Heightened Surveillance and Intimidation at all Levels in Tibet

By Mary Trewartha / January 18, 2022;

Photo: Screengrab from HRW website

Human Rights Watch (HRW)* has published its annual review of human rights around the globe. Their World Report 2022 is their 32nd annual review of human rights trends around the globe, and reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Their report on Tibet is quoted here in full:

Authorities in Tibetan areas continue to severely restrict freedoms of religion, expression, movement, and assembly. They also fail to address popular concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, which often involve intimidation and unlawful use of force by security forces.

Following a November 2020 announcement tightening controls on online communications that “undermine national unity,” there was a surge of reported detentions of Tibetans in 2021 for alleged online offenses. In particular, Tibetans who communicated with people outside China were harassed and punished, regardless of the content of their communications.

The government stepped up coercive assimilationist policies. Chinese language classes were already compulsory for schoolteachers, local officials, and vocational trainees. In July, authorities announced that kindergartens in ethnic minority areas must use Chinese as a medium of instruction. In August, President Xi emphasized the subordination of minority identities to a single national identity at the national “Ethnic Work” conference.

Authorities’ heightened surveillance and intimidation at all levels, from online to neighborhoods to schools, and have rendered protests—such as those over the downgrading of minority language in Inner Mongolia in 2020—virtually impossible in Tibetan areas.

At least eight Tibetan prisoners or suspects were released due to ill health, some due to torture, four of whom died soon after, though the true number is unknown due to extreme information controls in Tibet.

In the introduction to the full report, Executive Director Kenneth Roth writes that “autocratic leaders faced significant backlash in 2021, but democracy will flourish in the contest with autocracy only if democratic leaders do a better job of addressing global problems”. The general introduction continues, saying that if democracies are to prevail, their leaders need to “make a stronger, positive case for democratic rule”. It says they need to do “a better job of meeting national and global challenges” and “standing up for democratic institutions such as independent courts, free media, robust legislatures, and vibrant civil societies even when that brings unwelcome scrutiny or challenges to executive policies”. Specifically mentioning China here, it comments that “The Chinese and Russian leaders did not even bother showing up at the climate summit in Glasgow”.

HRW says that a “lack of democratic process leaves autocrats unaccountable to the public” which “makes them more likely to serve their own political interests”.

Regarding China, the report says, “With President Xi Jinping at the helm, the Chinese government doubled down on repression inside and outside the country in 2021. Its ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards Covid-19 strengthened the authorities’ hand, as they imposed harsh policies in the name of public health.” It comments on their policies in Hong Kong and their “crimes against humanity as part of a widespread and systematic attack on Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, including mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution. Tibetans continued to be subjected to grave abuses, including harsh and lengthy imprisonment for exercising their basic rights.”

*HRW is an independent organisation which investigates and reports on abuses happening around the world. HRW’s team includes country experts, lawyers, journalists and others who work to protect the most at risk, directing their advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. They ensure independence by refusing government funding and carefully review all donations to ensure that they are consistent with their policies, mission and values. They partner with organisations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims.