China has sentenced a Tibetan language activist to five years in prison for inciting separatism after he appeared in a documentary video produced by The New York Times. Internet
AFP
ON THE WEB, 23 May 2018
A Tibetan who has campaigned to preserve his region’s ancestral language was jailed for five years in China on Tuesday for “inciting separatism” in a case Amnesty International denounced as “beyond absurd”.
Tashi Wangchuk was featured in a New York Times documentary that followed him on a trip to Beijing, where he attempted to get Chinese state media and courts to address what he describes as the diminishing use of the Tibetan language.
A court in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the northwestern province of Qinghai sentenced him on Tuesday morning, according to his lawyer.
The court could not be reached for comment.
Tashi had been detained in his home town of Yushu without access to his family since January 2016, not long after the New York Times published its story and documentary video about his activism.
“Tashi plans to appeal. I believe he committed no crime and we do not accept the verdict,” lawyer Liang Xiaojun told AFP.
Tashi had pleaded not guilty at his trial in January.
But nearly every case that goes to trial in China — especially on sensitive state security issues — ends with a guilty verdict.
Liang told AFP the short documentary was the main evidence used by the prosecution.
In the video, Tashi complained of a “systematic slaughter of our culture”.
In the New York Times stories Tashi notably said he wants to use Chinese law to build his case and praised President Xi Jinping.
Beijing says it “peacefully liberated” Tibet in 1951 and insists it has brought development to a previously backward region.
But many Tibetans accuse it of exploiting the region’s natural resources and encouraging an influx of the majority Han ethnic group which critics say is diluting the native culture and Buddhist faith.
China’s constitution protects free speech but critics say in reality there is little room for any opinions that challenge government policies. Rights groups have accused Xi’s government of an escalating crackdown on expression.
Amnesty International said the sentence was “a gross injustice”.
“He is being cruelly punished for peacefully drawing attention to the systematic erosion of Tibetan culture. To brand peaceful activism for Tibetan language as ‘inciting separatism’ is beyond absurd,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, its East Asia research director.
“The documentary underscores that Tashi Wangchuk was merely trying to express his opinions about education policy through entirely legitimate means,” Rosenzweig said in a statement.
The video ends with Tashi discussing the many Tibetans who have self-immolated in protest at China’s policies over the years, while adding what he would do if he is “locked up or they force me to say things against my will”.
“I will choose suicide,” he said.
No one should have expected anything good from the CCP. The CCP rules by terror and intimidation. There is no rule of law as western democracies know it but only the whims of the CCP. This is a a monolithic ultra-dictatorship that has few parallels. It sees the Chinese as having entitlement over the occupied lands like Tibet and its people and decides the fate of
No one should have expected anything good from the CCP. The CCP rules by terror and intimidation. There is no rule of law as we know it but only the whims of the CCP. This is a monolithic ultra-dictatorship that has few parallels in history. It sees itself as having entitlement over the occupied lands like Tibet more than the Tibetan people and thus borders on fascism. It’s ultimate objective is to completely destroy every trace of the distinctive culture, religion and language of the Tibetans and impose Chinese culture and language to make every Tibetan a “Chinese”. During these last six decades, they have systematically dismantled the language and culture by making mandarin the official language even in Tibet and Tibetans having to compete with Chinese colonisers for jobs. If Tibetans are not proficient in mandarin, they have no job prospects. This is how they cynically sought to impose their cultural imperialism on the Tibetans. Many young Tibetans have already lost their cultural roots and this is what really concerned people like Tashi Wangchuk. Instead of listening to his genuine grievances, the CCP put him into jail for five long years!!!! This is the appalling injustice Tibetans are facing today in occupied Tibet. This is in the back drop of the oft repeated Chinese claim that their constitution protects the rights of the so called “minorities” to preserve their national language and culture!!!! This goes to demonstrate that the Chinese constitution is not worth the paper it is written on. The question we must ask ourselves therefore is, is there any hope that Tibetans will ever be able to maintain our culture, religion and language under a totalitarian monolith which is oozing with Han Chauvinism and dabbles with fascism?
Once upon a time, the Chinese lamented at the way foreign imperialists mistreated Chinese netizens in their own homeland. In the late 1930s a signboard at a park in Shanghai read “No Chinese and dogs allowed.”
Today Tibetans are subjected to similar dehumanizing treatments by the Chinese; such an incongruous verdict for a Tibetan whose infraction was for acquainting himself in the preservation of his ancestral language. What a catawampus political paradox? Utterly, bumfuzzled?