Beijing, Aug 26 (IANS) China’s rule in Tibet has become “tyrannical” under President Xi Jinping as he has not only continued the policies of his predecessors but also intensified them into a comprehensive system of tyranny, a report has detailed.
A report in the European Times detailed that Chinese authorities have been using DNA collection, facial recognition and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven tracking systems to monitor people in Tibet as residents live under constant suspicion with their private lives having been criminalised by the authorities.
In Tibet, children are separated from their families and taken to boarding schools where Tibetan language is replaced by Mandarin, and devotion to their heritage is replaced with the Communist Party. Pictures of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama remain banned, monks have been arrested, and monasteries have been shut in Tibet, with Xi’s message: Tibet’s identity must be erased, Khedroob Thondup, nephew of the Dalai Lama, wrote in the European Times.
The Ethnic Unity Law, which came into effect in China on July 1, criminalises the celebration of Tibetan culture abroad as well, allowing Beijing to target diaspora communities. Xi Jinping has used technology for repression in Tibet, creating a digital dictatorship. Tibet has been facing cultural extinction as its language, religion and traditions are being dismantled.
“China’s rule in Tibet has always been heavy‑handed, but under Xi Jinping it has become tyrannical in the purest sense. Xi is not just another authoritarian leader — he is the worst tyrant Tibet has ever faced, wielding surveillance, assimilation, and law as weapons of cultural annihilation. Tibet today is a frontier of darkness, and Xi its architect,” wrote Thondup.
Last month, Ryan Fioresi, Executive Director of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), said that China is intensifying human rights abuses in Tibet and using a new law to place its forced assimilation policies on a legal footing.
He said the situation inside Tibet remains deeply troubling and urged the United States and other governments to press Beijing to resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.
“The situation inside Tibet is quite grim,” Fioresi told IANS in an interview. “The human rights abuses are escalating from the Chinese government.”
Fioresi said that China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Law gave legal cover to policies aimed at weakening Tibet’s distinct identity.
“The Chinese government just implemented on July 1st, just a few days ago, the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which codifies many of Beijing’s forced assimilation policies into Chinese law,” he said.
“Many of the stipulations in the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law contravene China’s own constitution and its international human rights commitments.”
Fioresi said the International Campaign for Tibet had sought to draw global attention to the legislation. “We called on governments, the United Nations, interfaith leaders to speak out on this law, to shine a light on what China is doing to erase Tibetan identity and to urge Beijing to change these policies,” he said.
–IANS
