Delhi: Twelve Tibetan activists(1) were arrested after staging a massive protest in front of Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra just 15 minutes before the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrival at the Gala Event preceded by an unwelcoming banner action(2) late at last night. Wang Yi is currently in Delhi to jointly inaugurate the high-level India-China people-to-people exchanges mechanism with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The protesters shouted slogans demanding Freedom for Tibet.
Even after 59 years of illegal occupation of Tibet(3) by China, Tibetans inside Tibet continue to resist illegal Chinese rule through various means of nonviolent protests. Recently Drugkho, a Tibetan youth self-immolated to protest China’s Human Rights abuses. More than 160 Tibetans have self-immolated(4) both in and outside Tibet with a demand of freedom and return of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Currently Tibet is facing multifaceted crisis apart from lack of the political and human rights. China’s massive damming on Tibetan rivers and illegal minings will eventually have adverse effects not only on Tibet but also on downstream countries especially India.(5) The recent Chinese ill-fated projects such as the river diversion of Tibetan Yangtse (Brahmaputra) river from north to south will have irressible damage on Tibet’s environment. This project was commenced without considering the pollutions and Tibet is the water tower of Asia where six largest rivers (Yangtse, Yellow, Mekong, Salween,Brahmaputra,Indus) flow into ten most densely populated nations, sustaining over 1.5 billion Asians including India.
Moreover, the human rights situation in Tibet has deteriorated dramatically in recent years as fundamental rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, religion and privacy have been severely restricted. On Human Rights Day (10th Dec), a 17-year old monk named Sangay Gyatso(6) was arbitrarily detained by local Public Security Bureau officers for staging a solo protest calling for “Freedom for Tibet” on the main street of Ngaba County town in Amdo, Tibet.
The ongoing Belt Road Initiative (BRI) by China under the leadership of Xi Jinping is nothing but another form of their devious expansionist tactics where they use “debt traps” to occupy these countries. What happened to TIbet in 1950s could happen to the countries associated with this rather grand strategy of China.
“For the last three years Tibet has been ranked as one of the least free nation of the world only second to Syria. The media forum inauguration by Wang Yi is a complete hypocrite. As the Chinese citizens are controlled by state media thus allowing no information from outside world. China has been implementing an authoritarian tech dystopia, an A.I.-based surveillance technologies to police its 1.4 billion people thus making it easier to restrict any kind of activities in political nature which could be a threat to the very existence of Chinese Communist Government” says Tenzin Tselha, National Director (Students for a Free Tibet, India.)
Students for a Free Tibet works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence. It is a chapter-based network of young people and activists around the world. Through education, grassroots organizing and nonviolent direct action, they campaign for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political freedom.
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