UK Urged to Choose Morality Over Money and Confront China

By Charlotte Wigram-Evans / June 20, 2016;

China’s dismal human rights record in Tibet must be discussed at the on-going session of the UN Human Rights Council, a group of British Parliament members has urged the UK government.

MPs and Lords who make up the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, (APPGT) wrote letters to both Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, and the UK’s permanent representative at the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, Julian Braithwaite. In the correspondence, the APPGT stress the importance of keeping the “human rights violations by China firmly on the Council’s agenda,” urging them not to ignore the suffering of the Tibetan people.

More specifically, the group would like raised China’s current “stability maintenance” campaign, a programme that has lead to the imprisonment of hundreds of peaceful protesters across Tibet. They compel the government to demand the release of all political prisoners, in particular four high-profile detainees – monk and community leader Khenpo Kartse, human rights defender Tashi Wangchuk, primary school teacher Lhamo Kyab and retired doctor Yeshe Choedron.

The recent death in prison of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a revered Buddhist leader from Tibet’s Sichuan province has sent waves of anger and resentment rippling through the community. Arrested in 2002, Rinpoche was accused of being involved in a bomb blast in Chengdu city but has always maintained his innocence. The APPGT outline the case in their letters, asking the UK to demand that China allow UN representatives to visit Tibet and assess both the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, and reports that torture is rife in prisons throughout the country.

Although the UK has previously condemned China’s human rights abuses – it, along with 11 other countries issued a joint statement slamming the superpower in 2015 – recently it turns an increasingly blind eye. Prime Minister David Cameron has faced growing criticism over the way in which his government appears to prioritise economic gains over human rights.

Last year, the UK’s seemingly wealth motivated sycophantism went as far as to praise China for protecting the civil and political rights of its citizens on International Human Rights Day. This was in direct contrast to countries such as the United Stated whose Beijing ambassador, Max Baucus, accused China of treating peaceful activists and human rights lawyers as “enemies.”