up.

I indicated to President Obama that China is making all-around efforts to deepen comprehensive reform, to build law-based governance, to enforce strict party discipline, so as to achieve the grand goal of building a society of initial prosperity in all respects.  The reform at opening up China will not stop.

China is firmly committed to the path of peaceful development.  It is committed to growing friendship and cooperative relations with all countries in the world.  To work with the United States to build the new model of major-country relationship without conflict, without confrontation, with mutual respect and win-win cooperation is a priority in China’s foreign policy.

We have spoken highly of the important progress made in China-U.S. relations since the Sunnylands summit in 2013.  And we have agreed to follow the consensus, expand the practical cooperation in various areas at the bilateral, regional, and global level, and manage differences and sensitive issues in constructive manner, and to advance the new model of major-country relationship between China and the United States.

We have agreed to deepen the practical cooperation in various areas at the bilateral scope.  We have agreed to vigorously push forward the bilateral investment treaty negotiation, speed up the pace of the work so as to achieve a high standard and balanced agreement.

We will expand mutually beneficial cooperation in energy, environmental protection, science and technology, aviation, infrastructure, agriculture, health and other areas.  The two governments and relevant agencies have signed many cooperation agreements, and our businesses have signed a series of commercial contact.

China and the United States are highly complementary economically and there is huge potential for further cooperation. For the United States to recognize China’s market economy status and ease export control on civilian high-tech items, it will help expand the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

We have also had in-depth discussion on the current international, economic, and financial situation.  We have agreed to step up macroeconomic policy coordination and jointly promote global economic growth and financial stability.  To this end, we have established the mechanism on regular phone conversation on economic affairs between China and the United States which will be led by Vice Premier Wong Yang of China and Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew.  They will stay in close communication on respective and global major economic issues.

We will also step up cooperation within G20, the World Bank, IMF, and other multilateral mechanisms.  I appreciate the U.S. supporting including the RMB into the IMF Special Drawing Rights when certain standards of the IMF are met.  And I also appreciate the U.S. commitment to implement the IMF quota and governance structure reform plan adopted at the G20 Summit in 2010 at an early date.

We have truly affirmed the new progress made in the confidence-building mechanisms between the two militaries.  We have agreed to step up exchanges in policy dialogues between the two militaries at all levels, hold more joint exercises and training.  We believe that terrorism is the common enemy of mankind, and we have agreed to step up multilateral and bilateral counterterrorism cooperation.  We have decided to increase communication and cooperation on counter-piracy, humanitarian assistance, and disaster reduction, and international peacekeeping operation, and also anti-corruption — law enforcement cooperation to jointly fight against all kinds of transnational corruption crimes.

We have in-depth discussion on the situation of the Asia Pacific.  And we believe that China and the United States have extensive common interests in this region, and we should continue to deepen dialogue and cooperation on regional affairs and work together to promote active interactions and inclusive cooperation in the Asia Pacific, and work with countries in the Asia Pacific to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in this region.

China is committed to the path of peaceful development and a neighboring foreign policy characterized by good neighborliness and partnership with our neighbors.  Islands in the South China Sea since ancient times are China’s territory.  We have the right to uphold our own territorial sovereignty and lawful and legitimate maritime rights and interests.  We are committed to maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea, managing differences and disputes through dialogue, and addressing disputes through negotiation, consultation, and peaceful manner, and exploring ways to achieve mutual benefit through cooperation.

We’re committed to respecting and upholding the freedom of navigation and overflight that countries enjoy according to international law.  Relevant construction activities that China are undertaking in the island of South — Nansha Islands do not target or impact any country, and China does not intend to pursue militarization.

China and the United States have a lot of common interests on the issue of South China Sea.  We both support peace and stability of the South China Sea.  The countries directly involved should address their dispute through negotiation, consultation and in peaceful means.  And we support freedom of navigation and overflight of countries according to international law and the management of differences through dialogue, and full and effective implementation of DOC and an early conclusion of the consultation of COC based on consensus-building.  We have agreed to maintain constructive communication on relevant issues.

China and the United States are two major cyber countries and we should strengthen dialogue and cooperation.  Confrontation and friction are not made by choice for both sides.  During my visit, competent authorities of both countries have reached important consensus on joint fight against cyber-crimes.  Both sides agree to step up crime cases, investigation assistance and information-sharing.  And both government will not be engaged in or knowingly support online theft of intellectual properties.  And we will explore the formulation of appropriate state, behavior and norms of the cyberspace.  And we will establish a high-level joint dialogue mechanism on the fight against cyber-crimes and related issues, and to establish hotline links.

Democracy and human rights are the common pursuit of mankind.  At the same time, we must recognize that countries have different historical processes and realities, and we need to respect people of all countries in the right to choose their own development path independently.

The Chinese people are seeking to realize the great renew of the Chinese nation, which is the Chinese history.  This process in essence is a process to achieve social equity and justice and advancing human rights.  China stands ready to, in the spirit of equality and mutual respect, conduct human rights dialogue with the United States, expand consensus, reduce differences, learn from each other, and progress together.

We have decided to continue to work together to tackle global challenges and provide more public good for the international community.  We, again, issued a joint announcement on climate change.  We have agreed to expand bilateral practical cooperation, strengthen coordination in multilateral negotiation, and work together to push the Paris climate change conference to produce important progress.

We have signed China-U.S. development cooperation MOU, and we have agreed to expand trilateral cooperation in Asia, Africa and other regions in terms of food security, public health system establishment, emergency response, and disaster reduction.  And we will maintain communication and coordination in implementing the post-2015 development agenda, promote a more equitable and balanced global development partnership, and help developing countries to achieve common development.

We have agreed to firmly uphold the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.  President Obama and I welcome the comprehensive Joint Plan of Action reached by relevant parties regarding the Iranian nuclear issue.  We reaffirmed that all relevant parties should undertake to implement the agreement fully, and work together to implement all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

We reaffirm our commitment to realize the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in peaceful way.  And we oppose any action that might cause tension in the Korean Peninsula or violate U.N. Security Council resolution.  We believe that the September the 19th joint statement of the Six-Party talks and relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions should be implemented in full, and all relevant parties should work together to firmly advance the denuclearization process of the Korean Peninsula, and maintain peace and stability so as to achieve enduring peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The friendship between the two peoples is the most reliable foundation for long-term and stable development of China-U.S. relations and we should endeavor to solidify this important foundation.

We have decided to make 2016 a year of tourism for China and the United States.  In the next three years, we will fund a total of 50,000 students to study in each other’s countries.  We also welcome the United States’ decision to extend the 100,000 Strong initiative from universities to elementary and secondary schools, and by 2020, 1 million American students will learn Mandarin.

The door of friendship of China will continue to be open to the American people.  I also hope that the Chinese people could come to the United States for holidays or visits more easily and conveniently.

Mr. President, with 36 years of development, the interests of China and the United States are deeply interconnected, and we have greater responsibilities for world peace and human progress. There are broad areas that the two sides should and can work together.  The Chinese side stands ready to work with the United States to uphold a spirit of perseverance, and advance bilateral relations to seek further progress to the better benefits of the Chinese and American people and the people in the world.

Thank you.  (Applause.)

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Okay, we’re going to take a few questions.  We’re going to start with Margaret Talev of Bloomberg.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  President Obama and President Xi, I’d like to talk to you about cyber.  If I am an American business and I’m being hacked by Chinese pirates who are trying to steal my intellectual property, what firm assurances can you give us today that things are going to get better, and when?

President Obama, are you satisfied enough about the steps that China is taking to hold off on imposing any new sanctions to this end?  Or what do you still need to see?

And, President Xi, could we expect prosecutions of Chinese people and organizations who have hacked American businesses?  And if the U.S. did sanction anyone in China, would you respond with sanctions?

Also, everyone will kill me if I don’t ask — what is your reaction to House Speaker John Boehner’s decision to resign?  (Laughter.)  Will this make life better or worse for you?  Are you concerned it will make it more difficult to avoid a government shutdown or raise the debt limit?  And do you think Boehner could just waive the rules and get immigration reform through before he leaves?  Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  I’ll take them in order.  With respect to cyber, this has been a serious discussion between myself and President Xi since we first met in Sunnylands.  And the good news, from my perspective, is, is that in the lead-up to and then finalized during our meetings here today, we have, I think, made significant progress in agreeing to how our law enforcement and investigators are going to work together, how we’re going to exchange information, how we are going to go after individuals or entities who are engaging in cyber-crimes or cyber-attacks.  And we have jointly affirmed the principle that governments don’t engage in cyber-espionage for commercial gain against companies. That all I consider to be progress.

What I’ve said to President Xi and what I say to the American people is the question now is, are words followed by actions.  And we will be watching carefully to make an assessment as to whether progress has been made in this area.

With respect to the various tools that we have to go after those who are attacking our companies or trying to extract trade secrets or data, we have traditional law enforcement tools, but
— as I indicated a while back — through executive action, I’ve also instituted the ability to impose sanctions on individuals or entities where we have proof that they’ve gone after U.S. companies or U.S. persons.

And we did not, at our level, have specific discussions of specific cases.  But I did indicate to President Xi that we will apply those and whatever other tools we have in our toolkit to go after cyber criminals, either retrospectively or prospectively.  Those are tools generally that are not directed at governments; they are directed at entities or individuals that we can identify.  And they’re not unique to China.  Those are tools that we’re going to be using for cyber criminals around the world.

And President Xi, during these discussions, indicated to me that, with 1.3 billion people, he can’t guarantee the behavior of every single person on Chinese soil — which I completely understand.  I can’t guarantee the actions of every single American.  What I can guarantee, though, and what I’m hoping President Xi will show me, is that we are not sponsoring these activities, and that when it comes to our attention that non-governmental entities or individuals are engaging in this stuff, that we take it seriously and we’re cooperating to enforce the law.

The last point I’ll make on the cyber issue — because this is a global problem, and because, unlike some of the other areas of international cooperation, the rules in this area are not well developed, I think it’s going to very important for the United States and China, working with other nations and the United Nations and other — and the private sector, to start developing an architecture to govern behavior in cyberspace that is enforceable and clear.

It doesn’t mean that we’re going it prevent every cyber-crime, but it does start to serve as a template whereby countries know what the rules are, they’re held accountable, and we’re able to jointly go after non-state actors in this area.

On John Boehner, I just heard the news as I was coming out of the meeting here, so it took me by surprise.  And I took the time prior to this press conference to call John directly and talk to him.

John Boehner is a good man.  He is a patriot.  He cares deeply about the House, an institution in which he served for a long time.  He cares about his constituents, and he cares about America.  We have obviously had a lot of disagreements, and politically we’re at different ends of the spectrum.  But I will tell you, he has always conducted himself with courtesy and civility with me.  He has kept his word when he made a commitment.  He is somebody who has been gracious.

And I think maybe most importantly, he’s somebody who understands that in government, in governance, you don’t get 100 percent of what you want, but you have to work with people who you disagree with — sometimes strongly — in order to do the people’s business.

I’m not going to prejudge who the next Speaker will be.  That’s something that will have to be worked through in the House.  And I will certainly reach out immediately to whoever is the new Speaker to see what his or her ideas are, and how we can make progress in the important issues that America faces.

The one thing I will say is that my hope is there’s a recognition on the part of the next Speaker — something I think John understood, even though at times it was challenging to bring his caucus along — that we can have significant differences on issues, but that doesn’t mean you shut down the government.  That doesn’t mean you risk the full faith and credit of the United States.  You don’t invite potential financial crises.  You build roads and pass transportation bills.  And you do the basic work of governance that ensures that our military is operating and that our national parks are open and that our kids are learning.

And there’s no weakness in that.  That’s what government is in our democracy.  You don’t get what you want 100 percent of the time.  And so sometimes you take half a loaf; sometimes you take a quarter loaf.  And that’s certainly something that I’ve learned here in this office.

So I’m looking forward to working with the next Speaker.  In the meantime, John is not going to leave for another 30 days, so hopefully he feels like getting as much stuff done as he possibly can.  And I’ll certainly be looking forward to working with him on that.

PRESIDENT XI:  (As interpreted.)  Madam reporter has raised the cybersecurity issue.  Indeed, at current, for the international community and for China and the United States, this is an issue all attach great importance to.  With President Obama and I have on many occasions — and this is a long history — have exchange of views on this.  I think it’s fair to say we’ve reached a lot of consensus on cybersecurity, including some new consensus.

Overall, the United States is the strongest country in terms of cyber strength.  China is the world’s biggest cyber country in terms of the number of Web users.  We have more than 600 million of netizens.  Our two sides should cooperate because cooperation will benefit both, and confrontation will lead to losses on both sides.  We are entirely able to carry out government department and expert levels of dialogue and exchanges to strengthen our cooperation in many respects and turn the cybersecurity between the two countries into a new growth source, rather than a point of confrontation between the two sides.

China strongly opposes and combats the theft of commercial secrets and other kinds of hacking attacks.  The U.S. side, if has concerns in this respect, we can, through the exiting channels, express those concerns.  The Chinese side will take seriously the U.S. provision of any information.  Now, we have already, and in the future, we will still, through the law enforcement authorities, maintain communication and coordination on this matter, and appropriately address them.

So, all in all, we have broad, common interest in the field of the cyber.  But we need to strengthen cooperation and avoid leading to confrontation.  And nor should we politicize this issue.  During my current visit, I think it’s fair to say that the two sides, concerning combatting cyber-crimes, have reached a lot of consensus.  Going forward, we need to, at an early date, reach further agreement on them and further put them on the ground.

Thank you.

Now I would like to propose for China’s Central Television reporter to raise a question.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President Xi.  I have a question for President Obama.  I have noticed that last night, during a meeting with President Xi Jinping, as well as at the welcoming ceremony this morning and the just-recently-made remarks, you’ve indicated that the U.S. welcomes the rise of a peaceful, stable and prosperous China, and supports China to play a bigger role on the international stage.  Would you please elaborate?  That for your office so far, what have you done to enable reaching this target?  And we are more interested for the remainder of the office, what will you do still further to reach that goal?  Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, first of all, I think that the United States has provided a platform in the post-World War II era in which the Asia region has been able to stabilize, and the conditions in which China was able to grow so rapidly were maintained.  And we’re very proud of the work that we did after World War II to help rebuild both Asia and Europe; to help establish the international norms and rules that facilitated growing global trade and connections and travel and interactions; and to help maintain the peace.

Since I’ve been President, my goal has been to consistently engage with China in a way that is constructive, to manage our differences and to maximize opportunities for cooperation.  And I’ve repeatedly said that I believe it is in the interests of the United States to see China grow, to pull people out of poverty, to expand its markets, because a successful and stable and peaceful China can then serve as an effective partner with us on a range of international challenges.

Last night, during our discussions, I mentioned to President Xi that as powerful as the United States is, the nature of the biggest challenges we face — things like climate change, or terrorism, or pandemic, or refugees — those are not issues that any one nation alone can solve.  And we recognize, because of our strength and the size of our economy and the excellence of our military, that we can play a special role and carry a larger burden, but we can’t do it alone.  China, despite its size, still has development challenges of its own, so it can’t solve these problems alone.  We’ve got to work together.  We’ve got to cooperate.

And I think that can happen as long as we continue to recognize that there’s a difference between friendly competition — which we have with some of our closest friends and allies like Great Britain or Germany — and competition that tilts the playing field unfairly in one direction or another.  That’s typically where tensions between our countries arise, is our desire to uphold international norms and rules — even as we recognize that we need to update some of these international institutions to reflect China’s growth and strength and power.

So President Xi mentioned IMF reform, quota reform.  That’s an area where we fully support and want to implement a greater voice and vote for China in that institution, reflective of its strength.  The same will be true when we go up to the United Nations on peacekeeping initiatives.  China is able to project its capabilities in a way that can be extremely helpful in reducing conflict.

And in all of those issues, as well as education, science, technology, we think that the opportunities for cooperation are there as long as there’s reciprocity, transparency, and fairness in the relationship.

And what I have said in the past to President Xi is, is that given China’s size, we recognize there’s still a lot of development to be done and a lot of poverty inside of China, but we can’t treat China as if it’s still a very poor, developing country, as it might have been 50 years ago.  It is now a powerhouse.  And that means it’s got responsibilities and expectations in terms of helping to uphold international rules that might not have existed before.

And that is something China should welcome.  That’s part of the deal of being on the world stage when you’re a big country, is you’ve got more to do.  My gray hair testifies to that.  (Laughter.)

Julie Davis.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  I know you said you didn’t want to prejudge the next Speaker.  But I wonder if you could tell us what Speaker Boehner’s resignation today tells you about the Republican Party and your ability to work with Congress in the remainder of your term, particularly since it’s coming at a time when you’re trying to negotiate to avert a government shutdown.  Does this make that easier or harder?  And do you think that you’ll be able to move forward with the Congress on priorities like the budget, Planned Parenthood, immigration that you weren’t able to address with Speaker Boehner in his position?

And for President Xi, you’ve experienced an economic downturn in your country with the stock market crisis.  And investors, globally, have been concerned about some of the actions you’ve taken to intervene in the stock market and with the currency exchange rate.  I wonder if you could stay what you told President Obama, or what you can say today, to restore confidence that these interventions will not have spillover effects into the global economy in the future.  Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, Julie, I meant what I said.  I’m not going to prejudge how I’ll be able to work with the next Speaker because I don’t know who the next Speaker is.  And I suspect that there’s going to be a lot of debate inside the Republican caucus about who they want to lead them and in what direction.

It’s not as if there’s been a multitude of areas where the House Republican caucus has sought cooperation previously, so I don’t necessarily think that there’s going to be a big shift.  I do think that Speaker Boehner sometimes had a tough position because there were members in his caucus who saw compromise of any sort as weakness or betrayal.  And when you have divided government, when you have a democracy, compromise is necessary.  And I think Speaker Boehner sometimes had difficulty persuading members of his caucus of that.

Hopefully they’ve learned some lessons from 2011, the last time that they sought to introduce a non-budget item into the budget discussions.  At that it was Obamacare, and they were going to shut down the government for that purpose.  It ended up really hurting the economy, slowing it down, and caused a lot of hardship and a lot of problems for a lot of people.

Because it turns out, actually, government provides a lot of vital services.  Our military provides us protection.  Our agencies keep our air clean and our water clean.  And our people every single day are helping to respond to emergencies, and helping families get Social Security checks, and helping them deal with an ailing parent.  And when you insist that unless I get my way on this one particular issue I’m going to shut down all those services — and, by the way, leave a whole lot of really hardworking people without paychecks — that doesn’t just hurt the economy; that hurts  — in the abstract, it hurts particular families.

And as I recall, it wasn’t particularly good for the reputation of the Republican Party either.

So, hopefully, some lessons will be drawn there.  I expect we’ll continue to have significant fights around issues like Planned Parenthood, and significant fights around issues like immigration.  But perhaps the visit by the Holy Father to Congress may have changed hearts and minds.  I know that Speaker Boehner was deeply moved by his encounter with Pope Francis.  I want to congratulate him, by the way, on facilitating that historic visit.  I know it meant a lot to John and his family.

And I would just ask members to really reflect on what His Holiness said — not in the particulars, but in the general proposition that we should be open to each other, we should not demonize each other, we should not assume that we have a monopoly on the truth or on what’s right, that we listen to each other and show each other respect, and that we show regard for the most vulnerable in our society.

It’s not a particularly political message, but I think it’s a good one — at a moment when, in our politics, so often the only way you get on the news is if you’re really rude or you say really obnoxious things about people, or you insist that other people’s points of views are demonic and evil, and leave no room at all for the possibilities of compromise.

I’d like to think that that spirit will continue to permeate Washington for some time to come.  And I know that, in his heart, that’s who John Boehner was.  It was sometimes hard to execute.  But as I said, he is a good man and a reasonable man.  And he’s going to be around for a while, and I hope that we can get some things done before he steps down.

PRESIDENT XI:  (As interpreted.)  Thank you, madam reporter, for your interest in China’s economy.  China is now committed to improving the marketized renminbi exchange rate formation regime. Since 2005, we adopted the exchange rate reform.  By June this year, the renminbi has risen in value by more than 35 percent with the U.S. dollar.  Last month — in fact, we are continuing to make reforms to the renminbi exchange rate central parity quotation regime.  That increased the intensity for the markets to determine the exchange rate of renminbi.

Due to the influence of factors, such as the previous strengthening of the U.S. dollar and somewhat turbulence on the financial market, the renminbi exchange rate after reform has experienced a certain degree of fluctuation.  However, there is no basis for the renminbi to have a devaluation in the long run. At present, the exchange rate between renminbi and U.S. dollars is moving toward stability.  Going forward, China will further improve the marketization and formation regime of renminbi exchange rate, maintain the normal fluctuation of the exchange rate, and maintain the basic stability of renminbi at an adaptive and equilibrium level.

At present, China is also under increasing pressure of economic downturn and some fluctuations on the stock market.  Challenges and difficulties have obviously increased.  But what we are taking is proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy.  And we describe them as measures to stabilize growth, promote reform, restructuring, promote people’s livelihood, and fend off risks.

By comprehensively taking measures, we managed to maintain a 7 percent of growth rate in the first half of this year.  Last year, we achieved a 7.3 percent of growth rate.  And compared with the aggregate economic strength, the increase — the absolute increase of the economy is equivalent to the size of a middle-sized economy.

So for the first half of this year, our growth order is 7 percent, and for the whole year, I think it is expected at the same level.  The Chinese economy maintaining a mid-to-high growth of rate.  This is a fundamental that has not changed, because we are equipped with several conditions.

First of all, our people’s income are still at a middle income period.  When countries are developing, this is a period where there will be further development.  At present, our per capita GDP only stands at $700-$800 U.S. dollars, and that is very much behind the United States.  There is big room for ascendency and for increase.  And we are now doing what we call as the full reforms or the full processes, which is in formatization — a new type of industrialization, urbanization, and the agricultural modernization.

Take the urbanization as an example.  Every year, it will increase by 2 percent.  Now our urbanization ratio is 53 percent, and it is expected to grow by 2 percent.  And that is equivalent to something like 10 million people moving from rural areas to the urban areas.  At the same time, we’re also should not let the rural areas be backward.  We need to develop the rural areas. Through the Internet Plus and other policies our industrialization and our urbanization will have a frog-leap development.

Now, the Chinese economy — turning to a slower growth rate and turning it from a speed-based growth to quality-based growth, and we are moving from an export-driven and investment-driven economy into an economy driven by expanded consumption and domestic demand.  We call this as a new normal of the Chinese economy.  And I’m confident that going forward, China will surely, for all of us, for everybody, provide a healthy growth that strengthens confidence.

Thank you.  And now I would like to remind reporter from the People’s Daily of China to raise questions.

Q    Thank you, President Xi.  I have a question — to seek guidance.  Now, some people in America believe that China’s growth might challenge the U.S. leading position in the world.  My question for President Xi is, what is your view on the current United States and what is China’s U.S. policy?  Thank you.

PRESIDENT XI:  (As interpreted.)  Thank you.  In my view, the U.S. in economic, in military, has remarkable strength.  And other countries in the world are also developing.  Still, the U.S. has un-compared advantages and strengths.

The Cold War has long ended.  Today’s world has entered into an era of economic globalization where countries are interdependent upon each other.  People should move ahead with the times, and give up on the old concepts of “you lose, I win” or “zero-sum game,” and establish a new concept of peaceful development and willing cooperation.

If China develops well, it will benefit the whole world and benefit the United States.  If the U.S. develops well, it will also benefit the world and China.

China’s policy towards the U.S. is consistent and transparent.  As the world’s biggest developing country and biggest developed countries, and as the world’s two biggest economies, our two sides have broad and common interests on world peace and human progress, and shoulder important and common responsibilities, although our two sides also have certain differences.  But the common interests of the two countries far outweigh those differences.

It is also my sincere hope that the two sides of China and the U.S. will proceed from the fundamental interests of the two peoples and world people, make joint efforts to build a new model of major-country relations between two countries, and realize non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect and cooperation.

That should serve as a direction where both sides should strive unswervingly.  China is the current international system’s builder, contributor, and developer, and participant, and also beneficiary.  We are willing to work with all other countries to firmly defend the fruits of victory of the Second World War, and the existing international system, centered on the — and at the same time, promote them to developing a more just and equitable direction.

China has raised the One Belt One Road initiative and proposed to establish the AIIB, et cetera.  And all of their aims are to expand mutual and beneficial cooperation with other countries and realize common development.  These initiatives are open, transparent, inclusive.  They are consistent in serving the interests of the U.S. and other countries’ interest.  And we will come — the U.S. and other parties — to actively participate in them.

Thank you.

END

By Joshua Wong, TIME.com, 25 September 2015

Taking the first step on the path toward independence is the only way that Hong Kong can defend its autonomy

The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration clearly stated that Hong Kong could remain unchanged for 50 years after China resumed sovereignty in 1997. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also promised — in Hong Kong’s miniconstitution known as the Basic Law — that Hong Kong’s leader, or chief executive, could be chosen “by universal suffrage.” This meant that Hong Kong, an international metropolis, proud of its freedoms and openness, could be part of China but run separately under the principle of “one country, two systems.” Hong Kong could enjoy rights that came from the maintenance of its core values of judicial independence and separation of powers, as well as the implementation of universal suffrage after the handover in 1997, working finally toward the ultimate aim of democratic self-governance.

Regrettably, even though the people of Hong Kong have held lawful rallies, as well as a mass referendum, with the mobilization of up to 500,000 and 800,000 participants respectively, their urgent plea for the enactment of universal suffrage has not been given a green light by the CCP over the past 18 years. To the contrary, on Aug. 31, 2014, China’s National People’s Congress set forth its decision that only political figures who love both the country and the party could be candidates for position of chief executive of Hong Kong; in the same year, it presented a white paper underscoring President Xi Jinping’s theory of a collaboration between the legislature, executive and judiciary, threatening Hong Kong’s spirit of high autonomy and separation of powers. This finally prompted street occupations by up to 200,000 demonstrators. On Sept. 28, 2014, fearless protesters staged a mass demonstration of civil disobedience in the face of tear gas — the outbreak of the 79-day Occupy Hong Kong Movement, also known as the Umbrella Movement.

Yet, the protests last year soon proved a failure in even obtaining a single concession from the CCP. It was completely upsetting for the younger generation to learn that even such a massive mobilization as the Umbrella Movement could not bring democracy to Hong Kong. We had thought that China’s rise would bring open-mindedness to its leaders, and spur democracy in the mainland, allowing China to catch up with Hong Kong’s democratic development by the year 2047, when Hong Kong’s 50 years of no change ends. We now look back and realize that all this is merely a fantasy, and that the struggle for universal suffrage is futile under the framework of “one country, two systems.” That exists in name only.

Moreover, both the Chinese and the English governments never promised the continuation of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong after 2047. The CCP could turn “one country, two systems” into “one country, one system” in 32 years’ time, meaning it is possible that Hong Kong will not be a special administrative region, as it is now, but instead a “mainlandized” municipality directly under the jurisdiction of China. Even if the CCP is willing to stick with “one country, two systems” in principle, no one can say for certain whether Hong Kong’s freedoms of speech and the press would survive in reality. The dream of maintaining Hong Kong’s core values after 2047 is simply nonsensical.

Because of this, Hong Kongers should not only focus on universal suffrage, but also fight for the city’s right to self-determination. We should, through civic referendums, determine our own pathways and political status after 2047, because in this lies the future of our democratic movement. If Hong Kong could exercise democratic self-governance under the sovereignty of China, it would not be necessary for us to take this step on the path toward independence. But what self-determination guarantees us is a government of genuine public consent, no matter where Hong Kong’s path may have taken it by 2047; it will safeguard and protect the city’s democracy and autonomy.

Precisely one year ago, the Umbrella Movement was launched. Students occupied the streets and, on the same day, I was arrested for the first time. Although no fruits were gained from these protests, Hong Kongers do not have to feel discouraged and downhearted. This is because our struggle with the CCP for democratic self-governance has always been a battle of longevity.

Democratic politicians of the generation before mine are yet to address the question of self-determination. However, the young generation must realize the truth and understand this hard-to-achieve ideal. This includes maintaining the basis of democratic rule in Hong Kong and launching a movement for self-determination before the expiration of the “one country, two systems” policy; it also involves getting a consensus from both the local and international community that Hong Kongers shall have the right to determine their city’s future, as well as bringing a new generation’s call for self-determination into the political arena, replacing Hong Kong’s present gerontocracy. If we can do this, we might have a slight chance for our ultimate goal: democracy and autonomy.

In face of the CCP Goliath, I am optimistic that David can triumph. All we need is time and determination.

Student and activist Joshua Wong was one of the core leaders of the 2014 Hong Kong street occupations, which saw protesters take to the streets for nearly 80 days in a largely peaceful call for full democracy. That year, he was named one of TIME’s 25 Most Influential Teens.

Translated from the Chinese by Melody Andrea Chuh.

Editorial, Asahi Shimbun, 23 September 2015

Occupying the highlands of western China at an average elevation of 4,000 meters, Tibet marked the 50th anniversary of the foundation of its autonomous region on Sept. 1.

Celebratory events were held in Tibet on Sept. 8, but the Xi administration continues to pursue a policy for Tibet that combines economic development with tight control by Beijing. Given Tibet’s autonomous status, China must clearly reset its course and respect Tibetan ethnic culture.

At a commemorative ceremony in the capital city of Lhasa, Yu Zhengsheng, a Politburo heavyweight in charge of ethnic policies and chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said in his speech, “During the past 50 years, the Chinese Communist Party and the Tibetan people have led the transformation from a backward old Tibet to a vibrant socialist new Tibet.”

Yu went on to point out that Beijing has taken care of 95 percent of Tibet’s financial needs, and that the Tibetan people’s incomes have grown by more than 10 percent every year. Yu stressed that Beijing will continue to focus on Tibet’s economic development.

But it is hard to make a case for Beijing defending and promoting the culture of Tibet. Among the population of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the proportion of ethnic Han people has grown, and school education in standard Chinese is widespread.

Above all, it is disturbing that Beijing is reinforcing surveillance on Tibetan Buddhist temples and monks, which are of vital spiritual importance to the Tibetan people.

Religion was a complex matter even before the establishment of the autonomous region. In the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, the 14th Dalai Lama, the supreme spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, fled to northern India and established a government-in-exile. He has since continued to demand greater autonomy for ethnic Tibetans, but Beijing decries this as an action that would cause China to fragment.

In Tibet, possessing photos and video footage of the Dalai Lama can invite a crackdown by security authorities. Any issue that is religious in nature may be interpreted as political by Beijing. There is no end to Buddhist monks who commit self-immolation to protest religious persecution.

We cannot overlook the fact that Tibetans are not guaranteed basic rights. Yu asserted that freedom of worship is “fully respected,” but most Tibetans surely disagree.

The Tibetan and Uighur issues reveal the Xi administration’s intent to eliminate all diversity in China in the name of the “Chinese people.”

The Qing dynasty (1644-1912) was said to respect the ethnic identity of Tibet, rather than wish to subjugate it. A truly great nation possesses the broadness of mind to embrace religious and cultural diversity.

There was a time when dialogue existed between Beijing and the government-in-exile, but this has not been the case for some years. Matters concerning the Dalai Lama’s successor are also unclear. And as foreign media are restricted from entering the autonomous region, the outside world hears little of Tibet’s voice.

The rest of the world needs to take a genuine interest to ensure that the Tibetan people can live in peace. And for that, each country must continue to urge China to reopen dialogue with the government-in-exile and improve conditions in Tibet.

By Cheng Li, www.brookings.edu, 17 September 2015

Analysts of the Chinese leadership are mistaken to characterize President Xi Jinping in a simplistic, stagnant, and one-dimensional way.

Prior to Xi’s ascent to the top leadership in the fall of 2012, many overseas China analysts described this new party boss as “a weak leader,” “a consensus builder,” a hardcore conservative, “a closet liberal” or even “China’s Gorbachev.” They believed that major changes could not be expected during Xi’s first term because of the great amount of time that he would need to consolidate his power.

What happened during the first few years of Xi’s leadership surprised the world. Xi turned out to be, as China analysts describe, “China’s strongest leader in years,” a dismantler of China’s system of collective rule, and an implementer of “drastic changes.” Xi’s approach to governance is now seen as politically conservative and economically liberal.

But a majority of these analysts has overlooked the paradoxical policy moves that this intriguing and complicated leader has initiated:

• The overall objective of Xi’s economic policy, as demonstrated by the third plenum of the 18th Central Committee held in the fall of 2013, is to make the private sector the decisive driver of the Chinese economy and to build an innovation-driven economy. However, his continuing emphasis on China’s national champions (namely the flagship state-owned enterprises), tight control over the Internet, and discrimination against foreign IT companies all undermine the vitality of a true market economy.
• Xi’s politically conservative approach to governance, which relies on ideological oversight, has alienated the country’s liberal intellectuals. But in a contradictory fashion, Xi has called for promoting Chinese think tanks (which consist mainly of intellectuals) and prioritized their development as a national strategic objective. In addition, Xi’s own economic team consists of many U.S.-trained financial technocrats, and he has urged the party leadership to recruit foreign-educated returnees.
• The Xi leadership is noted for its strong crackdown on groups and individuals inspired by the color revolutions and by what Chinese authorities call the “U.S. anti-China conspiracy.” This was evident in the draft foreign nongovernmental organization (NGO) law released by the National People’s Congress earlier this year. But interestingly, in June 2015, President Xi held a widely publicized meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, the symbol of the Burmese democratic movement. Xi’s wife, China’s first lady Peng Liyuan, has also been famous for her enthusiastic involvement with foreign NGOs, especially the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, on anti-smoking, AIDS prevention, and other social causes.
• The most astonishing political achievement of the Xi leadership is its bold and broad anti-corruption campaign. In 2013 alone, the Chinese authorities investigated 182,000 officials––the highest annual number of cases in 30 years. By September 2015, the authorities had purged about 120 vice-ministerial and provincial level leaders on corruption charges. But Xi has never linked rampant official corruption with the fundamental flaws in the Chinese political system. Instead, he asserts that the Chinese should have confidence in China’s political system.
• Under Xi’s initiative, the fourth plenum of the 18th Party Central Committee held in the fall of 2014 was devoted to legal reform. This was the first plenum in party history that concentrated on law. Xi, more than any previous leader, is interested in making the nation’s judicial development part of his legacy. Yet, in 2015, Chinese authorities arrested or persecuted several hundred human rights lawyers and legal professionals on charges of “endangering national security.”
• In foreign relations, Xi frequently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and significantly consolidated Sino-Russian relations. But what matters to Xi most is the Sino-U.S. relationship, in which the Chinese hope for a new type of major power relations. Xi has also contradicted himself by both claiming “Asia for Asians” and by stating that “the Pacific Ocean is vast enough to embrace both China and the United States.” Also, regarding tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Xi has unambiguously sided with his “South Korean sister” Park Geun-hye over his “Communist little brother” Kim Jong-un.

These examples by no means suggest that Xi Jinping is a political opportunist. All political leaders have at times been self-contradictory. In the words of Oscar Wilde: “The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.”

As the leader of a rapidly changing country with contrasting views and values, as well as conflicting interests, Xi Jinping is wise to strike a delicate balance between various constituencies and socioeconomic forces. Arguably, it is Xi’s contradictions that make him a well-rounded effective leader. The increasingly complicated international environment that China confronts also leads Xi to be deliberately ambiguous about his stances and strategies.

Self-contradictions also suggest that Xi Jinping is not a dogmatic leader, but that he can be flexible. Of course, some of Xi’s contradictions may only be temporary. If Xi hopes to be a great leader in Chinese history, sooner or later he should present a clearly articulated and coherent vision for the country’s political trajectory. It is reasonable for Xi to spend the first few years of his leadership searching for the right sequence for implementing his agenda, maximizing public support, and accumulating political capital. But when the next Party Congress convenes in the fall of 2017, Xi will have to reveal his stance on China’s political institutionalization.

A comprehensive understanding of Xi’s contradictions is instrumental for foreign observers. We should not overstate any one dimension of Xi’s leadership while ignoring others. It is still premature to make a definitive judgment about his intentions, capacity, and historical legacy. It would be a huge mistake to conclude that Xi’s policy decisions—either domestic or foreign—are predetermined.

It would be even more dangerous to assume that a major confrontation or even war with China is inevitable. Of course, China will decide its own path, and Xi will choose his legacy. But policymakers in Washington have a strong influence over China’s trajectory and a huge incentive to ensure U.S.-China relations remain stable. It is in America’s best interest to take Xi’s visit as an opportunity to enhance mutual understanding across the Pacific.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay (file pic)

Today, we have come together to celebrate Tibetan Democracy which turns fifty-five years. On this joyous occasion, I, on behalf of the Kashag, extend heartfelt greetings to my fellow Tibetans both inside Tibet and in exile, and our friends around the world. My colleagues and I offer our deepest respect and bow down in gratitude to Tibet’s most revered leader His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama for conscientiously pioneering and tirelessly steering a democratic system for the wellbeing of Tibetan people. This gift has been the most inspiring and transformative experience to the Tibetan people.

We can take pride in the fact that Tibetan administration in exile is functioning fully in accordance with democratic system. Our existing democratic polity, admired and recognized by many non-Tibetans, is not an outcome of people having fought or sacrificed for it; rather it is a precious gift from His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama. This is undoubtedly one of the legacies of His Holiness to which the Tibetan people should remain eternally grateful. Extolling the contributions made by His Holiness, the US Senate Resolution #200 states that it recognizes “the Dalai Lama for a lifelong commitment and outstanding contribution to the promotion of non-violence, human rights, religious tolerance, environmental awareness, and democracy”.

Fifty-five years ago, on this day, the first elected Tibetan people’s representatives took their oath of office not long after the great-oath (Na-gyen Chenmo) taking event of Bodh-Gaya. Since then this historic date came to be celebrated as the Tibetan Democracy Day. Few years later, representatives of Tibetan women were first elected in 1963 and representatives of Bon religion were elected in 1977.

The Constitution of Tibet promulgated by His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama in 1963 contained provisions allowing his own impeachment which was against the wishes of the Tibetan people. In 1991, the Charter of the Tibetan People adopted by the Tibetan Parliament and enacted by His Holiness the Dalai Lama came into force. The Charter provided enlargement of the Tibetan Parliament with powers to elect members of the Kashag after nomination of candidates by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1992, the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission was formed, thereby completing the establishment of three pillars of democracy. In accordance with provisions of chapter seven, members of Local Tibetan Assemblies and settlement officers are elected by the people in the Tibetan settlements.

The first direct election of Kalon Tripa, executive head of Central Tibetan Administration, was successfully achieved after the amendment of the Charter in 2001. A decade later His Holiness the Dalai Lama made an unprecedented and a historic change with announcement of devolution of his political powers. After transferring all his political authority to the elected leader or Sikyong, His Holiness the Dalai Lama declared on August 08, 2011 the fulfillment of ‘ long cherished goal’ of bringing democracy to the Tibetan people. This major transition could have been tumultuous and it was without a doubt a test for all of us. But contrary to initial anxiety, the transition remained smooth mainly due to the strong support and faith reposed by the Tibetan people in the democratic system. Practicing democracy in exile has shown that Buddhism is compatible with democracy, as is all major religious traditions. National elections to be held in two Buddhist countries such as Burma and Taiwan on November 08, 2015 and January 16, 2016 respectively clearly shows that democratic system is generally liked and accepted by people everywhere irrespective of the circumstances and political conditions prevailing in their countries. Democracy therefore is universal without being culture specific or development specific.

The Tibetan people will once again participate in the election of Sikyong and members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile. The dates determined for the preliminary and final election are October 18, 2015 and March 20, 2016 respectively. It is important for every eligible Tibetan voter to follow and take part in the election process. Due consideration should be given to the existing political situation inside Tibet, conditions in exile and the larger aspirations of the Tibetan people when electing capable leaders. Using this opportunity, we urge each and every candidate standing for election and their supporters to uphold traditional moral and ethical values while engaging in the election processes. Our resolve for democracy should be a clear message of our democratic spirit of free will to international community and China. Our brethrens in Tibet will doubtlessly derive strength from the robust participation and decisive outcome.

It is truly heartening that the world is taking note of Tibetan democracy in exile. The Sikyong election four years ago not only received good media coverage, it got featured in government statements. More specifically, it got mentioned in the US Senate Resolution # 356. As regards the upcoming Tibetan election, the US House Resolution # 337 of July 8, 2015 clearly calls on the US Government “to recognize and increase global public awareness and monitoring of the upcoming election process through which the Tibetan people in exile will choose the next democratically elected leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, the Sikyong.”

For the 14th Kashag, this is the fifth democracy day since assuming executive responsibility of Central Tibetan Administration. Over the years, democracy in exile has become more mature and public discourse more substantive. We can say with confidence that democracy will only grow and become stronger in the near future. Democracy is here to stay and through the system, the Tibet movement is bound to succeed and sustain itself.

Our objective of alleviating the sufferings of Tibetan people inside Tibet remains unchanged. Although Runggye Adak and few other political prisoners were released, there are many others still languishing in Chinese prisons. The recent death of Trulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche in Chinese prison signals continuing hard line policy of the Chinese government. There are reports that China is going to observe the 50th anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region which will be attended by Beijing’s top leaders. However, judging the ground reality of Tibet there is no cause for celebration. The Tibetan people’s aspirations and the wishes of 142 self-immolators remain unfulfilled.

It is hoped that the Chinese government led by Xi Jinping will soon realize that dialogue is the only viable solution for a peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet. The Kashag reaffirms its commitment to the Middle Way Approach. Our approach and its practicality of benefitting both the party has generated appreciation and support from around the world. The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs has called for dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and representatives of Chinese government during her visit to Beijing in May 2015. Similarly, Mr. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council has urged China on June 29, 2015 to restart dialogue with envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Speaking at a press conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Brussels, he said, “I expressed our concerns for freedom of expression and association in China including people belonging to minorities, including Tibetans and Uighurs. In that context, I have urged China to restart a meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representative.”

In conclusion, we would like to express heartfelt gratitude to the international community, especially the Tibet support groups, individuals and organizations for supporting the just and non-violent struggle of the Tibetan people. In particular, we owe profound gratitude to the people and government of India for according highest respect to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for generously hosting the Tibetan people. No words are adequate enough to express the depth of gratitude Tibetan people have to this great nation.

Finally, we wholeheartedly and sincerely pray for the long life of our most esteemed leader His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama. May the truth and non-violent cause of Tibet prevail soon.

KASHAG

September 2, 2015

Speaker Penpa Tsering of Tibetan Parliament in exile (File Pic)

On this day of 2nd September 2015, we commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the democratic system of the Central Tibetan Administration. In particular, this is the year in which His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a champion of world peace, the master of the entirety of the teachings on this earth of the Buddha, the protector-patron of all Tibetans at all times in this life and in the lives hereafter, and the unparalleled leader of the Tibetan people, attained the 80th glorious year of his present life. Everywhere across the world, this grand 80th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is being commemorated with impressive celebrations, including by Tibetans in and outside their occupied homeland. On this truly memorable day, I, on behalf of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, and with a prior offering of prostrations with solemn bodily, speech and mind devotions, express my greetings to His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama, as all Tibetans both in and outside Tibet rejoice on this great occasion.

It was not long after he assumed his position as the temporal and spiritual leader of the Snowland of Tibet that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an emanation of the Supreme Lotus-Holding Bodhisattva, and the omniscient and outstandingly caring noble being, felt drawn towards the democratic system of government based on freedom prevailing in India during his visits to that country and China. He therefore at once set out to introduce freedom and democratic reforms so as to bring up the system prevailing in Tibet to the level of the modern countries of that time imbued with such values. However, although he did make a start, his moves were frustrated because Tibet was by then under the domineering influence of the communist Chinese occupation forces and they thwarted his initiatives. But immediately after escaping into exile in India, His Holiness gave full play to his original plans, including in the matter of the election of the deputies to a Tibetan parliament in exile capable of fully representing Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile, as well as in the matter of establishing the principal and branch offices and institutions of an administration in exile. And gradually, over the years, His Holiness guided the Tibetan people towards the realization of genuine democracy which is comparable to the systems prevailing in the progressive modern democratic countries of the world.

The democratic system of government is a result of the historical evolution of the human civilization. Its culmination is marked by a society in which everyone is viewed as equal, without any discrimination based on one’s position, wealth, gender, race, and so on. It is recognized as one of the best systems of government in the world today. But unlike in the cases of the people in the numerous democratic countries of the world today, where the general masses of people had to undergo turbulences of uprisings and bitter struggles to finally realize their dreams in the courses of their historical evolution, the Tibetan people did not have to experience these painful transitions towards this noble system of government. Rather than having to stage an uprising or to carry on a bitter struggle, and so on under a historical process of evolution, democracy came to the Tibetan people as a gift from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This took concrete shape in 1991 when the Tibetan Parliament in Exile was formally made a law-making body. And the people elected as representatives of the general masses of people to the Tibetan Parliament in Exile debated and adopted a series of laws and regulations over the years and a system based on the rule of law has now taken shape.

In the year 2001, the Kalon Tripa, the head of the Central Tibetan Administration at that time, was directly elected by the Tibetan people. And in 2011, His Holiness the Dalai Lama presented or devolved all his traditional political powers to the elected leaders of the Tibetan people. These developments took place as a part of a process which has for long been a part of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s planned objectives. Perceiving numerous purposes and benefits, His Holiness, with elation and out of affection for the Tibetan people, transferred his entire political powers to the leadership directly elected by them, thereby ending the nearly 400-year-old Ganden Phodang system of government headed by successive Dalai Lamas since the time of the Great Fifth. He thereby ensured the future sustainability on a firm foundation of the substance of the Tibetan movement embodied by the Central Tibetan Administration in exile for as long as their just cause remains unresolved. This is therefore a historic milestone in the evolution of Tibetan democracy addressing the core of the issues facing the Tibetan movement.

Although His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the protector-patron of the Snowland of Tibet, has already devolved all his political and executive powers to the elected leadership, he has said in one of his important, great, profound, and precious addresses: “Being a Tibetan, and due to the fact that there is a unique relationship rooted in karma and bond of prayers between the Tibetan people and the successive Dalai Lamas, it is impossible that I will abandon my general responsibility towards the secular and religious well being of the Tibetan people for as long as they trust me and look up to me. There is therefore no need for any worry regarding the finding of ways to realize the fundamental cause of Tibet and on spiritual issues, for I will continue to carry on my responsibility till the very end.”

Today, the responsibilities concerning the affairs of the democratically established Central Tibetan Administration lies on the shoulders of the leaders directly elected by the Tibetan people, its civil servants, and the general masses of the Tibetan people. Over the past several years, the situation of the Central Tibetan Administration has continued to flourish without any impediment thanks to the blessings emanating from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s deeds and as a result of the combined efforts of both the exiled Tibetan leadership and people. In order that this should continue to improve ever further, and for the purpose of strengthening its sustainability for enduring the future, all sections of the Tibetan society should contribute their efforts in a cooperative manner towards addressing our common concerns.

Apart from the Justice Commission, the two most important organs of the democratic Central Tibetan Administration are the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament in Exile. And the general election to vote for the Sikyong, the political and executive head of the Central Tibetan Administration, and the members of the 16th Tibetan Parliament in Exile, the legislative organ, are approaching near. It is great that these upcoming events have drawn keen interest and discussions within the Tibetan public. This kind of opportunity to elect the Sikyong and the Members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile comes but only once every five years. In an administrative system such as ours, which is based on democratic values, it is a vital duty of the public to take active part in these election processes. And it is of utmost importance that everyone gets himself or herself registered as a voter and actually vote during the elections. Everyone should vote for the candidates of their choice for the Sikyong and the Members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile with their own free choice, exercising their own personal judgement, rather than following others’ directions or what others may say. There should be no dereliction of this vital duty of the Tibetan citizenry.

I would also like to emphasize, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by this occasion, to call on the fair number of Tibetans who have moved and who continue to move to other countries – with the result that most of them become scattered in their new host countries – to make the extra efforts to give due importance to these elections and ensure that they manage to take part in them.

The election process of the Tibetan administration in exile draws keen interest from places across the globe. Hence I also take this opportunity to appeal to everyone involved in the election processes that they should consider it important to take the responsibility to ensure that their conducts are in keeping with the relevant rules and regulations and carried out with fairness so that no cause for disputes and controversies would remain in future.

Today is no doubt an important day when the Tibetan people living in exile commemorate their day of democracy marked by freedom. However, we should remember that the general masses of our brethrens back in Tibet continue to remain deprived of democracy, freedom, and justice under the repression of the Chinese government. Apart from that, many such innocent Tibetans continue to suffer under its rule, including by being imprisoned and tortured. And it is also common knowledge among people across the world that under the totalitarian rule of the leadership of their communist government, the general masses of the Chinese people too lack the kind of freedom prevailing in most other countries. Today, in the Middle East and other countries, there is growing interest and transformation towards the free democratic system of government. And it is our view that the time has come for the international community to exert emphatic pressure on the Government of China to encourage it to also gradually move towards a free democratic system of governance.

Regarding the developments in our homeland of Tibet these days, there is, in particular, the stark example of the case of the late Tulku Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche. He and his student Lobsang Dhondup had been implicated in an impossibly false criminal case. They were accused, without any evidence, of having been responsible for bomb explosions which occurred on the main Tianfu Square of the Sichuan province’s Capital Chengdu on the 3rd of April 2002. Both were tried and Lobsang Dhondup was executed immediately. And Tulku Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, after undergoing 13 years of his eventual life imprisonment sentence, died in jail after enduring untold ill-treatment and torture without any clear explanation of a cause. What this case exemplifies is that the Chinese government in Tibet arrests, jails, beats, violently tortures, and even executes without a second thought any innocent Tibetan they fancy by implicating them in totally false cases. Even though we are now in the 21st century, the conduct of the Chinese government continues to be marked by total absence of humanity. In particular, it has remained absolute in totally ignoring and trampling on all the numerous appeals and calls made by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, governments, parliaments, political leaders of countries, and numerous other internationally reputed organizations and individuals. This state of affair marked by total inability to protect the innocent despite the existence of principles of justice and the giving of victory to those carrying out violations with impunity must surely count as one of the biggest ongoing tragedies in this world.

China is celebrating the 1st of September 2015 as the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region. And it has carried out a strong media publicity to make claims about having brought great progress in Tibet. What this day actually amounts to, in reality, is that it marks the 50th year of the Communist Chinese Government having enslaved the people of Tibet, enforced under its numerous dictatorial laws and practices. It is also the 50th year of China having split up the territory of the Three Provinces of Tibet into numerous parts and renaming them as Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province and as parts of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu. It is also the 50th anniversary of celebrations marking the unceasing campaigns by the Government of China to totally destroy the Tibetan culture and religion under such campaigns as the Cultural Revolution. Including principally the 10th Panchen Rinpoche, besides Jadrel Jampa Trinley Rinpoche, China has over the decades persecuted patriotic Tibetans by leveling all sorts of false charges against them in a policy of saying and promising one thing and doing quite the opposite in practice. In this sense, this is also the 50th anniversary of the establishment in Tibet of the absence of autonomous rule and of the domination of rule by others. Besides, this 50th anniversary is also of China having started implementing in Tibet a special kind of policy whereby the Tibetan people are deprived of freedoms of speech and expression, movement, religion, personal liberty, and all other kinds of human rights. In order to constantly raise the intensity and extent of the repression, China has been implementing in Tibet a five-yearly Strike Hard campaign policy under which countless numbers of Tibetans have been jailed, beaten, and otherwise harassed, resulting in untimely deaths or disappearances of many of them. This year can therefore be seen as the 50th anniversary to mark the implementation of this policy too. And it is also the day we need to observe as the 50th anniversary of the dictatorial government of the communist party of China having stopped the Tibetan people in Tibet and in exile from exercising their right to determine their own political destiny, confining them in perpetual darkness from the realization their true aspirations.

Speaking in general terms, the Government of China has always considered the territory of Tibet as the frontline for its battles and has therefore never ceased to implement a brutal policy of violent repression which the Tibetan people could endure only with the greatest of hardship. On the 7th of May 2014, Mr. Lobsang Yeshe of Tsawa Zogang was arrested and mercilessly beaten after he protested against the Chinese government’s running of mining operations near the bank of Gyalmo Ngulchu river. He succumbed to his injuries from that beating on the 19th of July. This year, due to the 80th birth anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government has carried out massive deployment of armed forces to enforce a security clampdown. And on His Holiness’s 80th birthday of the 6th of July, a Tibetan named Pasang Wangchuk, a resident of Kham Kardze, was rearrested. He was previously arrested last year and later released, but rearrested this year and imprisoned for more than a month. Likewise, on the 15th of August this year, the Chinese government arrested a Tibetan woman named Woekar after she carried out a solitary protest on the street of Meruma Town in Amdo Ngaba County, shouting slogans calling for the return from exile of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and for freedom for Tibetans.

In yet another development, on China’s army day of the 1st of August this year, a decree was imposed on the Tibetan people of Kham Driru County, listing “four do’s” and “four don’ts” for them to carry out or observe and mandating that they wear traditional costumes decorated with furs of endangered wild animals while performing cultural shows to mark the occasion. The reason why the Chinese government photographed and publicized the Tibetans thus was because during his 31st Kalachakra teachings, His Holiness the Dalai Lama had advised the Tibetan people against using or dealing in furs of endangered wild animals. As a result Tibetans in Driru as well as others everywhere else in Tibet had burned their possessions of fur decorated dresses. The Chinese leaders were unhappy with that development and used the army day celebrations as an opportunity to carry out a reprisal action. It therefore forced the Tibetan people to carry out a politically coloured cultural performance. Likewise, in Kham Nangchen County’s Kashung Township too, during the celebrations of the same event from the 1st to 3rd of August, Tibetans had refused to wear traditional costumes decorated with furs of endangered wild animals in defiance of orders from the local Chinese leaders while also refraining from also putting on ornaments. Criticizing the Tibetans for their show of defiance of an unjust order, Chinese police attacked the Tibetans in the night of the 3rd of August, subjecting them to severe beatings. As a result, about 30 Tibetans were seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital. Still, there have been numerous other known as well as unreported incidents of ill-treatment and persecution of innocent Tibetans under false criminal allegations of various kinds, leading to arrests, imprisonments and virulent security clampdowns. As a result, the general masses of the Tibetan people in the concerned local areas are deprived of all their personal freedoms and forced to remain as if they are under house arrest. They therefore find themselves confined to remain in utter darkness and beyond all tolerable limits from the light of every kind of human rights. It is no wonder, therefore, that so far a total of 142 Tibetans in Tibet have carried out self-immolation protests since February 2009. This year alone there have been seven such cases, which is a telling commentary on the tragic situation in Tibet today. I therefore strongly appeal especially to the United Nations and the UN Human Rights Council, besides all the countries that truly value democracy, freedom, and justice, to bring emphatic pressure on the Government of China and to urge it to forthwith put an end to the kind of evil behaviours it is still routinely carrying out in Tibet.

Further information coming from China most recently, publicized through the news media, show that the Communist Party of China had held its Sixth Tibet Work Forum Meeting on the 24th and 25th of August in Beijing. These reports show that improving the policies with an objective to benefit the Tibetan people was not the aim of this so-called Tibet Work Forum Meeting. On the other hand, they reveal the communist Government of China’s determination to continue and strengthen the existing policies of harassment, controls and restrictions against the Tibetan people. This shows that there is no actual implementation in Tibet of China’s officially claimed beneficial policies for the minority nationalities. As a result, it has only saddened the Tibetan people and become another basis for the international community’s loss of faith in the Government of China.

This year His Holiness the Dalai Lama turned 80 years old in accordance with the universal calendar system. Tibetans in Tibet as well as in exile, including the Central Tibetan Administration, the different organizations, provincial associations, and so on have marked the occasion with grand celebrations. As a part of marking the 80th birth anniversary, gratitude was expressed and a series of long-life prayer offerings made. In numerous other countries of the world too, long-life prayer offering were made, celebration gatherings and functions held, resolutions adopted by parliaments, and greetings offered by leaders of organizations and governments. In order to express compliments to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his noble deeds and accomplishments, various kinds of grand and solemn symbolic gestures were made and continue to be made, including with the issuing of a national postage stamp bearing a picture of him. Some of the compliments offered by prominent global public figures bear worth citing here by way of examples. One said: “The best birthday gift or present for His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet that those of us in politics and that we as individuals can give would be to continue our support for Tibet.” Others, likewise, expressed solidarity with the Tibetan people in our current period of great hardship. And there were those about His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s compassionate guidance having had immense beneficial influence on the whole world; about His Holiness the Dalai Lama being a remarkable figure on the world stage; about his Holiness the Dalai Lama’s friendly relationships with other religions by referring to the good points in each other’s teachings; about His Holiness’s compassion for all people, irrespective of the question whether they believe in any religion or not; about people being immensely moved by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s noble teachings and practices of nonviolence; about His Holiness the Dalai Lama being a person who looks at scientists and others with an open mind; about His Holiness the Dalai Lama being a person who points the way for ensuring a better future world for the younger generation; and about the emphatic need to criticize the evil behaviours of the communist government of China which even today continues to carry immensely virulent baseless attacks on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and issues utterly false media criticisms of him even as it continues to even today carry out violent repression of the Tibetan people. And so it goes on. They all highly praise His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the nobility of his deeds while openly criticizing the Chinese government for its mistaken policies and actions. In such manners they have extended support for the Tibetan people from all conceivable aspects. For all these, I take this opportunity to express immense thanks to those prominent political leaders and public figures on behalf of the Tibetan people both in Tibet and in exile.

People from across the world, and especially numerous leaders of countries, as well as people who have attained fame in various fields of life, have offered highest of admiration and praise to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his past and continuing deeds of providing leadership and guidance by means of non-violent and compassionate methods because they have been beneficial to all living beings in this world. It is therefore only to be expected that we the Tibetan people especially remember at all times from the core of our hearts the gratitude we owe to His Holiness, our protector-patron, and remain, as a matter of utmost importance, steadfast in truthfully following his guidance without any shortcoming as an act of devotion to hearten him.

The gratitude the Tibetan people owe to the government and people of India for their past and continuing help is beyond defining in words and are certainly impossible to forget. At this official function in Dharamshala to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of the democratic system of the Central Tibetan Administration too, a group of Members of the Indian Parliament who support the Tibetan cause are taking part in order to show their strong support for the Tibetan cause. I take this opportunity to express immense gratitude to them all.

Finally, I pray that His Holiness the Dalai Lama, whose selfless sense of caring towards all sentient beings is boundless and whose leadership of the world in general and especially towards all Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile is unparalleled, live for a hundred aeons, and that the just cause of the Tibetan people prevail with utmost speediness.

The Tibetan Parliament in Exile

2nd September, 2015

Dharamsala

Today is the 56^th anniversary of the momentous day in 1959 when the Tibetan people rose in a peaceful, spontaneous uprising for freedom and to protest the oppression of communist China in Tibet’s capital Lhasa. It is also the Tibetan Martyrs’ Day, dedicated to the patriotism of the heroic men and women of Tibet. On behalf of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, I would like to commemorate with great ferventness the patriotic men and women of Tibet who had sacrificed their all, including their very lives, for the religion, polity and people of Tibet, and to express solidarity with those who continue even today to suffer oppression and torture under the policy of violent repression of the communist party government of China.

Immediately after establishing the so-called People’s Republic of China in 1949, the communist Chinese government entertained an ambition to gobble up Tibet in its entirety, including the land and people of this ancient Snowland. With this end in view, it launched an armed invasion through successive onslaughts through the borders of all the Three Provinces of Tibet. It resulted in hundreds of thousands of Tibetans being killed. Besides, the invading Chinese devised a plot which posed an imminent danger to the life of Tibet’s supreme temporal and spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was when the Chinese were on the point of carrying out this diabolical plot that on 10^th March 1959, thousands of Tibetans rose in a spontaneous protest demonstration across the Lhasa city, targeting the communist government of China and the Chinese occupying forces. This is indelibly etched in the history of Tibet as a vital evidence of the events of that time. While it remained in occupation of Tibet, the communist government of China resorted to distortion of Tibet’s history and its sovereignty. It took to amalgamating Tibet’s culture with its own despite the fact that the two were entirely incompatible, thereby seeking to destroy its unique identity. It deprived the Tibetan people of their religious faith and freedom. It vandalized and recklessly exploited Tibet’s territory and its resources, thereby setting out to destroy the environment of the Tibetan Plateau. It trampled on the Tibetan people’s rights as human beings and put an end to the Tibetan people’s freedom of speech. In the name of economic development, it carried out vicious colonial practices. It sought to destroy the ethnic integrity of the Tibetan people by splitting them up. And it treated with contempt the aspirations of the Tibetan people. Apart from carrying out a litany of such abuses, China has never implemented in Tibet a policy that genuinely addressed in a meaningful manner the real conditions there. Rather, it invariably adhered to a policy of violence and brutality. Because of this vicious policy, there has never been a period through generations both old and new when peaceful Tibetan protests against Chinese rule ever came to an end. The Chinese leadership should understand that it is impossible for the peaceful Tibetan protests to come to an end so long as there is no just resolution of the issue of Tibet.

Since assuming the temporal and spiritual leadership of the Snowland of Tibet, His Holiness the Great 14^th Dalai Lama has taken a series of initiatives designed to reach a settlement on the Sino-Tibetan dispute, keeping in mind the interests of Tibetans both in Tibet and in exile. His outstanding efforts directed at reaching a just solution to the issue of Tibet has been well recognized by the international community which honoured him with more than a hundred prestigious awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Nevertheless, successive leaderships of China have invariably taken recourse to nothing but subterfuge, never even remaining true to their own words. Apart from numerous other breaches of faith, they did not respect even the so-called 17-Point Agreement which was entirely dictated by them and which they forced the Tibetan side to sign at the point of their gun. After putting the entire blame for all the excesses of the Cultural Revolution on the Gang of Four, China began implementing the so-called policies of opening up and liberalization. However, these were only in name when it came to Tibet, for it has never, thus far, implemented any policy there that is in any substantive way beneficial to the local Tibetan people. It was therefore not surprising that in 1987 the second generation of Tibetans who were said to have been nurtured and brought up under the Red Flag of China and in 2008 the third and so on led protests which were widespread and took place on successive occasions in all the three traditional provinces of Tibet, including in the city of Lhasa. In particular, available information suggests that from 2009 to 5th March, 2015, a total of 136 Tibetans immolated themselves in acts of protest against Chinese rule. Of them 117 were known to have died. Developments and incidents such as these shows that Tibet, which was once a religiously endowed land of peace and tranquility has now become something like a slaughterhouse, filled with weapons of violence and bloodshed. The basis for this is, of course, the policy of violent repression pursued by the government of China and the attitude of the Chinese government leaders. The communist Chinese government’s policy of violent repression has led to the death of more than 1.2 million Tibetans. Besides, the tragedy of the situation in Tibet today is such that it still remains impossible for anyone to estimate how many Tibetans still remain imprisoned and suffer torture of such severity as a hell on earth.

Since 1959, governments, parliaments, non-governmental organizations and numerous other bodies and leaders across the world have held discussions and passed a series of resolutions on the just cause of the Tibetan people, as well as provided economic assistance and so on. These have been of invaluable fraternal help towards the internationalization of the issue of Tibet and our gratitude to them for their support for our just cause remain limitless. Nevertheless, in substantive terms, the main responsibility for achieving a solution to the just cause lies with the Tibetan people ourselves and we must rise to the challenge of discharging it. No cause remains to issue any further urging when it comes to talking about the courage and determination shown by the Tibetan people inside Tibet. Including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, most of the top leaders of the four great schools of Tibetan Buddhism and of the Yungdrung Bon religion as well as many others who had carried out temporal and spiritual leadership roles in Tibet managed to escape into exile. In order to be able to preserve, defend and spread the substance of the Tibetan religious traditions and Tibetan culture in the free foreign countries and places, including India, institutions such as the Central Tibetan Administration, complete with the three pillars of democracy were established. Settlements providing safe and secure homes for Tibetans living in exile were built. And flourishing religious centres complete in all respect as places for carrying out prayer services, engaging in practices and imparting religious education, were established. Publicity efforts were made to raise awareness about and understanding of the just cause of the Tibetan people while both modern education and traditional knowledge were imparted to all the Tibetan youngsters living in exile. In such ways it was ensured that, unlike any other community of political refugees across the world, the Tibetan people stood out with excellent accomplishments both religiously and politically. Nevertheless, the new generation of today must prove itself up to the task of carrying forward the accomplishments and aims of the older generation. All sections of the Tibetan people must therefore make concerted efforts by assuming responsibilities in an all-round manner and without any shortcoming. In particular, it must be understood that the most important essence of the life of a people is its linguistic culture, both spoken and written. All the young Tibetans in exile in general, and especially the Tibetans youngsters growing up in Western countries, must make special efforts in learning the Tibetan language and script. Otherwise, there is a real big danger of facing a situation where Tibetans do not know their own language. We must look up to the young Tibetans in Tibet for the kind of efforts they are making towards protecting the Tibetan linguistic heritage under the violent repression of the Chinese government. It is important for us to make efforts to ensure that we do not become Tibetans who are ashamed to call ourselves Tibetan.

While ruling the country over the past several years, the new leaders of China have been contending that in order to govern China, the border areas should be governed well; that for the purpose of administering the border areas properly, stability must be ensured in the Tibetan regions. Through the use of such remarks, tens of thousands of Chinese officials were sent as work teams to all the Tibetan inhabited areas, including in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Such team members took up long-term residence within the Tibetan communities, including in the monasteries, and began carrying out surveillance on the activities of the local Tibetans day and night. In doing so, they harassed the monastic communities by rendering them unable to devote their times to prayer services and religious studies. They began exercising tight controls and restrictions on the local Tibetan people’s political rights, freedom of speech, their day-to-day occupational pursuits, their freedom of movement, and so on. This situation continues even today. In addition, using its ongoing anti-corruption campaign, China has also been making all kinds of criminal accusations against many Tibetans for such alleged violations as being followers of the so-called “Dalai separatist clique”. Subjected to such diverse kinds of harassment and persecution, Tibetans are deprived of all freedom to campaign for anything connected with their just cause. The situation in Tibet continued to remain grave and tragic in 2014, leading to continued protests, including through self-immolations, by the Tibetan people. There was also no let up in China’s reckless exploitation of Tibet’s mineral resources and the destruction of the environment. Not a week passed without there being at least one arrest or imprisonment of a Tibetan. The actual history of Tibet continued to be distorted in documentaries shown over state television channels. Tibetans were executed by being fired on by special armed security forces. The prevalence of gross inequitable treatment, including through ethnic discrimination, in this so-called great Chinese motherland ensured that achieving stability in the Tibetan areas was virtually impossible. Also, in their reports in 2014, many international human rights monitoring organizations explained that the situation in Tibet had continued to remain critical. Given this background, we would again like to make an emphatic call on the Chinese leadership to implement a policy of seeking truth from facts and of being true to their own words in addressing the situation in Tibet.

It is also important that we the Tibetan people living in exile should continue to carry out campaigns without any let up in connection with the issue of Tibet. It was with this understanding that during 2014, members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, including the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, were divided into groups and travelled to many countries both in the East and West to meet with political leaders, including parliament members, and prominent public figures. They briefed those leaders and influential public figures with information about the critical situation in Tibet today, including on the continuing incidents of protest self-immolations. These visits and meetings also included making efforts and presenting a range of appeals to garner support for the Tibetan issue and yielded appreciable results. In particular, members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile met with more than 100 lawmakers who had just recently got elected to the 16^th Lok Sabha, or Lower House, of the Indian Parliament, and successfully lobbied for the re-launch of the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, the Tibet Support Group in the Indian Parliament, and it has already begun its work.

There is absolutely no change in our resolve to seek a negotiated solution through the middle way approach, which is mutually beneficial to China and Tibet, as a part of our efforts to resolve the current critical situation in Tibet and the wider issue of Tibet. We would therefore like to reiterate our call on the leadership of the People’s Republic of China to give up engaging in a blame game and, instead, make use of the opportune moment today to enter into a peaceful Sino-Tibetan negotiation with the urgency the issue deserves.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express immense gratitude to the countries, organizations, and private individuals – including especially the government and people of India – who have been extremely kind in giving support on the issue of Tibet and in providing humanitarian and other forms of assistance to the Tibetan people living in exile.

Finally, as we are all aware, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration had declared 2014 as the year for remembering the gratitude we owe to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Therefore, the Tibetan Parliament in Exile also takes this opportunity to express immense gratitude for every bit of the infinite concerns His Holiness the Dalai Lama has shown and the deeds he has accomplished for the benefit of the Buddhist faith as well as all sentient beings. And we again pray with single-minded devotion that the lord of the entire corpus of the Buddhist faith and sentient beings of the three realms remain steadfast in continuing to live for a hundred eons.

The Tibetan Parliament in Exile

Dharamsala

10th March, 2015

We are gathered here to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives for the cause of Tibet fifty-six years ago. We are also gathered here to remind ourselves to carry forward the non-violent struggle of the Tibetan people with great determination, courage and resolve.

My fellow Tibetans, I report to you that the situation in Tibet remains grim but the enduring spirit of Tibetan people is strong and getting stronger. Ever since the 2008 peaceful protests erupted, and the ongoing self-immolation protests throughout the plateau, Tibet is under virtual lockdown. Restrictions on movements of Tibetans have greatly intensified. At multiple checkpoints in major urban centers under constant surveillance cameras, Tibetans must swipe their identity cards that are embedded with sophisticated second generation chips. As one Tibetan has described this indignity: “Your identity card is like your shadow. Without it you cannot move.” The situation of increased restrictions is so excessive that even Chinese tourists have been moved to comment that the present conditions in Tibet are like a ‘war zone’.

Of particular concern to Tibetans is the China State Council’s announcement in 2014 to upgrade the status of the towns of Shigatse and Chamdo to that of cities. Though Tibetans welcome economic development in the form of modernization, their experience in the face of urbanization is one of economic marginalization, social exclusion and environmental destruction. Lhasa is a prime example. The city has seen an exponential urban expansion that has attracted migrant Chinese workers from all over China. This population shift has transformed the heart of Tibetan culture into another “Chinatown”, where Tibetans live in small ghettos surrounded by an expanding urban China. We fear the same negative transformation will happen to Shigatse and Chamdo, immeasurably reducing the ability of the Tibetan people to preserve their culture and identity. At the same time, Tibetans equally fear that Chinese settlers will overwhelm and swamp rural and nomadic Tibet.

These are some of the many challenges we confront in Tibet. Yet I believe that we have the determination, resolve and the collective will to surmount them. Tibetans in Tibet have survived one state-sponsored disaster after another. Disasters like the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s have not shaken the enduring spirit of the Tibetan people. From the martial law imposed in Lhasa in 1989, to the “strike hard campaigns” to stifle dissent, and campaigns like the Western China Development programme have not diminished the courage of the Tibetan people. From the 1959 uprising, which we honor today, through the decades of peaceful protests, including the 2008 pan-Tibet demonstrations and more than one hundred self-immolations, the Tibetan will to live as one cohesive people and fight for justice remains firm.

In Tibet, artists sing, paint and write, all with an emboldened spirit and a heightened sense of responsibility to the Tibetan cause. Within Tibet, a new spiritual, cultural and intellectual renaissance reinforces Tibetan pride and unity. From the humble gatherers of dbyar rtswa dgun ‘bu (caterpillar fungus) to the tireless truck drivers, farmers and nomads, to monks and nuns, Tibetans talk the night away in common aspiration to live in dignity and with a common identity. These pockets of ideas and oases of Tibet’s common aspirations will merge into a bright future for all people of Tibet.

The rhetoric coming out of China today is that Tibetans have become their own masters. To make this rhetoric a reality, we urge the Chinese leadership to let Tibetans govern Tibet. As China plans to observe the 50th anniversary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), hardliners in Beijing should heed that repression will only generate resentment. We have noted President Xi Jinping’s comments that Tibetan culture and language should be preserved yet, the local authority’s 20-point internal directives in Amdo undermines both.

On the part of the Kashag, we remain fully committed to the Middle Way Approach of not seeking separation from China but genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people. In order to realize genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people, the Task Force, an advisory body to the Kashag, held a conclave in the first week of January to undertake an in-depth discussion on the political developments in Tibet, on issues relating to the future of dialogue with the Chinese leadership and on developments in the larger international political landscape. The Tibetan leadership strongly believes that the only way to resolve the issue of Tibet is through dialogue between the Envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the representatives of the Chinese leadership. The Envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are ready to engage in dialogue with their Chinese counterpart any time and any place.

In this regard, we remain deeply appreciative of the recent U.S. State Department’s statement that encourages dialogue between the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership: “We believe that all people in the PRC would benefit from the fruits of dialogue and urge the Chinese Government to seize the opportunity to further engage with the Dalai Lama.”

We also welcome President Barack Obama’s comments at the annual breakfast prayer in Washington D.C, describing His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a “good friend” and “a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion” and a person who “inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings.”

I am glad to report that within India, we see increasing awareness of the importance of Tibet and more platforms provided for the discussion of the issue of Tibet. There is also the realization that the Central Tibetan Administration is both a genuinely democratic political entity and an effective one. The pride of our democracy is its public participation and we continue to encourage the Tibetan public’s deeper engagement in the democratic process.

This year, the Tibetan people and our friends throughout the world will celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. On this landmark occasion, we pray for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long life and continued good health. The hallmark of the Tibetan people is non-violence, and the values embraced by our elder generation: humility, integrity and resilience which should be embraced by younger generations. This is our political capital as well as political resource.

Above all, the first priority of the Kashag is education. In this effort the Kashag encourages Tibetans from all walks of life to be deeply involved in their children’s education.

I take this opportunity to thank all our Tibet support groups from Berlin to Brussels and Canberra to Cape Town and from Tokyo to Taipei, in their noble efforts and for supporting justice and freedom for Tibetans. Amid extremism and violent conflicts around the world, Tibet is a model of moderation and non-violence which is worthy of your continued support. We also express our profound gratitude to the people and Government of India for their generosity and hospitality.

My fellow Tibetans, once again, and with profound hope and gratitude, on behalf of six million Tibetan people, I offer my sincere prayers for the long life of His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama. Today, we honor and pay our deepest respects to the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet. With enduring spirit, may all Tibetans remain steadfast to the cause our forefathers and mothers, our sisters and brothers, and to all those who have devoted their lives to end the suffering of Tibetans and restore freedom for Tibet.

Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Bod Gyalo.

Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay

March 10, 2015

On behalf of 6 million Tibetans, the Kashag pays its most humble respects and deep reverence to His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama.

Kashag also extends its warmest greetings to fellow Tibetans, friends and well-wishers around the world.

Today is the Silver Jubilee of the momentous occasion of the conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize on His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Back in 1989, the Nobel Committee’s citation read: The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama, in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet, has consistently opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and
cultural heritage of his people.

Over the past twenty-five years, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has unwaveringly continued to confirm and strengthen the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize. His Holiness, who regards himself a simple Buddhist monk, continues to prove himself to be a shining beacon of peace, non-violence and compassion to millions of people across the world. Through the decades, His Holiness has relentlessly endeavoured to achieve his three commitments: promotion of basic human values, inter-religious harmony, and preservation of Tibet’s peaceful and non-violent Buddhist culture.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has travelled the five continents, meeting presidents, prime ministers, religious heads, kings, scientists, academics, youths, ordinary citizens, the poor and the underprivileged. He has been lauded with 151 major awards and honours. Even fellow Nobel Peace Laureates refer to him as a “Super Laureate”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s unswerving pursuit of a non-violent resolution to the issue of Tibet, based on dialogue and mutual benefit, has dramatically advanced the cause. Global citizens of conscience for Tibet have grown from a handful of small groups to a strong international campaign for human rights for Tibetans, including support through the production of a multitude of Page 1 of 5 documentaries about the Tibetan struggle, and also Hollywood films, as well as
in books and worldwide media coverage.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama promotes a mutually beneficial solution for the problem of Tibet, which takes into account the prevailing international environment and China’s domestic position and with the full mandate of the Tibetan people. With the adoption of the Middle-Way Approach, more than 20 contacts and consultations were made with the Chinese government from 1979 till formal contacts came to an end in 1993. When talks resumed in 2002, nine formal rounds of dialogue and one informal consultation were held between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the concerned PRC officials. The Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People sought genuine autonomy within the framework of the Chinese Constitution.

It is ironic that just recently, the Chinese government chose to designate December 4th as National Constitution Day to advance the Rule of Law and promote the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. If the Chinese government really deems the Constitution important, then it must put the document into practice and grant the Tibetan people the genuine autonomy it promises.

The Middle Way approach has enabled open support from governments and parliaments across the world. Many Chinese scholars and academics have also conveyed their support for the just cause of Tibet. Their interest in and understanding of the Tibetan cause increases by the day. The Central Tibetan Administration remains steadfastly committed to the Middle Way Approach. A meeting of Task Force on negotiation will be held shortly.

One of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s greatest contributions to and legacies for the Tibetan people has been in building the institution of democracy in exile. Even against the will of many of his people, he successfully implemented democratization of Tibetans-in-exile because of his conviction that ensuring Tibetans a say in their governance is in their best interest. Over the past 25 years, major milestones along this road have included the election of the Kalons
by the parliament in 1990, the adoption of the Charter of the Tibetans in Exile in 1991, the first direct election for Kalon Tripa in 2001, and most recently in 2011, the devolution of all political authority by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the directly elected leader. Under His Holiness’ visionary leadership, the Central Tibetan Administration has come to thrive and evolve into a self-sustaining institution with the democratic mandate of its people.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the life and soul of Tibet and the Tibetan people. The 14th Kashag therefore with joy announced the observation of 2014 the “Year of Gratitude to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.” It is an appeal to all elder Tibetans to engage with young Tibetans in retelling the story of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s life, so that the legacy, vision and mission of the Great 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet will be etched in the hearts and minds of
Tibetans for generations to come.

To celebrate the Silver Jubilee of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Central Tibetan Administration organized an event on October 2nd, 2014 in Dharamsala to coincide with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Fellow Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Jodi Williams also graced this special event.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to individuals as well as organizations. The efforts of the following Laureates,
● Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams’ led to the Good Friday Agreement, and paved the way for cooperation between the British and Irish governments.
● Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk, have brought racial equality to South Africa.
● Aung Sang Suu Kyi was released from house arrest and freed to pursue democracy in her native Burma.
● Jose Ramos-Horta and Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of East Timor have actualized their aspiration for a free East Timor.

Other Peace Laureates have also been successful in turning their efforts and aspirations into actual achievements. It is now time for His Holiness the Great 14th Dalai Lama’s vision to be realized. The Nobel Peace Laureates summit previously scheduled in South Africa was cancelled due to the boycott of the summit by other Laureates when visa was denied to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We appreciate and welcome the summit now being held in Rome which will be attended by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Today is also International Human Rights Day, commemorating the United Nations’ 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as the common standard to measure the freedoms by which all peoples and nations should live. Unfortunately, even 66 years after the proclamation, Tibetans have very little to celebrate. Instead, China consistently negates the provisions of the declaration, and human rights standards in Tibet continue to deteriorate. Tibet is still under occupation and the Tibetan people suffer political repression, economic marginalization, social discrimination, environmental destruction and cultural assimilation.

Countless demonstrations in Tibet since the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959 have called for human rights and basic freedoms for Tibetans. It is worth noting that, in 2008, the demonstrations spread to all regions where Tibetans reside in the three traditional Tibetan provinces, indicating that all Tibetans are united and share the same aspirations. It showed, too, the relevance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s aim to bring all the Tibetans under a single autonomous
administration.

The 132 self-immolations also include Tibetans of all ages and walks of life on the Tibetan plateau. On November 14th this year, an anonymous testimony by the survivor of a self-immolation protest reads: “Compared to other countries,
we don’t have freedom of religious belief, freedom of speech, and our spiritual leader cannot return home. The restrictions are ongoing. I was unable to bear the suffering of living under Chinese aggression, so I thought about a self-immolation protest.”

Today, we pray for those who have sacrificed their lives for basic freedom and human rights in Tibet. We remember the Tibetan political prisoners still suffering in Chinese prisons, including the 11th Kunzik Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Chadrel Rinpoche, and many others.

We hope for their speedy release and stand alongside them in their aspirations. We also urge Chinese authorities to release the 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, and to finally, also after 25 years, to meet the aspirations of the tragic events at Tiananmen Square.

A genuinely civilized democratic world cannot be achieved as long as injustice is inflicted in any corner of that world. The Kashag reiterates on this 66th Human Rights Day that the only way to end repression and the deteriorating situation of Tibet is for China to change its current hard line policy and respect the needs of the Tibetan people.

On this occasion, we deeply thank the citizens and Government of India. All the achievements of Tibetan refugees in reconstructing a cohesive and strong community would not have been possible without the constant support of India. We especially value and give thanks for the recently announced Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy 2014. We also wish to thank all Indian state governments, especially the beautiful state of Himachal Pradesh, for hosting the Central Tibetan Administration. We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the two-day International Himalayan Festival to be held in Dharamsala in honor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Finally, we also express our deep gratitude to all friends of Tibet and well-wishers across the globe. We end today with fervent prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s long and healthy life. May all his wishes be fulfilled, including all the Tibetans be united together in our homeland.

Mr. Penpa Tsering, Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile delivering the statement of the Tibetan Parliament on 10 December 2014.

Today is an outstanding day marking 25 years since His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the supreme protector of all Tibetans in Tibet and in exile, their guide, and a champion of world peace, having been awarded the globally acclaimed Nobel Peace Prize, graciously accepted it. Undaunted by the enormity of the difficulties of time and circumstances, His Holiness remains resolute in devoting his unimaginably exceptional deeds of body, speech and mind for the benefit of others – benefits  which are freely availed by all sentient beings across the universe for their happiness and well being. On behalf of all Tibetans in Tibet and in Exile, and with feelings of happiness, devotion and joyousness, I take this opportunity to offer greetings to His Holiness with a sense of immense gratitude.

Twenty-five years ago on this day, in the year 1989, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was presented the Nobel Peace Prize. His Holiness was awarded this globally acclaimed peace prize because he relied solely on non-violent means based on the noble teachings of Buddhism and the profound thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi in his actions which were designed to benefit others in general and, especially, to revive or, as the case may be, preserve and promote the globally beneficial Tibetan people and their culture in the course of his efforts to seek a just end to the Tibetan issue. Likewise, by viewing things from the long term perspective of benefiting the attainment of mutual accommodation, friendship, fairness, and compassion across the world, His Holiness achieved appreciable results in his attempts to address international disputes and through his assumption of responsibilities to promote human rights and protect the environment. For these admirable efforts and accomplishments, which are an ongoing endeavour, His Holiness won the hearts and minds of the people of this world and the Nobel Peace Committee rightly awarded its acclaimed Peace Prize to him.

Even now, His Holiness continues to assume truly numerous responsibilities in his efforts to bring peace, freedom and happiness in this world. Undaunted by personal difficulties, he travels again and again to numerous countries of the East and West, offering profound, yet appropriate and definitely easily digestible messages about kindness and compassion, tolerance, altruism, non-violence and so on with a view to bring about peace, freedom and happiness in this world. In particular, His Holiness continues to make efforts to bring about interreligious harmony and solidarity on the basis of the followers of the different religions remaining true to their particular faiths. He also continues to promote through lectures and other means the concept of secular ethics and to build on his initiative of carrying out a dialogue between Buddhism and modern science as a part of his special interests. For his multitude of deeds and accomplishments which have earned him – and continue to earn him – enormous number of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, we can all be justly happy and proud.

This year, which mark 25 years since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel Peace Committee of Norway especially invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to an unprecedented ceremony to commemorate the event and to pay compliments to him. This was a clear recognition once again of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his continuing efforts to champion the cause of global peace.

Earlier this year, many awardees were scheduled to gather in South Africa to hold a major summit of Nobel Peace laureates. However, in an action resembling the bullying of a humble person who had no protection, the Government of South Africa refused to grant a visa for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. As a result, many Nobel Peace laureates took a firm stand in support of him and for the just cause that he embodied. As a result, the summit had to be suspended. On behalf of all Tibetans in Tibet and in exile, I offer these exceptional and noble persons who offered fruitful support for a just cause infinite gratitude.

In this year of 2014, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to the Indian child rights activist Mr. Kailash Satyarthi and the teenaged Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai. They were chosen for the award because in this 21st century many children of the world are still not given educational and other opportunities while in some countries and regions girls are denied such opportunities. These two Nobel Peace laureates courageously struggled for these rights. I take this opportunity to compliment them and to offer congratulations. In this world of today marked by a period of mutual harm and violence caused by fighting and so on, we can but only offer the highest level of praise for the Nobel Peace Prize winners.

In 2010, Liu Xiaobo, a writer who had for the past more than 20 years championed the cause of human rights and democracy in his country, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, the government of China, being not happy with his advocacy of human rights, democracy, and so on, put him under arrest and he continues to remain imprisoned to this day. This shows nothing but the Chinese leaders’ determination to continue to strengthen its monopoly on political power by using all their powers. The action clearly shows that the Chinese leaders are paying only lip service to the protection of human rights, for in reality they are not at all concerned about the rights of the Chinese people. We strongly appeal to the Chinese leaders to immediately release people like him who advocate for human rights, democracy and related issues and who continue to suffer torture and persecution in prison. The Chinese leaders must consider enabling these people to enjoy the same rights that all human beings everywhere are entitled to. They also must ensure their all-round well being, if they are to truthfully abide by their commitments to uphold the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other treaties that make up the international bill of human rights.

This is also the World Human Rights Day which is designed to commemorate the protection of human rights. I, on behalf of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, would like to make an appeal to the governments of countries and territories, parliaments, organizations, well known political figures, scholars, and the general public who give great importance to the protection of human rights across this world. Since the invasion and occupation of Tibet, the government of China has carried out massive violations of human rights; countless number of totally innocent Tibetans have been detained and imprisoned and subjected to all manners of unrestrained and limitless persecution and torture, including with endless streams of killing. Such deplorable state of affairs continues today. I appeal to them to raise their protests to the government of China about this tragic situation. I also strongly appeal to them for result-oriented support in terms of pressuring the government of China to immediately end the persecutions and thereby lend their support to our just cause. At the same time, I also strongly call on the government of China to respect international law and conventions and thereby ensure a humanistic reorientation of its practices accordingly.

Taking the opportunity offered by the occasion today, I would also like to refer to some of the recent reports about human rights and other violations in Tibet by way of examples. At the end of September this year, a Chinese ethnic affairs meeting and the 6th meeting of the State Council for awarding outstanding contributors to the national ethnic unity was held in Beijing. At that meeting China’s leader Xi Jinping and other top leaders said that the fact that China was a multiethnic country was a characteristic feature of the nation, that this was an asset for the country’s progress, that the relationship between the people of China as a whole and that between the different ethnic groups was like that between a big family and the individual members of that family, and that the relationship between the different ethnic nationalities was like that among the different members of the same family. And they expressed opposition to the ideas of great Han chauvinism and narrow nationality-ism.  They made a great show of being very emphatic in these assertions in their various speeches. In actual practice, however, the government of China has never entertained any of the suggestions designed to enable the entire Tibetan people to enjoy the kind of genuinely meaning autonomy that is in keeping with the basic features of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Rather, it has been firm in its practice of implementing what is nothing less than a policy of colonial subjugation. It bears no mentioning that under it the Tibetan people have been denied their political freedom. What is more, in the commercially profitable bigger cities and towns of Tibet, ethnic Tibetans have been reduced to a minority, and they have been marginalized and pushed to the fringe areas. And this is still an ongoing process. In addition, there are strong restrictions on the Tibetan people in the exercise of their human rights, in the practice of their religious belief, on their freedom of movement, and in their learning and use of their linguistic heritage. Tibet’s environment continues to be subjected to such enormous degrees of destruction that it would be very hard to restore them. In the face of these realities, the above remarks of the Chinese leaders are nothing but naked lies, asserting as true something which is false, and presenting as existing something which does not exist. They are nothing but empty talks designed to deceive and mislead both the international community and all the different ethnic nationalities of China. On the other hand, if the Chinese leaders claim to be sincere and factual in their above remarks, while rejecting our criticisms, we call on them to undertake concrete, on the spot implementation of their assertions so as to realize them thereby.

According to a report which recently appeared in the official Tibet Daily newspaper, a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China was convened on the 4th of November to announce a speech by President Xi Jining on the matter of the dispatch of a central inspection team to the region. During that meeting, a report called investigation of the corrective actions work on the recommendations given by a four-member central inspection team for Tibet was reported to have been presented. That report had said that the campaign to oppose separatism should be strengthened and cadres who harbour fantasies about the 14th Dalai Group, follow the Dalai Group, participate in supporting separatist infiltration sabotage activities, will be strictly and severely punished according to the law and party disciplinary measures. All this is despite the fact the government of China is fully in the know that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been seeking – and continues to seek – to resolve the issue of Tibet only through the mutually beneficial middle way proposal. We therefore feel that the Chinese government is merely using the pretext of campaigning against separatism as an evil ploy to begin a campaign to ruin the careers of Tibetan cadres by using the device of legal measures.

Again, on the 7th of November this year, the website of China’s Tibet magazine carried a report about the holding of a function in Beijing for the inauguration of a project to make a realistic film about the Tibetan Buddhism’s system for the recognition of reincarnations of tulkus. The report spoke about the work for the supervision of the system in Tibetan Buddhism for the recognition of the reincarnations of tulkus having now been brought under legal restrictions. It also referred to the fact that in 2007, China’s State Administration of Religious Affairs had issued and announced a set of Regulation on Reincarnation of Living Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism. It added that these regulations lay down in clear terms the fundamental points underlying the system for the recognition of reincarnations of tulkus, the hierarchy of state authorities empowered to determine the fulfillment of conditions for the recognition and to grant permissions thereby. But the communist government of China is a professed atheist and knows absolutely nothing about religious matters. It is therefore patently obvious that by establishing legal regulations in a historically unprecedented action as a means to interfere in the Tibetan Buddhists’ system for the recognition of reincarnations of tulkus, China is simply making political misuse of this sacred religious practice. This is extremely uncalled for and there is no way anyone can accept it. We express absolute protest against it.

Across the length and breadth of Tibet, all centres of religious faith, including the monastic institutions, remain under as tight a set of restrictions as one can imagine. This also remains the case with Jhada Nunnery located in Kham Driru County. In particular, since September this year, work teams of particularly large numbers of Chinese cadres arrived there and forcibly ordered the nuns to carry out blasphemy against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And because the nuns refused to comply, some 26 of them were expelled from the nunnery and thereby put under immense hardship. These facts clearly show that China still has not stopped imposing restrictions, control, and pressure on the Tibetan people’s religious rights and freedom.

Recently, it was reported by China’s official Xinhua news agency that the country had completed the building of the Zam Hydroelectric power station dam over the Yarlung Tsangpo river and that it had begun generating electricity. This project remains a source of great concern due to its potential for inflicting environmental damages in Tibet as well as for causing destructions in the downstream countries of India and Bangladesh. This has become a matter requiring urgent attention and we call on the concerned governments, scholars in the relevant fields and others to show a heightened level of concern over this development.

Since the 27th of September 1987, the general masses of Tibetans in Tibet have continued to carry out successive campaigns of peaceful protests. In particular, since the year 2009, a total of 132 Tibetans of all age groups have felt driven to carry out protest self-immolations, sacrificing their precious lives with an utterly selfless motive to hopefully accomplish something meritorious both for themselves and others. Everyone knows that the compelling mental pressure which drove all those Tibetans to make this ultimate sacrifice was the brutality beyond all limits with which the human rights of the Tibetan people were trampled on under the repression of China’s armed forces. I take this opportunity to reiterate by way of a further reminder that the leaders of the government of China take full responsibility for this very tragic development.

The unparalleled heroism and determination underlying the deeds and accomplishments of the utterly selfless patriotic men and women in Tibet, both living and dead, will be empathized with and extolled by all Tibetans across the globe. Besides, in order to accomplish the fundamental cause of the Tibetan people, namely the speedy resolution of their just cause, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the incomparable leader of the Tibetan people, and the entire body of Tibetans living in exile will continue to carry out peaceful campaigns that are in addition to the numerous ones that are already being implemented.

Along with observing the glorious and victorious day of today, we pledge to keep in the centre of our hearts the peaceful and non-violent methods that his Holiness the Dalai Lama has shown us through his deeds. On this basis, we will remain motivated to carry out our duties to the best of our capabilities at each individual level so as to be of benefit towards achieving immediate as well as long term objectives both globally in general terms and for Tibet as a whole in particular. This is the essence of the objectives underlying our sense of gratitude towards His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the reason why we are observing this special occasion. I emphatically urge everyone to keep these in mind and carry them out in their day to day life.

Along with observing the day on which His Holiness the Dalai Lama was presented the Nobel Peace Prize, Himalayan Festival will be held for some days starting from this afternoon. People from the local Indian host community too will offer compliments to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his deeds and accomplishments. As this symbolically represents the existence of an unassailable bond of friendship and fraternity between the Indian and Tibetan peoples, I offer my thanks to all the organizers of the festival. The gratitude we owe to the people of India and their central and state governments for all their help and friendship can never be forgotten. I again take this opportunity to reiterate our thanks and gratitude. I also appeal to everyone to continue to work together towards further strengthening the friendship between the two peoples.

Finally, I offer prayers that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and all our other great spiritual masters live a long, long life, that all their wishes be spontaneously fulfilled, that the happiness and well being of all the sentient beings in this world be ensured, and that the just cause of the Tibetan people see a speedy resolution.

The Tibetan Parliament in Exile

10th December 2014