The Case of Liu Xiaobo

On the eve of December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, over 300 Chinese citizens signed and posted online a document titled “Charter 08,” calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China. Signers included leading intellectuals, lawyers, Chinese abroad, writers, farmers, and workers. Over the past months, many hundreds more people in China have signed.

Liu Xiaobo was formally arrested on June 23, 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” Charter 08 contains 19 recommendations, including, among other things, a call for guarantees of human rights and respect for human dignity, direct elections of legislative bodies and administration officials, an independent judiciary, separation of powers, and the guarantee of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court conducted the trial of prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo on December 23, 2009 and was sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights on December 25, 2009. The indictment also cites six essays written by Liu from 2005 onward that were posted on overseas Web sites including “Guancha” (Observerchina.net) and the British Broadcasting Corporation.[i] Following are the articles on which Liu Xiaobo was indicted of  “inciting subversion of state power.”

“The Chinese Communist Party’s Dictatorial Patriotism”[ii] (October 3, 2005, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site

“Can It Be That the Chinese People Are Only Suited To Accepting ‘Party-ruled Democracy’?”[iii] (January 6, 2006, posted on Observechina.net)

“Changing State Power Through Changing Society”[iv] (February 26, 2006, posted on Observechina.net)

“The Multi-faceted Dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party”[v] (March 13, 2006, originally on Observechina.net, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site)

“The Negative Effects of the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party on Democratization in the World”[vi] (May 6, 2006, posted on Epoch Times’ Web site )

“Continuing Questions with Regard to the Black Kiln Child Slave Incident”[vii] (July 16, 2007, posted on Human Rights in China’s Web site)

One of the original signers of the Charter, and a prominent intellectual and dissident, Liu Xiaobo has been arrested and sentenced, apparently for expression protected under international human rights standards that the Chinese government has recognized. Specifically, Mr. Liu’s activities are protected under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression,” and a similar provision in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1998 and has committed to ratify. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provide for the right to freedom of association. Articles 35 and 41 of China’s Constitution, which provide the right of citizens to free speech, free association, and to criticize their government, also should protect Mr. Liu’s activities. In addition, at least 48 members of the group that initially signed Charter 08 have reported being questioned or harassed by authorities.

Internet has been a great force to revitalize the Chinese people’s concern on Human Rights and Democracy in recent years. Chinese authorities are growing gravely nervous about internet content and internet users increasing exponentially and are determined to quell the potentiality of free flow of information online.  Despite the repeated plea from his family and friends, Human right groups and formal appeal from EU and US, Chinese government has brazenly defied all the universal values and morals issuing more harsher campaign against the proponents of Human rights and Democracy in China right after the trial. Vice Minister of Public Security Yang Huanning has ordered pre-emptive strikes against perceived threats to social order in a speech given to security officials on 18 December and published on Monday 28 December 2009, just days after the key political dissident was jailed. In his speech, “Hostile forces both in and outside China were seeking to inflame growing social discontent in an effort to create instability”. “The plots at westernization and separatism by Western anti-China forces… the acts of hostile forces to cause trouble and social disruption are daily complicating” the situation in China, Yang said[viii]. Chinese authorities view “hostile forces” as those who pose a threat to the nation’s one-party communist rule.

---

[i] http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/dissident_liuxiaobo-12112009115924.html?encoding=traditional

[ii] http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/5/10/4/n1074197.htm

[iii] http://www.observechina.net/info/artshow.asp?ID=37696

[iv] http://www.observechina.net/info/artshow.asp?ID=38211

[v] http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/3/14/n1253922.htm

[vi] http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/6/5/6/n1309396.htm

[vii] http://www.renyurenquan.org/ryrq_article.adp?article_id=691

[viii] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BR0AQ20091228

This short story by a Xinhua Journalist Han Song written in Chinese illuminates a deep understanding of Tibet by common Chinese through his analogy of what Tibetan Buddhism represents and What Chinese government is doing to it in the name of ” development through Scientific Approach”.

She traveled in Tibet and one day arrived at Doji lamasery. It was a small temple of Tibetan Buddhism now in a bleak, half-ruined state. What Caught her eye was a string of bronze wheels hung around the wall of the temple. They were called the Wheels of Samsara. There was a total of one hundred and eight wheels, moving in the wind; they symbolized the eternal cycle of life and death; of everything. She quickly noticed that one of them was a strange colour of dark green, singling itself out from the others, which were yellow. It was the thirty-sixth wheel when counted clockwise. She touched the wheels one by one, and made a vow to Sakyamuni, the Great Buddha. Midway through a sudden gale began to blow and a heavy mist fell. She was scared and she ran back to the temple. She stayed in the lamasery that night. The gale continued and became a rainstorm. Thunder and flashes of lightning were splitting the mountains and the sky. She could not fall asleep on such a night, and at midnight she thought she could hear of the sob of the Tibetan plateau, which reminded her of her dead mother and her lonely father on Mars. Suddenly, she heard a cry. It was a miserable sound, weak as a hairspring and harsh as a woman’s weeping, and it made her think of a ghost. Fear stopped her own cry. Though she knew lamas were sleeping in the next room, she didn’t dare to go out or shout for help. Winds and rain died out the next day and it became sunny. She told the lamas what she had heard the previous night. They grinned, telling her it was not a ghost. “It was the howl of the wheel of Samsara,” they said. The howl of the Wheel of Samsara? She was surprised. The lamas explained that it was one of the wheels. To be exact, it was the thirty-sixth clockwise. According to the lamas, Doji lamasery had been destroyed several times in the past five hundred years. Each time the wheels were lost, but only the thirty-sixth one had been well-preserved to date. Though it disappeared in a number of landslides and floods, it was finally re-discovered. When gales and rain approached, it gave out unexplainable sounds. So she looked at it carefully, but it simply kept silent. She touched it with her forefinger, and it emitted a sense of bleak dread, which flooded directly into her heart. It was hard to imagine that it was the wheel that cried the previous night. “It was a wheel of soul,” a lama murmured. The lama’s face was dark, his expression cryptic. So it was an unusual wheel which had encountered so much rain, so many winds, but now it had to join such a string of ordinary wheels. Realizing the fact, she could not hold back her tears.

* * * She returned to Mars and told her father about her finding in Tibet. Father laughed and said: “Could that be called strange? The phenomenon was simply caused by static electricity on that remote blue planet.” Her father, a scientist, knew a lot of cases like that. For instance, some valleys would emit the sounds of horses and dead soldiers in rainstorms, and some lakes would play music in the evenings. Documents even recorded a bronze bell in an ancient temple that could ring without anybody striking it. “Once the air accumulates too much static electricity, it would trigger the strange sounds. All this can happen at any moment on Earth. Never be scared, my daughter.” She felt relieved, but also dull, and lost. Father’s explanation expelled her fear, but also cheated her of the mystery she craved. In her mind: there should be some sort of ghost in Tibet, who would frighten her, perhaps, but won’t disappoint her.

She went back to her own room and shut the door. Without any reason, she was out of sorts. She turned a cold shoulder to her father when he called her to dinner. The next year she went to Tibet again and made her way directly to Doji lamasery. “You came for the wheel, right?” the lamas said, grinning, and winked their pearl-like eyes which could see through everything. She felt a little timid, and told them about the static electricity theory. However, she was afraid that they would be unhappy with the explanation. So she added: “That was just my father’s view.” The lamas did not feel unhappy. They smiled. “Last time you stayed here for only one night. So you could hear just one sort of sound. The wheel can send out thousands of different sounds. How can static electricity do that?” “Is it true?” Her heart jumped to her throat again, and she felt a mysterious shadow following her closely. She quickly forgot her father’s words. She did not feel scared this time, and decided to stay in the temple. The wheel cried again on a dismal night. This time it was not a ghost cry, but the sound of a man. Then it became the zigzag of vehicles, then the roaring of machines in a factory. After a while, a string of explosions were heard. For several consecutive nights, she heard many different sounds. One night it was a piece of music, but the tune was strange, of a kind she had never heard before. She felt joy mixed with a bit of fear. One month passed. The lamas saw it with equanimity. And they explained no more to her. The day she left Doji lamasery, she carried back with her a bag of tapes.

* * * Three months later she returned to Doji lamasery, with her father and one of her father’s postgraduate students. It was the sounds she had recorded that made her father serious, and he decided to look for himself. “Now I realize that the sounds truly were unusual. Can it really be static electricity? Anyhow, it is worth studying,” he said. Upon arriving at Doji lamasery, father and the student walked around the wheels of Samsara six times, but they saw nothing strange. The three of them stayed that night at the lamasery. At midnight, the wheel cried again. Her father and his student put on clothes and rushed out, seeing that the wheel was quivering slightly, and its body was covered with a circle of red light. The sound came out of the body of the wheel. Her father raised his head toward the sky and discovered that it had turned red and all the stars had gathered together, listening to the sound with fixed attention. The sound of the wheel changed tune, from happiness to grief. Then there were a lot of sounds her father had never heard before. Suddenly he felt that something was behind him. He turned and saw it was a lama. The lama’s face was indigo and hung with a tricky, secret smile. Father ran back to the temple. Seeing his daughter sit on the bed in safety, he felt relieved. However, the girl herself was uneasy. The next day her father told the student: “It was monstrous. I thought it was a magic tape recorder. Maybe it was not a product of nature.” “Tape recorder…” “Yes, a bizarre tape recorder left by human history. Maybe it had something to do with an extinct civilization. It contains some strange sounds of ancient times.” “But, does not a universe hide inside the wheel?” The postgraduate student suddenly shouted out. “A universe?” Father was startled. Young people always had different ideas, he thought. “That is what I believe. Inside the wheel there is a universe, the same as the one we are living in.” For many years people had been searching for a mini universe but the attempts had all failed. However, the student was still obsessed with the notion. Father’s face lost colour, and he shook his head again and again. “Impossible, impossible!” “That was what I strongly felt last night. A sound seemed to have been emitted by a circumvolving black hole, and another seemed to have been created by a dropping asteroid. And there were more sounds, reminding me of the explosion of a supernova and the birth of a galaxy,” said the student, with a trembling voice. Father thought it over and admitted the possibility. However, he was reluctant to believe the conclusion. He was a stubborn academician who held that there was only one universe. “Are you my student?” he said. “How dare you talk about things this way! I am ashamed for you.” The student realized that he had spoken too much and violated the dignity of his teacher. He apologized for his abruptness; however, he refused to take back his words. For several days they were lethargic. There was a dead silence between her father and his student.

Nevertheless, the snowy mountains behind the lamasery turned ever more brilliant and graceful. Only his daughter felt that the student got it right. He did raise a wonderful hypothesis, she thought. When on Mars the young man often visited her home. The student usually launched a dispute with her father on the unexplainable universe. When the two men’s faces turned red owing to the quarrel, she sat aside quietly, listening to and watching them with a curious expression. How lovely the men were. Now she wondered if the student could take her to the mini universe in the wheel. That would be the most exciting journey of her life. She’d always take the student’s side. It was the side of unorthodoxy. “The universe is trapped in the wheel. It can neither move nor evolve, and it can not be observed with eyes or telescopes. It can only give out some poor sounds to tell about its past and attract passer-bys’ attention. How innocent it is. It does not even know that the era out of the wheel is against its own,” She said, red-eyed. “How do you know that it can not move or evolve? How do you know that it needs our pity? Maybe the truth is the other way around,” said the boy, looking at the girl with a tender expression. Being aware that his daughter might like the bothersome student, her father felt unhappy. His sight became ferocious when it fixed on the wheel. He began to regard it as a tumour growing on the planet, and it was threatening the order and intellect of the human world. He should cut it off.

One day he told the lama that he would carry the wheel to Mars for the purpose of scientific research. His daughter and the student were shocked upon hearing the request. “Professor, you cannot do that. The wheel of Samsara only belongs to the lamasery, and it only belongs to Tibet!” “Father, you can not take it away, it can only give out its voice here. It will die if you take it to a different place!” Father just sneered, and gazed at the lamas, waiting for a reply. The lamas seemed to have no clear idea about her father’s request, and they were all at a loss. Her father thought that they would not agree with him, but he said: “Let’s make a deal. How much is it?” The lamas gathered and murmured for a while. Then an old lama, possibly the living Buddha of the lamasery, stepped forward and said to father: “My benefactor, if you really want it, just take it away. Is there anything in the world that we can not give up? And it is the wheel’s fate.” The reply went beyond father’s expectations. Watching the lama’s peaceful face, the daughter and the student were also stunned.

* * * Father picked the wheel up. The wheel was so heavy that he could hardly hold it. At that moment, all the lamas walked out of the temple. They lowered their heads and began reciting sutras. Father removed the wheel to the ground in front of the temple, placing it well, and stared at it with a thoughtful expression. The daughter and student did not know what he was going to do next. Suddenly, father burst into a bewildering laughter, just like an owl, and he pulled out his laser cutter, waving it toward the wheel. “Let’s see the real face of the so-called hidden universe!” he cried. The daughter and student were frightened. They stepped forward to stop her father but it was too late. The wheel was cut into two pieces down the middle, falling apart to the solid ground. It was empty. Nothing was inside. The lamas suddenly fell silent. So did the mountains and the sky. She felt extremely uncomfortable. After a while, the sky became dark, and stars were just inches away from people’s heads. Everybody looked upward in astonishment. At that moment, a silent, bright white light flashed across the sky, splitting the sky into two pieces, just like the laser cutter had cleaved the wheel. Millions of wheels appeared in the sky, just like flocks of birds. They were spaceships she had never seen before. They were escaping something, in haste. The lamas kneeled down and began to pray. Then the split sky began to fold along the white light in the middle of the universe. And so did the vast land. The shadows of mountains rushed to an unnamed centre, just like fighting beasts, and their bodies huddled together. She lowered her head and saw the shadow of her body begin to bend, just like a tree eaten away by insects, and it finally broke from her waist. Then all the shadows folded together from opposite directions, swallowing all the people, all the mountains and rivers, and all the oceans and stars. The lamas’ smile flashed as an arc at the last second. Nobody could see how the Big Bang started – it was quite different from all of humanity’s previous hypotheses.

The seventh round of Sino-Tibetan Dialogue

This is a possible scenario of the seventh round of discussion with China.

[The Tibetan Delegation led by special envoy Jigdrel Chogley Namgyal Rinpoche left for Beijing from Hong Kong at 10:00 am. On arrival in Beijing, the Deputy Head of the United Front Work Department and other leaders received the Delegation. The Delegation had refreshments at Beijing's Nationalities Restaurant and then checked in at the Dragon Hotel. An official letter was received there, stating that the meeting will convene in the lower building of the Nationalities Affairs Office, United Front Work Department, on April 3, 2008 14:00 hrs. When Mr. Tenzin Kelsang asked about the Beijing representatives for the meeting, the interpreter checked the seven-paged green covered booklet with the red flag on it and then said that they were not listed. Jigdrel Rinpoche came out of the bathroom and just when Mr. Tenzin Kelsang was about to report about the missing names of the Chinese Delegation, Jigdrel Rinpoche received a call from the United States of America that went on until 16:30 Beijing time. At 17:00, the Nationalities Affairs Office sent an invitation for dinner with a verbal message that Mr. Baba Lodoe Kunsang would be present. During the dinner, no prolonged discussion took place. Before leaving, Mr. Baba Lodoe Kunsang shook hands with the delegation members and then said to Jigdrel Rinpoche that considering both the time and the situation, you need not be afraid, for we will meet again. ]

T   O   P        S   E   C   R   E   T

Memorandum of Conversation

Participants

Tibetan Delegation: Special envoy Jigdrel Chogley Namgyal, envoy Mr. Tenzin Kelsang, DIIR Secretary Mr. Mingyur Dorje, Interpreter Mr. Khawa Passang, Drafter Mr. Tenzin Chonjor.

China: Mr. Hua Guoqin, Deputy Head of the CPC’s United Work Front Department; Ha sen Thok Mey of the Nationalities Affairs Office; Thinley Kunkhyap Rinpoche, Vice-chair of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC); and Mr. Qiamba Puncog, an official of the United Front Work Department.

Date and Time: Thursday, April 03, 2008, 14:00-17:00

Place: Lower Building, Nationalities Affairs Office, United Front Work Department, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.

(After a formal greeting between both parties, everyone took their seats and were served water.)

Jigdrel Rinpoche: Beijing knows very well. I can proudly say that if Beijing considers the demand of His Holiness and the Tibetan people for their constitutional rights with love and respect, the issue of Tibet will be resolved… (Jigdrel Rinpoche is abruptly interrupted by Hua Guoqin.)

Comrade Hua Guoqin: (Furiously banging his fist on the table.) YOU look into the past. We are embarrassed at having to meet you in front of the eyes of people of China and the leaders of CCP. Look at how many separatist activities you have carried against China. Moreover, you damaged the atmosphere for dialogue when you celebrated the awarding of the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama, and you have complied with US anti-China forces. During the award ceremony, Senators and Congressmen demonstrated disgust for China. For example, although we have opened our doors for the Dalai Lama to return whenever he wishes, the US politicians, without having any prior knowledge of our history, started shouting that China should welcome the Dalai Lama back to Tibet. Even major Tibetan religious leaders from the various sects were shown on TV shamelessly boasting about the Congressional Gold Medal without having any prior knowledge on the hidden agenda of the anti-China forces.

Jigdrel Rinpoche: You know the facts regarding the Congressional Gold Medal Award. Moreover, the United States is a country that supports repressed people deprived of basic human rights anywhere in the world, and I think they will remain this way in the future too.  Similarly, the US government and people have always celebrated any individual who works for world peace. However, we want to assure you that His Holiness and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile did not, by any means, intend to make the conferment of the Congressional Gold Medal into a political stunt.

Qiamba Puncog: In the past, the US has usually given this award to an individual with many achievements, but this time, unlike what they’ve done in the past, they have given it to the Dalai Lama.  This has inevitably aroused suspicions in the minds of the people and government of China. Looking at your involvement with the Western imperialist pigs, we are thinking over whether we should continue our dialogue with you at all.

Envoy Tenzin Kelsang: His Holiness has never initiated any kind of separatist activity against China and never will in the future. The elevation of his status from the legitimate leader of Tibet to a leader of world peace is because of his enduring altruistic vision. For instance, even though His Holiness used to do gardening in his courtyard only during rare moments of spare time, the flowers appeared as if they were all sown in a single day, each having received the same amount of care and treatment. On this basis, any individual can appreciate that His Holiness gives compassion and love equally to both sentient beings and the material world because he sees that everything is connected.  I feel that if the Chinese government is still apprehensive of His Holiness’ intentions, then it is detrimental to the government and the people of both parties.

Qiamba Puncog:  (Taking a glance at Hua Guoqin.) You presumed to use the phrase, “the government and the people of both.”  At every meeting, we have to instruct you on the usage of terms, which gives us an impression that you have ulterior motives under the name of dialogue. Well, we do not have much time since tomorrow is our last day of meeting and on the third day, you have a tour. So tonight, think carefully.

(The meeting ends tensely.)

On that night, Mr. Gyalo Thondup made a telephone call to the special envoys from Hong Kong to ask for details about Comrade Qiamba Puncog’s recent statement to the world press.  This statement claimed that the Tibetan Delegation had furnished a letter to the United Front Work Department, which stated that “the conferment of Congressional Gold Medal of Honor Award to His Holiness last year in October was due to his commitment towards peace and harmony among religions of this world.”

(April 4, 2008 10:00 A.M.  The meeting began without any formal greetings.)

Hua Guoqin: (Calmly in a low voice.) China has always been thoughtful of the brothers and sisters living outside China in every respect.  However, you have blown the Tibet issue out of proportion by propagating lies in the world and continuing your separatist activities. Under your directives, the Youth Congress did hunger strikes. The separatist Dalai criticizes our government’s pragmatic policies. Recently, he declared that his successor would carry on the separatist movement. Your disregard of the traditional way of choosing the Dalai and Panchen by the Golden Urn gives us the strong impression that you have ulterior motives behind demanding regional ethnic autonomy. Moreover, your delegation has to be very careful, and must not keep anything back from the Dalai about the things we have discussed in our meetings. (He then lit a cigarette and took a deep breath. There was dead silence in the conference room.)

Jigdrel Rinpoche: Like our earlier meetings, I think it is a waste of time if we go on exchanging allegations and clarifications without embarking on the understanding we have achieved so far. The fact is, His Holiness’ Middle-Way Approach for mutual benefit and the struggle for genuine autonomy under the PRC’s constitution did not take shape in accordance with “seeing the change in expression in the other person’s face.”  Neither is His Holiness trying to show off his wisdom. It is solely for the basic individual human rights of all the poverty-stricken Tibetan and Chinese people under your regime, which the world knows very well. It is my sincere suggestion that China take heed of the popular democratization of the world’s nations in the 20th century and be more open-minded. We came here for the future of Tibet and China. I sincerely hope that you will keep this in mind from now on.  Since Mr. Deng Xiaoping’s invitation to Mr. Gyalo Thondup in 1979, we have complied with your request that we keep our discussions private and not disclose the details of our discussions to the public.  But there are concerned, educated Tibetans who question this secrecy and have alleged that the elite class of Tibetan society have monopolized the issue of Tibet, leaving common Tibetans out of the picture.  Since ancient times, Tibetans have been devout Buddhists and have relied on His Holiness as their sole refuge. There may be a time when all of our efforts seem vain, thus resulting in despair and helplessness.  At that point, even the mother-son relationship can be damaged, so I think you should be pragmatic and not offer any reasons for the Tibetan people to take matters into their own hands.  If you do not consider this carefully, the consequences will be your own responsibility.

Hua Guoqin: The Tibetans living outside of China are merely a third of the total Tibetan population. Moreover, they have not been able to witness the development and standard of living here. It is only a few individuals and political organizations that are deviously playing the Tibet issue in the international arena for their own personal benefit.  They have not paid any heed to the development we have brought to Tibet. Can you take responsibility for such acts?  You have seen this before.  Although dissatisfaction could arise in a family against the father’s course of actions, you have been teaching your children that China is evil and the Chinese people are devils in your schools. Tell me.  Doesn’t this damage the basis for peaceful coexistence and friendship in the future? However, you say that you wish to be an autonomous part of the PRC, but when are you going to have the courage to come to China with sincere goodwill, without any hoodwinking? Some of your elites have accepted reality and have already made friends with Greater China. Furthermore, a few of them and their relatives have built their homes and factories in Chinese cities like Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing, which presents a totally different picture than the way things were in the past.  Therefore, you have difficulty accepting the reality of the situation.

Mr. Mingyur Dorjee: We appreciate your broad-minded words, Ku ngo chog. The treachery… (Abruptly interrupted by Mr. Hua Guoqin.)

Hua Guoqin:  From now on, you must not use the word “Ku ngo” which was used in feudalism to address feudal lords. (The Chinese translator proudly interpreted this in Tibetan.)

Mr. Mingyur Dorjee: There are two kinds of treachery, one committed by an insider and the other by an outsider. The insider traitor is the one who will create more problems than the outsider will. However, we can proudly say that the Tibetan Government-in-Exile has never initiated such acts, nor ever supported such acts. The past history and future prospects of the Tibetan people have earned the sympathy of governments and people from all over the world. The intentions and actions of the exile government and its people are made clear because of the modern education we have received. Under all circumstances, we are ready to take responsibility for our actions. We have never given up our sincere effort to resolve the issue of Tibet through dialogue, despite the changes in policies.  It is a critical time for giving complete consideration to the popular demands of the Tibetan and the Chinese people. Although we have met for discussions and exchanged a few disagreements and agreements over past issues, the final judgment should be in favor of the just and popular demands of the Tibetan and Chinese people for a peaceful future. There is a popular sentiment in our exile community that we should stop this “endless drama” of having dialogues. We have come here with a sincere wish for the future good of both peoples.  When we go back this time, the media will ask many questions, and we will be reporting to our people on the developments so far.  Therefore, I request that you take this opportunity seriously.

Hua Guoqin: (mockingly.) We have noticed for the past few months that Dharamsala has become more assertive. We even know that Samdhong Tulku has filled all of his Cabinet seats and that the useless former Security Secretary must be rejoicing his recent appointment to your Cabinet. But, we will not give in to your devious policies and separatist acts. Nowadays, all of China, including TAR, praises the dream of Greater China. Recently we received a long report from TAR officials on how the people of TAR have celebrated our initiatives to help impoverished countries in Africa. They are very happy with the Central Government’s domestic and foreign policy. Moreover, people from all over the world are eagerly awaiting the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in August. Some people from Dharamsala or some of your NGOs have even tried to get permission to compete in the games. Our government officials and our staff at the Nationalities Affairs office are busy with this historical event, and we consider our time more precious than gold. We have been able to discuss some of our mistakes in this meeting. We are hopeful that in the coming year, we will be able to discuss the future. Tomorrow you will go on a tour of some areas, and I hope that you will report the facts to the Tibetans living outside of China and to the Dalai Lama.

(It was then announced that the Tibetan delegation will be having an informal meeting with Tibetan leader Jigme Wangchuk and Baba Lodoe Kunsang at five o’clock in the evening. The Chinese delegation departed with smiles on their faces after taking a group photo.)

(Mr. Jigme Wangchuk could not attend because he was feeling ill, but great Tibetan patriot Mr. Baba Lodoe Kunsang received the Tibetan Delegation at his own house.)

Jigdrel Rinpoche: I am pleased to meet you. Even though I have not had the opportunity to meet you either as a special envoy or on a personal occasion, I feel it’s as if I were meeting an old friend. Fortunately, our shared concerns have enriched our knowledge of our past history and future prospects. Do you think that we should summarize our report on the dialogue process to the media and the international community, as we have done with our earlier statements, when we reach India?

Lodoe Kunsang: His Holiness’ altruistic vision is very honorable. Tibet and Tibetans are earthly beings, so it is very important to have a vision of their present and future, so we can represent the concerns of contemporary Tibetans. The governments and individuals who support Tibet are aware of the extent of the gap in the Sino-Tibetan dialogue. If they are supportive only because of the Tibetan course of actions, then they are being opportunistic. I have heard that the Youth Congress and many NGOs who have been demanding complete independence have now been campaigning against the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Recently, former PM Mr. Sonam Topgyal’s Free Tibet Organization, Students for Free Tibet, Indo-Tibetan Friendship Organization, Gu-Chu-Sum, and the TWA have released a press statement declaring a Long March from India to Tibet. It is very important that they accept their responsibility for any consequences from this action. Also in the international arena, the governments of Germany, Japan, and the United States have demonstrated their disgust against Chinese policies. However, there is no time to introduce a new approach in view of our political history, and hence, no time for us to wait and watch…

(Since dinner was over and there was no more time left, the delegation had to leave with sad expressions on everyone’s faces. At that time, I noticed tears in the eyes of 86 year old Baba Lodoe Kunsang.)

The delegation returned to the hotel and discussed their trip back to India. That night, the envoy telephoned Mr. Hua Guoqin to cancel the tour planned for the next day, and the Chinese side gladly gave their consent. On 5 April 2008, the Tibetan delegation reached the Bureau Office, New Delhi, via Nepal under complete secrecy. They telephoned the PM reporting on their arrival and gave a briefing on the dialogue. The PM instructed them to catch the first flight to Gaggal tomorrow. The next morning, while leaving the Bureau Office for the airport, the delegation was shocked to see the media from TPPRC, Bhod-Gyalo, and Phayul waiting outside.  The press asked questions about the seventh round of the dialogue and the recent Chinese press statements.

Jigdrel Rinpoche: I am glad to see you all here today. Moreover, I appreciate such interest from the Tibetan press. In a nutshell, we have been able to continue our dialogue process and were able to clearly present our demands directly to the Chinese. They understand it very well.  However, like the saying “divine deeds always take time,” we request that the press, the scholarly community, and the youth stay more informed in the future, so that we can discuss more substantial issues and not have to answer questions relating to Chinese Communist propaganda. We will meet again. Thank you.

Mingyur Dorjee: We are not in a position to answer any questions before an official statement is made. However, there is a lot of flexibility in the Middle-Way Approach. The people should take responsibility too.  It is important that the press invite experts to elaborate on the Middle-Way Approach, non-violence and democracy for the Tibetan community. This is also a way to take responsibility. (The media then dispersed after the statement.)

(However, the atmosphere in Dharamsala was a little different.)

Gongmeng closed by Chinese Government

Chinese government this year ordered the biggest-ever crackdown on activist lawyers, more than a dozen known for taking sensitive cases lost their licences. This is a huge blow to the rights movement, considering that only a few dozen of the 140,000 lawyers in China dare to take on sensitive political cases.

The latest blow came last week with the detention in a dawn raid of leading human-rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, less than two weeks after a legal centre he helped found, the Open Constitution Initiative, or Gongmeng, was shut down. In 2009, the organization published a report criticising the Chinese government’s policy towards Tibet, alleging that propaganda is being used to mask failings in its Tibet policy, such as ethnic inequality and creating “an aristocracy of corrupt and abusive government officials”. It has been regarded as a more balanced view of the situation in Tibet and has had approval circulating through discussion websites in China, though the Chinese government has yet to comment.

On July 14, 2009, the organization was fined at a stunning 1.46 million RMB. On July 17, 2009, authorities declared the organization “illegal” and shut it down.

Tibetan and Chinese all over the world must never forget these courageous individuals risking their life for justice.

In the wake of recent drive to reach out to Chinese brothers and sisters all around the world, to create a common ground for better understanding, Tibetans must also relate to those courageous Chinese brothers and sisters who are fighting for justice and equality under constant threat in Totalitarian regime.

13th Border Talks between India and China concluded on 9th August without any tangible outcome. However a hotline between New Delhi and Beijing is concurred in near future. The Talks was held between M K Narayanan (National Security Adviser, India) and Dai Bingguo (State Councilor and Special Rep. for Border, China).

Here are key details about the border dispute:
* The Asian giants still claim vast swathes of each other’s territory along their 3,500 km (2,173 mile) Himalayan border, which has remained largely peaceful since a border war in 1962.
* The border was never demarcated. In the years before Indian independence in 1947, the former British colonial rulers saw little need to demarcate such a remote area and later the two sides were unable to agree on a common border.
* In 1958, China published a map showing the Aksai Chin plateau on the western stretch of the border as part of its territory; India protested.
* Border skirmishes escalated into a full-scale war in 1962 after India said China occupied 38,000 square km (15,000 square miles) of territory in Aksai Chin.
Chinese troops overran Indian military positions in Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh before a ceasefire. China withdrew to pre-war positions behind the McMahon line dividing the two countries along Arunachal Pradesh. The ceasefire line became known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
* India says Beijing is illegally holding 5,180 sq km of northern Kashmir ceded to it by Pakistan in 1963.
* China lays claim to 90,000 sq km of land on the eastern sector of the border in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
* After two decades of talks, India and China exchanged maps on the least controversial middle segment of their frontier in 2000 and three years later special envoys were appointed to map out a resolution of the dispute.
* Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed an agreement on the “guiding principles” to resolve the dispute in 2005; China formally abandoned its claim to the Himalayan state of Sikkim.

“On the Cultural Revolution In Tibet : The Nyemo Incident of 1969”. An Academic Cabaret Act

Goldstein new book categorically aimed to malign the very personal and integrity of Ani Thrinley Chodon.  He has designed a picture in which Ani Thrinley Chodon does not have her personal entity, that she is just a tool of Gyenlang Faction during cultural revolution.  He has quoted a “Gyenlo leader” of that time to substantiate his theory that she however could not have her personal agenda whatsoever.

Following is the comment he quoted of the “Gyenlo Leader”:

If there is some situation we cannot stop, we will send the crazy one {the nun} to activate them {the villagers} once again to beat them back. The masses believe in superstition {religion}, so if the crazy one activates them, they will be fearless. That’s good! This is the great invention of Nyemo Country. We have to employ her. First we send her……..

Goldstein based all his theory under this context that she was being used during Cultural Revolution and she could not have nationalistic agenda of her own. Under this deductive logic, (After 40years when Communist disintegrates and new democratic chapter of China begins, some disgruntled individual will write : Goldstein could not have conducted pure academic study anyway, he was performing in order to please his masters in CCP and sometime goes for academic Trance. His studies cannot be called purely academics and unbaised since he took shelter and researched under the totalitarian jingoistic PRC.)

The fact that most of the H1N1 death happened in most populated developing countries many China observers were quite a bit surprised that Chinese official did not declare any death caused by H1N1 virus in China. Not that these observes knows of any, as everyone is aware of information scrutiny in China and specialy when China is celebrating it’s “achievement and Modernization” in 60 years.

If a death report must come, here it is. “The First” death by H1N1 virus in Tibet. According to their report, it is affected in “poorer communities”. What a way to sell propaganda.

Nothing could go wrong in Mainland because it is “developed” as depicted during 60th Anniversary. (So lets use Tibet, because China is “developing” Tibet as it is “poor Community”.)

Statement of Lodi Gyari, Special Envoy of H.H. the Dalai Lama, concerning the dialogue process with China
By Lodi Gyari
Dec 11, 2009 – 2:32:41 AM

Email this article
Printer friendly page

My attention has been drawn to an interview published in the Chinese media by Executive Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun of the Central United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party on December 8, 2009 concerning our dialogue process.

We are currently under discussion with the Chinese leadership on the next round of dialogue and so the timing and content of this interview are perplexing. It is my understanding that the Chinese leadership is as desirous as our side in continuing a discussion, which we hope will ultimately lead to a mutually satisfactory negotiated solution to the Tibetan issue.

During our fifth round of talks in February 2006, the Chinese side clearly expressed appreciation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama��s position not to seek Tibetan independence and of seeking a solution within the framework of the Constitution of the People��s Republic of China.

The Tibetan transcript from the recording of that meeting shows the Chinese side terming His Holiness�� position as a ��Tamsangpo�� (good or welcome news). It reads, ��It is a welcome news that (the Dalai Lama) is showing a gesture by saying that he wanted to resolve the problem on the basis of the Constitution of the People��s Republic of China.�� We looked at this as a small but important progress in our dialogue process with our counterparts. We felt that for the first time the Chinese side was registering and taking due note of His Holiness�� position in finding a mutually acceptable solution. We have been highlighting the positive aspect in our dialogue process and this was one such developments from the Chinese side in the five years that had passed since the re-establishment of our contact in 2002. It was this spirit that we conveyed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama upon our return to Dharamsala.

At the same time the Chinese side drew our attention to various issues that needed to be resolved. On our part we stated the willingness of H.H. the Dalai Lama to address all these concerns in a statement. We even suggested that both sides have consultations on the formulation of the statement in order to ensure that it will have the desired result in achieving a breakthrough. There was no response from the Chinese side to this initiative of ours.

Instead, from around May 2006 the authorities began intensification of campaigns in Tibet, including launching of patriotic re-education campaign. There was increased vilification of the person of H.H. the Dalai Lama and restrictions placed on peoples�� religious activities.

Following the series of demonstrations in Tibetan areas in 2008, we had two rounds of talks and one informal session with the Chinese leadership. During the most recent 8th round held in November 2008 we in fact presented a Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People that clearly outlined the basic needs of the Tibetan people that can be fulfilled even under the present Constitutional provisions of the People��s Republic of China.

The outright rejection of the Memorandum by the Chinese side, without even looking into many of the points raised therein, did not leave any scope for further contacts. However, His Holiness the Dalai Lama continued to be committed to the dialogue process and impressed upon us the need to take steps to reach out once again to the Chinese leadership.

So far, it has been all our initiatives that have been the basis of any perceptible positive side to the dialogue process. It was at our initiative that contact was re-established and continued since 2002. Every time it has been our initiative that has started the process for the rounds of discussions.

The February 2006 meeting was not the only occasion when the Chinese side showed some positive development on His Holiness�� position. During the informal session in Shenzhen in May 2008, the Chinese side came out with ��Three Stops�� (stop separatist activities, stop violence and stop sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games) directed at His Holiness. When we rejected these charges, the Chinese side came up (during the subsequent seventh round in July 2008) with ��Four Not-to-Supports�� (not supporting activities that would disturb the Beijing Olympic Games; not supporting plots inciting violent criminal activities; not supporting and concretely curbing violent terrorist activities; not supporting activity seeking Tibetan independence.) as a replacement saying that this was being done positively because they considered our point that His Holiness was not indulging in the activities mentioned in ��Three Stops�� (one of which related to independence). Therefore, changing from ��Three Stops�� to ��Four not-to-Supports�� was an indication that the Chinese leadership acknowledged that His Holiness was not indulging in Tibetan independence activities.

The recent statements coming from Beijing, therefore, reminds me of an advice given to me by a Chinese Professor who was involved with the Tibetan issue for many years while serving the Chinese Government. He said that we should not expect the Chinese leadership to have the political courage to remove the hat of separatism from His Holiness the Dalai Lama even though they clearly are aware that he is not working in that direction. The professor told me that if the Chinese side were to remove such a hat from him, then they would not be able to justify to the Chinese people their current policies in Tibet or on the return of H.H. the Dalai Lama to Tibet.

Time and again, the Chinese side has been the one that has been cautioning us from negotiating through the media. They contend that we should take things up directly and face to face. But we see it is the Chinese side that is increasingly coming up with obstacles presented through selective interviews to the media. During our seventh round held in July 2008, the Chinese side portrayed the ��Four Not-to-Supports�� positively in comparison to the ��Three Stops.�� However, after our meeting and even before we had reached India to brief His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Chinese side went to the media and gave a totally negative message of their position.

We feel if the Chinese side is really serious in wanting to address the grievances of the Tibetan people and to provide them with the same rights that are provided for in the Chinese Constitution and the relevant statutes on minority rights, we should do that through our channel and across the dialogue table. His Holiness the Dalai Lama continues to be committed to the dialogue process and we are ever ready to continue the discussions.

Washington, D.C.
December 10, 2009