2006 June | Tibet Will Be Free

Updates and Coverage of the Railway Campaign

Posted by philo on Jun 30, 2006 in Press Coverage, Protests | 0 comments

Great news!

All three activists who were detained by the Beijing police have been released after two hours of questioning. They have arrived safely in Hong Kong (I’m talking with them on a conference call now) and are currently handling media requests.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the early press and blog coverage of the banner hang in Beijing denouncing China’s Tibet railway as “Designed to Destroy.”

Joseph Kahn of the New York Times has a fantastic article in the International Herald Tribune that does great justice to the objections Tibet supporters have raised to the launch of the railway.

But Tibetan and foreign critics say the railway benefits Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, at the expense of Tibetan natives. They argue that enhanced transportation links will accelerate a trend of Han- led economic development and smother Tibet’s ancient spiritual culture, while undermining the pristine natural environment of its highlands.

“The overwhelming opinion among Tibetans is that the railway will consolidate Chinese control and bring in huge numbers of Han Chinese,” said Tenzin Tsundue, an independent Tibetan writer and activist who lives in India.

“It will mean less employment and more destruction for Tibetans, not more opportunity,” he said.

On Friday, three women from the United States, Canada and Britain were detained briefly after they climbed through a second-floor window at Beijing’s main train station and unfurled a black-and-white banner that read, “China’s Tibet Railway, Designed to Destroy.”

Kahn goes on to address some of the underlying signs that the railway is an ill-fated tool that the Chinese government is using to repress the Tibetan people and culture.

But the event is being tightly controlled by Chinese officials to ensure favorable coverage. They handpicked 40 foreign journalists to ride the first train. Other news organizations, including The New York Times, that purchased train tickets independently were denied permits to enter Tibetan territory.

Even at the official price tag of $4.1 billion, the railway is difficult to justify in economic terms. Tibet’s total gross domestic product in 2005 was $3.12 billion, so the payoff for the railway in terms of boosting economic activity would appear to lie decades in the future if it ever comes.

Also, foreign engineers who have been involved with elements of the project, but asked not to be identified because they did not wish to offend their Chinese sponsors, say the railway will require heavy expenditures on maintenance and may be difficult to run for more than a decade without an extensive overhaul.

Tibetan activists say they do not oppose the railway in principle but argue that it was conceived mainly to enhance China’s economic and military control over the Tibetan region. They say it will also aid Chinese exploitation of mineral resources in the Tibetan highlands.

Even as they promote the rail line, Chinese officials still focus heavily on combating what they call Tibetan separatism, especially the resilient loyalty there to the Dalai Lama. Zhang Qingli, recently appointed as the Communist Party’s top official in Tibet, told party leaders there in May that they were engaged in “a fight to the death” against the Dalai Lama, Tibet Daily reported.

And there lies the crux of the problem. Tibetans are not opposed to development, but demand sensible development that will actually benefit them. China, on the other hand, has gone to earth-defying lengths to smother the undying desire for freedom within Tibetans. The railway is about control and domination, everything else is just propaganda.
Both the New York Times and Washington Post are running an updated version of Alex Olesen’s AP story that talks about the detention of three free Tibet activists in Beijing.

The Telegraph in the UK has a more detailed story about the action, thanks to work by Free Tibet Campaign to get them details on Katie Mallin, one of the activists arrested in the action.

Human rights activist-blogger Cooper of Wonderland or Not has posted on the action. She reminds her readers that, “The world is freer when everyone is free. Remember everyone here is not free either no matter what you might think.” Amen, Cooper.

Technorati Tags: China-Tibet railway, direct action, Joseph Kahn

FREE TIBET ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN BEIJING FOR PROTESTING OPENING OF CHINA’S TIBET RAILWAY

Posted by philo on Jun 29, 2006 in Protests | 4 comments

Hong Kong – Tibet activists scaled the façade of Beijing’s Central Railway Station and unfurled a banner reading “China’s Tibet Railway: Designed to Destroy.” The protest was held on the eve of the launch of the new rail line that will link, for the first time, Beijing and Lhasa. Tibetans fear that the Chinese Government will use the railway to further its colonization of Tibet by moving in ever-larger numbers of Chinese settlers and military personnel while transporting out Tibet’s vast natural resources. Police detained three women from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom; their whereabouts remain unknown.

“China’s Tibet railway has been engineered to destroy the very fabric of Tibetan identity,�? said Lhadon Tethong, the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “China plans to use the railway to transport Chinese settlers directly into the heart of Tibet in order to overwhelm the Tibetan population and tighten its stranglehold over our people. We will continue to take action to defend Tibetan culture and today’s protest is but a preview of what China can expect as we approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics.”

Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and former Party Secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, will officially open the railway on July 1st in Golmud – an eastern Tibetan town and starting point for the newly extended 1,200 km line to Lhasa. Chinese authorities claim the railway will bring economic development to Tibet while Tibetans hold that the true motivation is consolidation of China’s political control of the region. Tibetans fear that the railway will facilitate the entry of large numbers of Chinese settlers into Tibet, further marginalizing Tibetans socially and economically, bolster China’s military strength in the region, and cause irreparable damage to Tibet’s high-altitude ecosystem. Many Tibetans see the railway as the final phase in China’s plan to wipe out Tibetan identity and culture.

“The Chinese government openly admits its political motivation for this project,” said Matt Whitticase, Campaign Spokesperson for Free Tibet Campaign. “The completion of the railway marks the realization of Mao’s dream to assimilate Tibet into China. Through our global day of action we hope to expose this reality and give voice to Tibetans inside Tibet who are not free to speak out in opposition to this devastating project.”

A Tibetan news website based in India has posted statements from Tibetan refugees recently-arrived in Nepal testifying to their concerns about the railway. Yamphel from Rebkong County says, “The Railway has become a matter of concern for all Tibetans, when older generation passes away, younger generations would be converted into Chinese.”

Tibetans and their supporters will hold protests worldwide on July 1st to denounce the launch of the railway. The “Reject the Railway” campaign will see protests at Chinese embassies and consulates in major cities around the world, including Ottawa, New York, London, and Dharamsala, India. Tibetans in exile are wearing black armbands to symbolize their resistance to the railway and China’s ongoing occupation of Tibet and to show their solidarity with Tibetans suffering under Chinese rule. Tibetan shopkeepers and restaurants in Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile, will close their businesses on July 1st in support of the “Reject the Railway” campaign.

More updates will be posted on Students for a Free Tibet’s website. Photos will be posted as soon as they are available. The full press release is available here.

(more…)

Our unshaken resistance to China’s Tibet railway

Posted by philo on Jun 29, 2006 in Economic | 3 comments

Updated three times below

On July 1st China will officially launch the China-Tibet railway, connecting Lhasa to Beijing for the first time by rail. Students for a Free Tibet and countless other Tibet support groups have worked hard to oppose the construction of this line and Bombardier’s delivery of luxury rail cars. Now that we’re approaching China’s Tibet railway’s first run, it’s critically important that we speak out in opposition to the purpose of this project: the destruction of the Tibetan identity and culture.

“China’s Tibet railway has been engineered to destroy the very fabric of Tibetan identity�?, said Lhadon Tethong, a Tibetan and Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “China plans to use the railway to transport Chinese migrants directly into the heart of Tibet in order to overwhelm the Tibetan population and tighten its stranglehold over our people. With the Beijing 2008 Olympics just 2 years away, we plan to hold Beijing and its railway partners accountable for destruction caused by the operation of this line.”

Just this week we heard newly arrived refugees from Tibet detail the negative impact the railway is already having on Tibetans.

Yamphel from Rebkong County says, ” The Railway has become a matter of concern for all Tibetans, when older generation passes away, younger generations would be converted into Chinese”.

Yeshi Damdul from Tölung Dechen County says, “Large numbers of poor Chinese would come to Tibet and the Railway would transport mineral ores from different parts of Tibet even thouh the government says it is for carrying passengers”.
…
Tsering Dhondhup from Damshung County says, “There is white stone mining in our Lungring Township since five years; these shiny white stones are expensive, 6-9 truckloads are taken out every day to be cleaned in Lhasa and transported to Mainland China. Locals don’t have any right to say anything and no one dares to speak, they blast lots of dynamite and it was harmful to people because it destroyed nomadic grasslands.

Dhondup continues, “Last year there was gold and lead mining from a holy lake called Sertso lake near the stone mining site and locals are very worried. Tibetans are not allowed to work there. Mining is done beyond limit and it would continue in the future also because the Railway track is also purposely made near mining areas, more mining tests are done in Nalung Township. The places that used to grow grass no longer grow grass, the fertility of the soil is deteriorating, when the Railway come, many Chinese would come and we would lose all our land”.

The uses of the railway are already clear to Tibetans inside of Tibet. Colonization, exploitation, environmental devastation and cultural dilution will continue to come as Han Chinese settlers are able to enter into Tibet with greater facility and Tibet’s natural resources are whisked out at greater speed.

Economic development inside Tibet has never been what was at stake in this project. Rather, the issue is that this is not a Tibetan-led development endeavor and it is in no way targeted to benefit Tibetans. If Tibetans were allowed to build a railway inside Tibet it would travel along different route, likely connecting to India. A railway built by and for Tibetans would make a real effort to use the technology to link remote Tibetan towns together – a mission China’s Tibet railway completely avoids.

Yet that would not mesh with the PRC’s long-held plans for assimilating Tibet into mainland China. And so we witness China proclaim success in another aspect in their genocide of Tibetan culture.

The good news is that the world is watching as China launches a project the is designed to destroy Tibet’s identity and culture. The Associated Press has run a widely distributed story that highlights Tibetans’ loud objections to the railway and I think we’ll see a lot more coverage that’s highly critical of the project while China tries to promote the rail launch is its own glowing terms.

Critics say it is part of a larger campaign by Beijing to crush Tibetan culture by allowing a huge influx of Han Chinese migrants.
…
However, [Zhu Zhensheng, vice director of Railway Ministry's Tibetan Railway Office] acknowledged that few ordinary Tibetans would benefit directly from the railway _ a key complaint by human rights and Tibet activists.

“At first there will be not very many opportunities for Tibetans to work on the train,” he said at a briefing. “We hope to increase those opportunities.”

Members of Students for a Free Tibet and pro-independence activists have been wearing black armbands in protest and say they will demonstrate at Chinese embassies and consulates around the world on Saturday.

“China’s railway to Tibet is not meant to benefit Tibetans and is only meant to consolidate Beijing’s control over the region,” the group said on its Web site.

I know Students for a Free Tibet and our supporters will not let the launch of this destructive railway go without protest. An international Day of Action is planned for this Saturday and protests will take place at Chinese embassies and consulates worldwide. Earlier this week fifty Tibetan demonstrators were arrested at a protest outside of the Chinese embassy in Delhi, India. China thinks it can promote it’s railway to Tibet as a technological success, but the truth of its destructive design is readily visible to anyone taking a serious look at who was given input in the design of the railway and who will actually benefit from the railway.

[Update I]

Here’s a revealing quote by Chinese railway minister Zhu Zhensheng, courtesy of McClatchy Newspapers report Tim Johnson:

No culture can develop and thrive in a closed environment.

That may be true, but what Zhu suggesting that Tibetan culture will thrive best when inundated by Chinese culture. I’d argue that a better description of Zhu’s dream scenario isn’t Tibetan culture thriving, but assimilating itself into Chinese culture.

The quickest path to the destruction of a culture is the death of its language and the dilution of its population. The Chinese government’s policies of population transfer has made Tibetans a minority in their own country. Educational opportunities in the Tibetan language are shut off before high school, leaving Tibetans forced to choose between their language and their educational (and economic) future.

I wouldn’t want any other culture to set the terms of America’s development and I’m certain that Tibetans want and deserve the right to chart the course of their culture, not have it destroyed by the at-best paternalistic policies of the Chinese Communist Party.

[Update II]

More media coverage of the rail launch. No articles I’ve read have yet to find a way to describe the railway without referencing the destructive impact it will have on the survival of the Tibetan culture.

Clifford Coonan of The Independent writes:

Exiled activists from the mountainous enclave fear that the track will sound the death knell for the traditional culture of Tibet. Environmentalists fear irreparable damage to a precious ecosystem on the remote and frozen Qinghai plateau.

Whichever argument prevails, the departure of the first train from Beijing to Lhasa signals a profound change for Tibet.

Ruled for hundreds of years by red-robed Tibetan Buddhist monks, Lhasa is a different place from the time when Chinese troops entered in 1950 and began imposing the dominant Han Chinese culture on the ancient territory.
…
However, groups demanding more autonomy for the region fear the train will bring even more Han Chinese migrants into Tibet, further diluting the indigenous culture.

Coonan does the dangers of the rail line to the Tibetan culture justice in his write up. While ostensibly presenting both the pro-railway and pro-survival of the Tibetan people arguments, his article ways heavy with the valid criticisms groups like SFT are presenting. Coonan makes clear both the history of China’s policies aimed at cultural destruction in Tibet and the ease with which this process will be accelerated by the new rail link.
.
Richard Spencer of The Telegraph writes:

When Locomotive T27 shuffles out of Beijing’s West Station tomorrow on a 2,500-mile journey to the roof of the world, China’s 50 year-long colonisation of Tibet will be complete.
…
Demonstrations are planned outside Chinese embassies around the world over the weekend. But there will be little trouble in Tibet, with reports of a heavy army and paramilitary presence in the capital, Lhasa.
…
The railway has military as well as economic benefits. Tibet has become China’s most overtly militarised region, as could be seen from the convoys of up to 80 army trucks travelling this week across the plateau, fresh from resupplying the garrisons.

This is partly to ensure security – there have been major uprisings against Chinese rule, the last, in the late 1980s, ending with a declaration of martial law by Tibet’s then party secretary, Hu Jintao.

I think Spencer is missing his own point about the military. The militarization of Tibet is for the purposes of colonization, not security. Militarization in a colony isn’t about providing security, but to ensure the continued repression of the colonized people. Spencer was bold enough to call China’s military occupation of Tibet a colonization; it would have been nice for him to carry the analysis through till the end of the article.

[Update III]

On the blogs, Johnontheroad writes about how his travels in Tibet have formed his opinions on China’s military occupation and the destruction the railway will cause.

Right now the Chinese have around 500,000 soldiers stationed in the TAR region of Tibet of around 2 or 3 million Tibetans. That’s roughly about 1 soldier to every 4 or 5 Tibetans. Why? Because the Chinese know they are in the wrong. They know that Tibetan don’t want be in China, so they force them to. Force exposes it’s own wrongness. Think about that.

More updates to come, gotta run for now…

Technorati Tags: China-Tibet railway

Action Camp Concludes…

Posted by philo on Jun 29, 2006 in Trainings & Conferences, Video, Photos and Audio | 0 comments

For your reading pleasure, here’s the press release that SFT sent out at the end of FT!AC VIII.

FREE TIBET! ACTION CAMP IN EUROPE CONCLUDES

[SFT] June 27, 2006

DUSSELDORF – Students for a Free Tibet seventh annual Free Tibet! Action Camp VII came to a climactic ending on yesterday evening, with participants enacting complex and dramatic direct action scenarios to practice all they had learned throughout the week. After a closing circle at which new graduates of the training promised to fight harder as the Beijing Olympics approaches, everyone packed up their tents and backpacks at the serene Pauenhof Retreat Center near Dusseldorf, Germany and exchanged farewells and promises, before leaving for their respective homes.

“Every time I attend an SFT training, I feel as if my batteries are recharged and I can go back to London to continue the work for Tibet with a fresh reserve of energy, inspiration and commitment,” said Ben Martin of SFT UK. He was one of the 40 participants who attended this action camp, representing Tibet support groups and student groups from 12 different countries in Europe, America and India. This was SFT’s second action camp in Europe and seventh annual action camp.

“I’m truly glad I came,” said Ngawang Dhargyal. “The workshops I attended and the climbing training I received gave me many brilliant insights into effective organizing and activism. I will surely use these tactics when I return to my own community.” This was Dhargyal’s first time at Action Camp; he was one among several Tibetan participants.

Free Tibet! Action Camp VII featured special evening guest presenters such as writer-activist Tenzin Tsundue from India, former political prisoners Gyaltsen Dolkar and Namdrol Lhamo now residing in Belgium, and singer-songwriter Techung from the United States.

“I feel stronger now that I know that there are many other people like myself working in different corners of the world, fighting for Tibetan freedom through simple yet powerful tactics of activism,” said Tenzin Tsundue, whose moving presentation Poetry and Politics was an emotional highlight for many participants who were meeting this youth leader for the first time.

On the last day of the Action Camp, a group of participants from the “Advanced Training Track” – young SFT leaders who have attended previous camps and are learning to be activism trainers themselves – organized a surprise presentation at lunchtime where they asked participants the question, “Where will you be in 2008?” The 2008 Beijing Olympics was one of the running themes of this Action Camp, discussed in workshops and around bonfires. Participants put their names on a blank world map, indicating where they will help in the organizing of local demonstrations, rallies at the Chinese consulates during the Olympics. More than a few participants put their names next to a dot on the map marked “Beijing.”

“With the Beijing Olympics only two years away and so many young Tibetans and supporters preparing for the event, activist training and planning like this camp needs to happen more often in more places,�? said Matt Browner-Hamlin, Operations Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “At SFT, we’re busy building the resources and plan to make it happen.”

Free Tibet! Action Camps have created a network of young leaders and a new youth movement for Tibet that is providing strategic vision and leadership to the Tibetan freedom struggle. The first Free Tibet! Action Camp was held in Florida in January, 2000. It was co-sponsored by The Ruckus Society and the Milarepa Fund. Since then, SFT has trained over 400 students and young Tibetans through these annual Action Camps. Many Action Camp alumni have grown into positions of leadership in the Tibet movement, and many others now work within their communities to bring awareness and activism to larger audiences.