4 Tibetans Shot in Cold Blood, China’s Global Image Sullied

As the Chinese government prepares for a massive media effort to boost its global image with celebrity ads this October, it have shown its true face in how they deal with Tibetans who speak out. Just last week, Chinese police in Palyul County, Kardze Prefecture, in eastern Tibet (Ch: Baiyu County, Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province) opened fire on a group of Tibetans protesting the expansion of a Chinese-owned gold mining operation. It is now being reported that four Tibetans were shot dead and thirty more were injured in this violent attack on unarmed protesters.

China’s State Council has said the media effort will promote an image of prosperity, democracy, openness, peace and harmony.”

Clearly despite its claims to “openness, democracy, and peace and harmony,” the Chinese government is a human rights failure. Television ads featuring on Chinese celebrities Yao Ming, Yang Liwei, and Jackie Chan will not change the harsh reality of China’s brutal occupation of Tibet or fool the international community. Take Action: condemn the attack and call for those responsible to be brought to justice.

Go Daddy: “Won’t Act as agent for the Chinese Gov”

Following Google’s historic decision to stop censoring search results in China, effectively ending the company’s business in the world’s largest Internet market, two of the largest domain registration and hosting companies in the world, Go Daddy (www.godaddy.com) and Network Solutions (www.networksolutions.com) have announced their plans to stop registering domain names in China. Go Daddy’s executive VP and general counsel Christine Jones said in a prepared statement, Jones reportedly said that Go Daddy

“made a decision we didn’t want to act as an agent for the Chinese government.”

Network Solutions announced Wednesday that it had stopped hosting new websites with the .cn China domain in December, for much the same reasons as Go Daddy.

The China Internet Network Information Center authorizes companies outside China to sell .cn domain names but in December, the organization changed its policies to require registrars to collect color head-shot photographs, detailed business information, and other details about all domain registrants.

Both companies said they would continue to support domains already registered, but had ceased to seek out new business in China.

While the decision has obvious privacy, expression, and human rights issues attached, the cost of doing the complex “fact-gathering”, now required by the Chinese government is another major consideration in the domain business.

Good job Go Daddy!

A Tibet supporter’s analysis of Google’s China stand

Josh Schrei, former SFT board chair and lifelong Tibet support posted a must-read analysis piece on Google’s decision to stand up to China in Huffington Post: The War Over Words: Why Google’s New Approach to China Should Be the Only Approach

He lays out the broader implications of Google’s move to take the power back in its relationship with China and encourages other western corporations and political leaders to do the same.

While I applaud Google for their brave decision, their “discomfort” around having to censor should have been taken more seriously the first time around, because there are very few good places such a decision can lead. Once you go down that road, it will inevitably lead to places of greater ambiguity, greater ethical dilemma, and greater concern. Luckily, free thinking minds prevailed, before the unthinkable ( for example, the company NOT disclosing China’s shenanigans in favor of keeping the relationship strong) happened. Over the next few weeks I encourage the Google-folk to maintain the firm stance they did yesterday. Bending on these issues is not an option. Too much is at stake.

Hopefully Google’s actions will start to show some US companies — and our good President, for that matter — that they do have influence with the Chinese, they do have power in that relationship…. and that we can make change by living according to principle. Moving forward, other companies MUST follow Google’s lead. Restrictions should be put in place on selling the Chinese government technology, software, or hardware that enables surveillance and digital privacy invasion. And when Beijing plays foul, in any circumstance, companies have a responsibility to call them out on it, as Google has done.

Read the full article.

East Turkestan – an issue of nationhood for the Uyghurs

Most of the news coverage of the events in Urumchi over the past week reduced the unrest down to an issue of “ethnic tension” or “ethnic rioting,” completely glossing over the issue of occupation. China’s occupation of East Turkestan (what China calls Xinjiang), the Uyghur homeland, is at the root of the violent events that have transpired. No one is denying that the ensuing violence manifested itself along ethnic lines, but ultimately this is not a battle between “Han” Chinese and Uygur “Muslims;”  it is a battle of survival for the Uyghur people against China’s systematic efforts to suppress the Uyghur nation and colonize the Ugyhur homeland.

Below are a few of the analysis pieces that are starting to address this issue:

Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao discusses how China’s “Go West” policy of Chinese resettlement has fueled the unrest:

The Guardian’s John Gittings talks about Uyghur separatism:

Until now, it has been Beijing that talked up the threat of ethnic separatism in its far north-west region of Xinjiang, while the attitude of most of the Muslim Uighur population has been one of quiet – though unhappy – acceptance of Chinese rule. But the latest outbreak of violence in the regional capital of Urumqi suggests that Uighur resentment at heavy-handed Chinese policies has begun to boil over. For Uighurs to challenge the authorities in what has become a largely Chinese city is even more remarkable.

Xinjiang has a history of only intermittent control from Beijing and the misfortune of being seen by the Chinese as a strategic buffer region against its neighbors. There were two short-lived independent “East Turkestan” republics in the 1930s and 1940s – the second under strong Soviet influence. After the 1949 Chinese communist victory, Beijing quickly moved thousands of soldiers to set up paramilitary state farms: Xinjiang became a favored location for penal centers, and later on for Red Guards who were “sent down to the countryside”. After subsequent waves of migration, Han Chinese now make up 40% of the population, not much less than the 47% of Uighurs.

Violent crackdown on Uyghurs expected in East Turkestan

As in Tibet, Chinese governments vows massive military crackdown on Uyhurs in East Turkestan:

China’s leaders vow to punish Xinjiang rioters (AFP)

“The planners of the incident, the organisers, key members and the serious violent criminals must be severely punished,” President Hu Jintao and the other eight members of the ruling Communist Party’s elite Politburo said.

Chinese leaders Vow Xinjiang Action (BBC)

China’s top leadership has vowed to administer “severe punishment” to those involved in the deadly rioting in Xinjiang

Beijing professor held for Urumqi blog (AFP)

“The crackdown is not limited to Xinjiang,” the media rights group said in a statement. “The authorities have arrested an independent writer who was just posting reports on his blog.”

Martial law in Xinjiang

Al Jazeera update: Urumchi flooded with troops – there is no indication things will return to normal anytime soon.

China tries…(and fails) at new openness with foreign media

BEIJING (AP) — When riots broke out in the restive west this week, China took a different tack with foreign journalists: Instead of being barred, reporters were invited on an official tour of Xinjiang’s capital.

The approach, a stark reversal from last year’s handling of Tibetan unrest, suggests Chinese authorities have learned that providing access to information means they can get their own message out, experts said.

Read full article

Message of solidarity with the Uygurs of East Turkestan

International Tibet Support Network
8 July 2009:

The 168 member organisations of the International Tibet Support Network (note 1) express their deep concern over the tragic events that are unfolding in East Turkestan (Ch: Xinjiang) .  We call on the government of China to release those who have been detained for peaceful protest, restore internet and mobile telephone communication to Urumqi, permit unfettered access to journalists, cease its propaganda campaign that is contributing to the violence, and allow the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation. ITSN members send a message of solidarity to Rebiya Kadeer and to members of the World Uyghur Congress at this tragic time.

As with the protests that erupted in Tibet in 2008, China is following the same approach it used to “manage” the situation there including:
- tightly controlling foreign media (some of whom are in Urumqi on a government-organised tour).
- shutting down internet and mobile telephone access to prevent information getting out of the region and control what its own citizens are told about events.
- conducting night-time raids which have led to the arrests of many hundreds of people.
- flooding news broadcasts with images and statements that present protestors solely as violent rioters, thereby inciting ethnic conflict (see note 2).
- without proof, blaming the expression of legitimate grievances on “hostile foreign forces” (in East Turkestan’s case, Rebiya Kadeer and the World Uyghur Congress; in Tibet’s case, the Dalai Lama and his followers).

Sixteen months after a wave of overwhelmingly peaceful protests began to sweep across the Tibetan plateau, Tibet remains under virtual martial law, with more than 1,000 people still unaccounted for, who were detained during the period of unrest. More than 200 Tibetans have been killed during the protests and hundreds more arrested and sentenced, including four men and one woman sentenced to death (three with a 2 year reprieve) for taking part in the unrest in Lhasa on 14 March 2008. The executions of Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak could take place any day.

Despite China’s occupation of Tibet and East Turkestan for over half a century, Tibetans and Uygurs have never accepted Chinese rule and continue to advocate for basic freedom and human rights. By denying Tibetans and Uyghurs control over their own lives, the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and East Turkestan are destroying stability, not creating it.

Members of the International Tibet Support Network fear that, as in Tibet, the Chinese authorities will escalate their crackdown in East Turkestan with lengthy prison sentences, disappearances and beatings. As with Tibet, we call on the international community to press the government of China to work sincerely for a peaceful resolution to the 60-year long occupation of East Turkestan. We echo Rebiya Kadeer’s urgent call for peace, justice and the end of all violence and appeal to the Chinese government to end its brutal suppression of Uyghurs throughout East Turkestan.

Note 1:    The International Tibet Support Network is a global coalition of 168 Tibet related non-governmental organisations, which works to maximize the effectiveness of the worldwide Tibet movement. ITSN Member organisations hold varied positions on Tibet’s future political status, but all regard Tibet as an occupied country and are dedicated to ending human rights violations in Tibet, and to working actively to restore the Tibetan people’s right under international law to determine their own political, economic, social, religious, and cultural status.

Note 2:    A report published by the Gongmeng Institute in Beijing recently pointed out how the Chinese government’s virulent propaganda campaign over the Tibetan protests on 14 March 2008 stoked divisions between Chinese and Tibetans. The report said: “The ensuing over-propagandizing of “violence” was used to make the 3.14 incident ever larger, which created certain oppositional ethnic sentiments… Such propaganda actions are in the long run detrimental to ethnic unity. The fascination that Han citizens have expressed toward Tibetan culture changed to fear and hatred of the Tibetan masses.” See http://tibetnetwork.org/chinesevoice

ITSN’s member organisations are listed below:

North America:

Association Cognizance Tibet, North Carolina
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
Boston Tibet Network
Canada Tibet Committee
China Tibet Initiative
Colorado Friends of Tibet
Committee of 100 for Tibet
Dhokam Chushi Gangdruk
International Campaign for Tibet
International Tibet Independence Movement
Los Angeles Friends of Tibet
Monadnock Friends of Tibet
Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association
Rangzen Alliance
San Diego Friends of Tibet
Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
Seattle Friends of Tibet
Sierra Friends of Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet – Canada
The Tibetan Alliance of Chicago
The World Tibet Day Foundation
Tibet Committee of Fairbanks
Tibet Justice Center
Tibetan Association of Ithaca
Tibetan Association of Santa Fe
Tibetan Association of South California
Tibetan Cultural Association – Quebec
TIBETmichigan
Toronto Tibet Youth Congress
U.S. Tibet Committee
Western Colorado Friends of Tibet

Central & South America:

Amigos del Tibet – Guatemala
Amigos del Tibet, El Salvador
Asociacion Cultural Peruano Tibetana
Asociacion Cultural Tibetano – Costaricense
Casa Tibet Mexico
Grupo De Apoyo a Tibet Chile
Grupo Pro-Cultura Tibetana, Chile
IPPSEA
Le Club Francais
Pensando En Tibet – Mexico
Tibet Group-Panama
Tíbet Patria Libre, Uruguay

Asia:

Bharrat Tibbat Sahyog Manch, India
Circle of Friends (Philippines)
Core Group for Tibetan Cause, India
Foundation for Universal Responsibility of H. H. the Dalai Lama
Friedrich-Naumann Foundation
Friends of Tibet and Tibetans
Gannasamannay
Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet
Himalayan Committee for Action on Tibet
India Tibet Friendship Society
Mahatma Gandhi Tibet Freedom Movement
National Campaign for Tibetan Support, India
National Democratic Party of Tibet
Raise Tibetan Flag Campaign
Roof of the World Foundation, Indonesia
SFT-India
Taiwan Friends of Tibet
Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation
The Youth Liberation Front of Tibet, Mongolia and Turkestan
Tibet Lives, India
Tibet Solidarity Forum, Bangladesh
Tibet Support Group Kiku, Japan
Tibet Support Network Japan
Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre
Tibetan Women’s Association (Central)
Tibetan Youth Congress

Australasia:

Australia Tibet Council
Friends of Tibet New Zealand
Students for a Free Tibet New Zealand
Tibetan Community of Australia (Victoria)
Tibet Action Group of Western Australia

Africa & the Middle East:

Friends of Tibet – Isamailia (Egypt)
Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People
South African Friends of Tibet
Tibet Support Group Kenya

Western Europe:

Aide aux Refugies Tibetains
Amici del Tibet-Friends of Tibet Italy
Association Dorje
Association Drôme Ardèche-Tibet
Association of Tibetans in Germany
Association Rangzen
Association Rencontres Tibetaines – C.S.P.T. Midi-Pyrenees
Associazione Italia-Tibet
Austrian Committee for Tibet
Briancon05 Urgence Tibet
Caisse d’Aide aux Prisonniers Tibetains
Casa del Tibet – Spain
Comite de Apoyo al Tibet (Madrid)
Comite de Soutien au Peuple Tibetain – Bretagne
Comite de Soutien au Peuple Tibetain (Les Lilas)
Comite de Soutien au Peuple Tibetain (Switzerland)
Comite de Soutien au Peuple Tibetain de l’Herault
Eco-Tibet France
EcoTibet Ireland
France-Tibet
Free Tibet Campaign
Games of Beijing, Switzerland
Gesellschaft Schweizerrich-Tibetische Freundschaft
Groupe Non-Violent Louis Lecoin, France
Grupo de Apoio ao Tibete, Portugal
International Campaign for Tibet Deutschland
International Campaign for Tibet Europe
International Society of Human Rights, Munich Chapter
ISCOS-CISL
Jamtse Thundel Association
La Porte du Tibet, Geneva
Les Amis du Tibet – Belgium
Les Amis du Tibet Luxembourg
Lions Des Neiges
Lions Des Neiges Mont Blance, France
Maison des Himalayas
Maison du Tibet – Tibet Info
Nos Amis de l’Himalaya
Objectif Tibet
Passeport Tibetain
Reseau International des Femmes pour le Tibet
Save Tibet, Austria
Society for Threatened Peoples International
Solidarite Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet – France
Students for a Free Tibet – UK
Tibet 59 / 62
Tibet Democratie
Tibet Initiative Deutschland
Tibet Liberte Solidarite
Tibet Libertes, France
Tibet Society, U.K.
Tibet Support Group – Ireland
Tibet Support Group – Netherlands
Tibet Unterstutzung Liechtenstein
Tibetan Community Austria
Tibetan Community in Britain
Tibetan Community in Ireland
Tibetan Youth Association in Europe
Tibetan Youth UK
Tibetisches Zentrum Hamburg
TSG Free Tibet And You
Tsowa-Maintenir la Vie, France
Urgence Tibet
Vercors Tibet Resistances
Vrienden Van Tibet

Northern Europe:

Association of Free Tibet
Friends of Tibet in Finland
Swedish Tibet Committee
The Norwegian Tibet Committee
Tibet Support Committee Denmark -
Tibetan Community in Denmark
Tibetan Community Sweden

Central & Eastern Europe:

Foundation Dharmaling (Slovenia)
Friends of Tibet Society St. Petersburg, Russia
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights – Tibet Desk
Lithuanian Tibet Culture Foundation
Polish Movement for a Free Tibet
Society for Croatia-Tibet Friendship
Students for a Free Tibet, Poland
The Foundation for Civil Society, Russia
Tibet cesky (Tibet in Czech)
Tibet Support Association – Hungary
Tibet Support Group – Krasnodar Region, Russia
Tibet Support Group – Romania
Tibet Support Group – Sochi Region, Russia
Tibetan Programme – The Other Space Foundation
Union Latvija Tibetai (Latvia for Tibet )
Zida Cels, Latvia