APPENDIX 12
Memorandum submitted by Mr John Billington
POLITICAL
In theory the TAR enjoys "autonomy"
and the FCO currently subscribes to this claim. In reality Tibetans
have no autonomy: all important decisions are made by Chinese
personnel, or their Tibetan stooges who are not answerable to
an electorate. No one who has had dealing with Tibetans inside
Tibet can doubt that they view the Chinese with fear and loathingloathing
because Tibetan wishes are not taken into consideration and their
culture is marginalized as China seeks to subsume Tibet into what
it calls the "Motherland". Tibetans do not view China
as their motherland. HMG originally agreed to accept Chinese "suzerainty"
on condition that China allowed Tibet genuine autonomy, including
in foreign affairs. Since China has never fulfilled its side of
the bargain, HMG should withdraw its recognition of Chinese suzeraintya
relationship that Tibetans have never accepted. HMG should take
a lead in supporting Tibet since Britain has historically had
closer relationships with Tibet than any other western nation.
The status of Tibet could be used as a bargaining counter in persuading
China to change.
The most serious problem for Tibet is the current
massive transfer of population, which continues despite China's
bland assurances and "statistics" to the contrary. I
was shocked and depressed on my recent visit to note the enormous
increase in the size of New Lhasa (Chinese Lhasa ie) And the enormous
influx of Chinese even in the last twelve months. Unemployment
in China proper had led to Tibet being viewed as a latter-day
Yukon or Klondykea remote western land where the enterprising
may make a fortune. I would estimate that Chinese now outnumber
Tibetans in their own capital city by about 8 to 1; the visitor
has to look hard to find a Tibetan and when he does so it is a
couple of ghettoes in the old part of Lhasa (around the Jokhang
and Ramoche temples).
HUMAN RIGHTS
China is a State Party to the Convention against
Torture but torture is endemic in Chinese prisons. China executes
more of its citizens than the rest of the world put together.
Torture and execution are used to suppress resistance to one-party
rule. Sentences of political prisoners are regularly extended
even for peaceful protests if those protests involve what the
Chinese see as a threat to their national unity, and Tibetans,
Mongols and Uighurs suffer because they are not Han. Over three-quarters
of the 615 known political prisoners in Tibet are monks and nuns
who are doubly persecutedfor their religion and for their
educated understanding of their own history and culture which
puts them at odds with the Chinese claim to "own" Tibet.
To date, HMG's support for motions criticising China's human rights
record in Tibet (and elsewhere) has been compromised by our hope
to gain commercially. I do not believe that is what the people
of this country want and I urge the FCO to take a more robust
stand on China's abuses of human rights and especially in Tibet.
HMG should support a motion at the UN urging China to grant genuine
autonomy at the very least, if not outright independence to the
Tibetan people whose right to independence is considerably greater
than that of the people of East Timor (for example). HMG should
actively renew support for the implementation of the UN's GA Resolution
1723 which calls upon China to cease practices "which deprive
the Tibetan people of their fundamental rights and freedoms, including
the right to self-determination."
EDUCATION
I have made a detailed study of this (as a teacher
myself). Tibetans are discriminated against in that their language
is subordinated for all forms of higher education to Chinese;
support for the Tibetan language and culture is seen as a threat
to national unity. To get anything other than a manual job a Tibetan
must first learn to speak and write fluent Chinese as all examinations
are in Chinese. Tibetans loathe the learning of Chinese which
they see as a betrayal of their own culture. Tibetans are thus
hugely disadvantaged in the job-market. Moreover, Tibetans are
denied all opportunity to learn English even when they wish to,
because they are time-tabled to learn Chinese when their Chinese
counterparts living in Tibet are time-tabled to learn English
(ie Chinese do not have to learn Tibetan even when they live in
Tibet, but Tibetans do have to learn Chinese). Thus again Tibetans
are disadvantaged in any area (including tourism and running restaurants
etc) where English might be useful while their Chinese counterparts
steam ahead. I am currently engaged in attempting on behalf of
GAP Activity Ltd (a charity in Reading supplying school-leavers
to teach EFL overseas) to set up this scheme in Tibet. GAP already
supplies about 100 Volunteer teachers to various provinces within
China but Tibet is currently excluded from this scheme. There
is no reason in law why both Tibetan and Chinese Middle School
students in the TAR should not benefit from this scheme which
is totally non-political. I would urge the FCO to take up and
support this project. Our Director, Brigadier John Cornell, would
I believe welcome FCO support. Such a scheme would help Tibetans
but would also help young Chinese students living in Tibet.
2,474 Tibetans are recorded as having crossed
the border into India and Nepal in 1999 alone. Of these 1,115
were children below the age of 18. The majority of these on-going
refugees give as their reason for escaping the desire to get an
education free of indoctrination.
Religious Freedom (or lack of it): In 1999 a
three-year "atheism" campaign was launched in Tibet,
the aim of which was to demonstrate that Buddhism is "alien"
to Tibet. The Chinese capacity to attempt to prove the impossible
is breathtaking since no-one who knows anything about Tibet could
deny that Tibet and Buddhism are closely and inextricably intertwined.
Fifty years after taking over Tibet the central government is
still trying to liquidate religion, despite all the evidence that
it will not work. In the "strike hard" campaign that
has been continuing since 1996, over 11,000 monks have been expelled
from their monasteries for refusing to condemn the Dalai Lama
etc; and 541 have been arrested. In my recent visit I saw not
a single photograph of the Dalai Lama on show anywhere. In places
where the Dalai Lama's picture would traditionally be displayed
the Chinese authorities had substituted pictures of the late Panchen
Lama and the Chinese-appointed new successor. The Panchen Lama
approved by the Dalai Lama and therefore by the Tibetan people
(Gedun Choekyi Nyima) remains under close house arrest and has
not been seen by any western enquirer. You will scarcely need
to be reminded that the head of the Karmapa sect (the Karmapa
Lama) escaped in January this year from his monastery in Tsurphu;
or that the suppression and arrest of followers of Falun Gong
indicate a serious absence of religious freedom in China.
These seem to me some of the key issues which
the FCO should bear in mind in its dealings with the PRC. I believe
they reflect the concerns of many people who are now increasingly
well-informed on this issue.
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