Is Tibet the Next Xinjiang?
By Nicolas Jensen
Over the last six months, a number of released public reports detailed potential human rights abuses in Tibet. One report claims that upwards of 15% of all Tibetans have been forced to abandon their culturally nomadic lifestyle and move to a mass education facility. Canada is facing swelling calls for action from advocates and activists, concerned that the horrific strategies of forced cultural assimilation and genocide unearthed in Xinjiang are now taking place in Tibet. Indeed, Professor Timothy Cheek, one of the project directors at the Xinjiang Documentation Project, said “The repressive policies we have seen in Tibet echo the same policies seen in Xinjiang and are likely to produce similar human rights abuses.” Canada is now faced with the challenge of how to best evaluate and determine its position on Tibet, despite the existing strain on the Canadian-Chinese relationship.
Background
Tibet is a contested region of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), which assumed control over the territory in 1950 following the Battle of Chamdo. Before the military occupation, Tibet was a de facto sovereign state from 1912-1951 until the Government of Tibet accepted the terms of the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet. Tibet was a region under Chinese control before its short-lived independence, in which the Qing Dynasty ruled over the majority of the region for nearly 200 years. Tibet was ruled by the Qing Dynasty from the early eighteenth century until the Chinese Civil War resulted in the region claiming independence and de facto sovereignty in 1912.
Following an unsuccessful uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and state leader, fled to India, leading a government-in-exile (“Central Tibetan Administration”). In 2006, the 14th Dalai Lama, Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, was awarded honorary Canadian Citizenship.[1] The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, teaching Tibetan Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism; however, there are a minority of other religions in the region. Today, the religion in Tibet stands as a highly scripted ethnic religion, promoted as a valuable and integral part of the Chinese multi-ethnic state.[2]
Tibet stands as an autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China. Upon Canada’s official recognition of the PRC as the sovereign over the territory in 1970, Canada recognized China’s control over the territory of Tibet. [3] However, the official Canadian position on Tibet has shifted slightly over time. In 1988, the Honourable Joe Clark, former prime minister of Canada, stated in a letter sent to the Canada-Tibet committee, “… the Canadian Government's view is that Tibet's legal status is that of an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, as set out in the Chinese constitution." However, by 1990, the position became more pragmatic as the government determined to take no position about specific territorial claims, but rather remaining neutral. In 1998, the government officially stated that it did not recognize the Central Tibetan Administration government-in-exile led by the 14th Dalai Lama. Canada recognizes the Dalai Lama’s spiritual leadership but does not acknowledge any claims of political leadership. However, the Dalai Lama has worked towards an autonomous Tibet under Chinese control, and as of 2020 stated he did not support an independent Tibet, but rather “…prefer[s] the concept of a ‘republic’ in the People’s Republic of China. In the concept of republic, ethnic minorities are like Tibetans, The Mongols, Manchus, and Xinjiang Uyghurs, we can live in harmony.”[4] In relation to Tibet, Minister Champagne has stated through a press release on International Religious Freedom Day, that “Canada remains concerned by…the ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and other faith and belief communities in China…”[5].
Human Rights Abuses in Tibet
The United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, three of Canada’s closest allies, have become more united in speaking out against human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The actions by the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) in Xinjiang amount to cultural genocide, according to a recent Canadian Government report, citing extrajudicial detainment and mass indoctrination, as well as mass sterilization and enforced birth control measures.[6] Minister Champagne, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, commented in a November 2020 press briefing that he had spoken to the Chinese Ambassador on numerous occasions, highlighting Canada’s concerns over human rights abuses in Xinjiang against the native Uyghur Muslim minority in the region.
However, in recent months, reporting has suggested that similar tactics are being used in Tibet under the guise of poverty alleviation programs. The speed at which the massive camps are being erected, and the population ushered through, has alarmed researchers and critics of the CCP regime. Estimates show that roughly 15% of the entire Tibetan has already passed through the facilities in the first seven months of 2020.[7] Of the over half a million trained through the first seven months of 2020, fifty-thousand have transferred to jobs within Tibet, while the number on how many are being sent throughout China is unclear, but the estimates put it at least at several thousand.
Despite China being one of the most homogenous countries in the world at ninety percent ethnic Han, creating a nation with a collective conscience is of high priority to the country’s president, Mr. Xi Jinping. Indeed, in a government conference on ethnic policy, Mr. Xi stated “Forging a collective consciousness of the Chinese nation is central to achieving the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”[8] Dr. James Liebold, a professor at La Trobe University in Australia, who specializes in Chinese ethnic policy finds that ethnicity and collective consciousness are directly linked, stating: “Under Xi Jinping, the China Dream is the dream of Han-centric cultural nationalism.”[9]
However, the periphery of China’s territory is dominated by those most culturally and religiously distant from Han Chinese, each with its own language and customs and beliefs: Turkic Muslims, such as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and traditionally nomadic groups in Tibet and Mongolia. Many of these territories have slipped in and out of control of China historically; as such, addressing the country’s territorial integrity is high on Mr. Xi’s agenda. This is especially true as he faces mass protest and unrest in Hong Kong, as well as strained cross-straight relations with Taiwan’s more outwardly hostile Democratic Progressive Party, which is invested in asserting independence from Mainland China. Controlling the ethnic minorities that live on the periphery of traditional Chinese territory has been an ancient project, but in modern history, this project’s aims have often been for both political and economic reasons.
Using the American “melting pot” as inspiration, Chinese academics have emphasized the need to create a collective consciousness through a shared national identity came by way of minimizing cultural divisions.[10] Through ethnic homogenization, China hopes to create a nation built upon ethnonationalism and loyalty to the party and its ideals. Essential to Xi Jinping’s worldview, and indeed the CPC worldview is the need to maintain balance and harmony domestically to avoid another “century of humiliation,” a period in modern Chinese history that still colours policy today. Fusing the various ethnic groups recognized by the Chinese state under the Han banner is a matter of national security to the CPC and Mr. Xi.
To maintain harmony and political stability, the CPC has introduced forced labour and re-education camps among the regions with large populations of ethnic minorities, as has been documented thoroughly in Xinjiang. A massive police state has been erected in both Xinjiang and Tibet, with numerous “convenience” police stations that offer public amenities being built in rural areas in order to monitor and track the activities of ethnic minorities in these areas of China. In Tibet’s Golmud City, thirteen convenience police stations were erected in 2019 alone.[11] This is in addition to existing police stations that already serve the public for security and law enforcement purposes.
According to a recent Reuters report and research by Adrian Zens, a scholar of Chinese ethnic policy and an academic studying the recent policies in Tibet and Xinjiang, evidence has shown that the campaign towards ethnic fusion has intensified in Tibet. The campaign to build mass re-education camps in Tibet began in 2016 under the guise of poverty alleviation, and critics and researchers have become increasingly alarmed at the rate at which the Tibetan population, who are culturally nomadic, have been put through the re-education camps. Zens recently stated in the report from Reuters, “It’s a coercive lifestyle change from nomadism and framing to wage labour…this is now, in my opinion, the strongest, most clear and targeted attack on traditional Tibetan livelihoods that we have seen almost since the Cultural Revolution.” The camps not only involve skills training but also involve intense ideological training as well in order to create loyal citizens to the PRC.
Zens notes that there is currently no evidence that these programs are involuntary, and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied the involvement of forced labour or involuntary detention. However, advocates are still left concerned as similar lines have been used in Xinjiang, where the Chinese state denies forced detention and labour, and similarly, claim poverty alleviation as the policy guise when the de facto policy aim of these projects is ideological re-education and cultural genocide in order to ensure long term political stability.
In Tibet, evidence of forced government quotas on the number of residents sent to the camps, as well as the military-style of the camps, including the use of drills and uniforms to increase conformity, are concerning to researchers and CPC critics. Professor Liebold states the focus on conformity is due to the problematic belief that “Tibetans are seen as lazy, backward, slow or dirty, and so what they want to do is to get them marching to the same beat... That’s a big part of this type of military-style education.”[12] The belief is that through these camps a Tibetan can be re-educated from believing they must work, into believing they want to work and overcome laziness, convinced to participate in the modern economy.
Labour transfers sending rural Tibetans to other areas of China are particularly alarming as reports suggest that these Tibetan workers are kept in collective accommodations, in groups, and are generally kept away from the general public. Further, they are accompanied everywhere by a CPC-approved minder who is tasked with continuing the Tibetans’ re-education while overseeing their work. It’s unclear whether there is payment for schemes that are termed “work for training” in which participants are trained through work placement for an undefined amount of time.[13] Advocates and rights groups, along with researchers like Zens, doubt participants are able to decline work placement or reject being sent to a re-education camp.[14]
Conclusion
In light of the reporting over the last six months, Canada must continue to monitor the situation in Tibet and work with allies from the security and intelligence community to document human rights abuses, especially in relation to forced labourers and mass education camps. As Canada becomes more aware of the current situation in Tibet, Canada must discuss closely with allies the potential options with confronting China on documented human rights abuses in Tibet and Xinjiang.
Canada is not positioned well to lead this charge, but as a middle power country with powerful allies, Canada is positioned well to move the conversation forward with allies. Canada should also work with partner agencies in the federal government to identify supply chains that depend upon the forced labour of Uyghurs from Xinjiang or Tibetans, to disentangle Canadian business from these identified supply chains. Further, Canada should consider coordinated economic sanctions and/or boycotts over the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Tibetans (especially in light of the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing).
The retaliatory nature of Chinese “wolf warrior” and more aggressive diplomacy has resulted in Canadians living under PRC control being jailed, causing international incidents. While the US is economically and politically more able to confront China openly, Canada is not. However, much of what can be achieved in relation to confronting or working with China to address these human rights abuses are dependent upon the Biden Administration, which inherited a government with increasingly urgent domestic policy concerns.
References
[1] The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. (2006, September 11). Dalai Lama Presented with Honorary Canadian Citizenship. Retrieved December 23, 2020, from https://www.dalailama.com/news/2006/dalai-lama-presented-with-honorary-canadian-citizenship
[2] Thomas David DuBois (2010). Religion and the Chinese state: three crises and a solution. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64:3, 344-358, DOI: 10.1080/10357711003736501
[3] Canada Tibet Committee. (2013). The Evolution of Canada’s Tibet Policy. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://tibet.ca/en/tibet_and_canada/government_relations
[4] Xia, Xiaohua. "The Dalai Lama emphasizes that he does not support Tibetan independence and hopes to visit China as a Nobel Prize winner". RFA. Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved January 07, 2021.
[5] Global Affairs Canada. (2020, October 27). Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on International Religious Freedom Day. Retrieved January 05, 2021, from https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2020/10/statement-by-minister-of-foreign-affairs-on-international-religious-freedom-day.html
[6] Boynton, S. (2020, November 17). Champagne won't call China's treatment of Uighurs genocide after Beijing criticism. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://globalnews.ca/news/7466841/china-uighurs-canada-genocide/
[7] Cadell, C. (2020, September 22). Exclusive: China sharply expands mass labour programme in Tibet. Retrieved January 04, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-rights-tibet-exclusive/exclusive-china-sharply-expands-mass-labor-program-in-tibet-idUKKCN26D0H2?edition-redirect=uk
[8] Beijing accelerates campaign of ethnic assimilation. (2020, Dec 31). Dow Jones Institutional News Retrieved from https://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wire-feeds/beijing-accelerates-campaign-ethnic-assimilation/docview/2474404103/se-2?accountid=14656
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Tibet Business Daily. (2020, April 13). The Tibetan Human Resources and Social Security Department vigorously promotes vocational skills training. Retrieved January 09, 2021, from https://archive.vn/pYd32#selection-437.0-437.105
[14] Zenz, A. (2020, September 28). Like Uyghurs, Tibetans are locked up in re-education camps. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Like-Uyghurs,-Tibetans-are-locked-up-in-re-education-camps-(III)-51152.html
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Jiang, Wei. (2020, October 15). China's Tibet declares 'major victory' in poverty alleviation. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202010/15/WS5f87e6cea31024ad0ba7edfe.html
Beijing accelerates campaign of ethnic assimilation. (2020, Dec 31). Dow Jones Institutional News Retrieved from https://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/wire-feeds/beijing-accelerates-campaign-ethnic-assimilation/docview/2474404103/se-2?accountid=14656
Boynton, S. (2020, November 17). Champagne won't call China's treatment of Uighurs genocide after Beijing criticism. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://globalnews.ca/news/7466841/china-uighurs-canada-genocide/
Cadell, C. (2020, September 22). Exclusive: China sharply expands mass labour programme in Tibet. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-china-rights-tibet-exclusive/exclusive-china-sharply-expands-mass-labor-program-in-tibet-idUKKCN26D0H2?edition-redirect=uk
Canada Tibet Committee. (2013). The Evolution of Canada’s Tibet Policy. Retrieved January 06, 2021, from https://tibet.ca/en/tibet_and_canada/government_relations
DuBois, T. (2010). Religion and the Chinese state: three crises and a solution. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64:3, 344-358, DOI: 10.1080/10357711003736501
Global Affairs Canada. (2020, October 27). Statement by Minister of Foreign Affairs on International Religious Freedom Day. Retrieved January 05, 2021, from https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2020/10/statement-by-minister-of-foreign-affairs-on-international-religious-freedom-day.html
Rogin, J. (2020, December 26). Opinion: China's atrocities in Tibet are growing too big to ignore. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/chinas-atrocities-in-tibet-are-growing-too-big-to-ignore/2020/12/24/ba9d5c4e-4624-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html
Sonam, P. (2021, January 09). The Underlying Politics of Poverty Alleviation in Tibet. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/the-underlying-politics-of-poverty-alleviation-in-tibet/
Tibet Business Daily. (2020, April 13). The Tibetan Human Resources and Social Security Department vigorously promotes vocational skills training. Retrieved January 09, 2021, from https://archive.vn/pYd32#selection-437.0-437.105
Xia, Xiaohua. "The Dalai Lama emphasizes that he does not support Tibetan independence and hopes to visit China as a Nobel Prize winner". RFA. Archived from the original on 2 October 2020. Retrieved January 07, 2021.
Zenz, A. (2020, September 28). Like Uyghurs, Tibetans are locked up in re-education camps. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Like-the-Uyghurs-Tibetans-locked-up-in-re-education-camps-(II)-51138.html