Does China’s New Law Mean Ethnic Cleansing for Tibet?

By Rupert Eyles / January 14, 2020;

Earlier this month, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s (TAR) People’s Congress passed new legislation which, they say, will “strengthen ethnic unity” in the region, effective May 1. While the full text has not yet been released, the law (the first of its kind in the TAR) is said to include ways for local governments to promote unity and requires compliance from companies, religious centres, schools and other institutions. It also identifies Tibetans as Chinese ethnic minorities and calls on all Tibetan residents to stand up to separatism.

According to the Chinese state-run Global Times, the law stipulates that “Tibet has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times, and it is the common responsibility for the people of all ethnic groups to safeguard national reunification.” The new law appears to mirror one passed in East Turkestan [Ch: Xinjiang], the Muslim minority region of north western China, four years ago, which facilitated crackdowns on the region’s ethnic Uighur community and imposed tight controls on freedom of expression. It also precipitated the opening of a network of detention camps which currently house approximately one million political prisoners, mostly Uighur Muslims.

The Central Tibetan Administration’s Information Secretary Mr TG Arya has condemned the new law, stating that it “aims to achieve complete sinicisation of the Tibetan plateau through ethnic cleansing. China wants to gain legitimacy to diminish the Tibetan ethnicity through systematic state-sponsored migration of Han Chinese into Tibet. It is a gross violation of international law and the Chinese constitution to deny the Tibetans their proper identity”. Global lawmakers also criticised the new legislation: United States Senator Macro Rubio told the Catholic News Agency that “as the Chinese Communist Party continues its attempts to wipe out Tibetan culture, the US and freedom-loving nations should condemn the blatant violations of human rights”.

Despite over 60 years of occupation, Tibetans still continue their resistance to China’s occupation. Since February 2009, 156 Tibetans have self-immolated inside Tibet, calling for freedom, an end to occupation and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.