In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, visits the Drepung Monastery located in the western suburbs of Lhasa, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region on 22 July 2021. File photo/AP/Xinhua/Xie Huanchi
PTI
WASHINGTON, DC, 27 July 2021
Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting Tibet last week is a threat to India, an influential US lawmaker has said, accusing the Joe Biden-led administration of not doing enough to stop the Chinese “march”.
Xi on Wednesday last made an unannounced three-day trip to Nyingchi in Tibet, close to the border with Arunachal Pradesh. Xi, who is also General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, met top officials of the Tibet Military Command and reviewed development projects in the region.
In an interview to Fox News, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes said: “Just last week, you had Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator, on the border with India, in Tibet, claiming victory. This was the first time in 30 years, I believe, that a Chinese dictator had been to Tibet, and also threatening India, over a billion people also a nuclear power; threatening India that he’s going to build a big water project, possibly cut off water to India.”
During his visit to Nyingchi, Xi visited the Nyang River Bridge to inspect the ecological preservation in the basin of the Brahmaputra river, which is called Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan language.
China this year approved plans to build a huge dam over the Brahmaputra river during the current 14th Five-Year Plan, which raised concerns in the riparian states of India and Bangladesh.
“So, no matter what you plug into the propaganda machine, you can build all the narratives you want here in Washington, DC, but then there’s reality. The reality is that the Chinese are on the march, and the (President Joe) Biden administration is letting them do whatever they want,” Nunes said.
A senior Republican in the House of Representatives representing the 42nd Congressional district of California, Nunes was the chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019.
Xi’s visit to Tibet took place amidst the current India-China military tensions in eastern Ladakh.
India and China have been locked in a military standoff at multiple friction points in eastern Ladakh since early May last year.
China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, which is firmly rejected by India. The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).
China is accused of suppressing cultural and religious freedom in Tibet. China has rejected the accusations.
Since becoming President in 2013, Xi has pursued a firm policy of stepping up security control of Tibet. Beijing has been cracking down on Buddhist monks and followers of the Dalai Lama, who despite his exile remains a widely admired spiritual leader in the remote Himalayan region.
Look how the CCP is misrepresenting Tibetan Buddhism! This kind of reception is only for high Lamas like the Dalai Lama and Panchen. They are done to show the people’s devotion and respect for the holy Lamas. However, it’s now used to prop up the image of the ruthless Chinese dictator. It’s done to the holy Lamas because they are the protectors (བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱི་སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པ་) but the CCP dictator is instead destroyer (བསྟན་བཤིག་) of the holy Dharma.
He is now donning the mantle of the Dalai Lama and has forced the monks to dress up in their best attire and even wear their hats!!! The monks are made to bow their heads as if they have “respect” to him which is doubtful. They are forced to do so and the lay people were also made to do the same including taking off their hats as a “show of respect”. In Buddhist culture around the world, a Buddhist monk/nun can’t bow to a lay person even if it is the king. Being the custodians of the holy Dharma and having vows, they are higher in status than the lay people.
In Tibetan history, Emperor Tri Ralpachen used his hair as cushion for the monks to sit upon as a symbolic gesture of respect for the Sangha (དགེ་འདུན་)
The monks will bow only to their Lamas and superiors but not to lay people especially not to a ruthless murderer like dictator Xi. It’s simply sacrilegious.
So, this is what the CCP means by Sinofication of Tibetan Buddhism. They want to replace Tibet’s respected religious leaders and assume themselves as the Lamas in order to wean away Tibetan devotion and esteem to their traditional religious leaders. It’s beyond belief what the CCP is trying to do but Tibetan people have the intelligence to know who is the བསྟན་འཛིན་གྱི་སྐྱེས་བུ་ (Protector of holy Dharma) and who is the བསྟན་པའི་དགྲ་བོ་ (the enemy of…