Exiled Tibetan leader accuses China of turning Tibet into ‘big prison’

The leader of the Tibetan government in exile, Penpa Tsering, accused China on Wednesday of wanting to turn Tibet into a “big prison” and commit “cultural genocide” in that regionalthough he clarified that his people do not intend to become independent from Beijing, but to achieve greater autonomy.

“That’s what China is trying to do: close Tibet. Turn it into a huge prison where nobody can get in, nobody can get out and then tell the international community that Tibet is a socialist paradise,” Tsering told the Press Club in Canberra, as part of his tour of Australia.

Tsering, head of the Central Tibetan Administration (Government in Exile) based in Dharamsala (Northern India), demands greater autonomy for Tibeta region that Tibetans say was independent for centuries until it was occupied by Chinese Communist troops and integrated into the People’s Republic in 1951.

For Tsering, China, which claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, is committing “cultural genocide” in the region as it separates children from their families to educate them in boarding schools, assimilate them into its culture and impose Mandarin. like language.

In addition, Buddhist monks are disappearing, while people in this region are deprived of their right to speak, are electronically monitored and eventually imprisoned for criticizing Beijing, Tsering added.

“The goal is to completely eradicate the identity of the nationality so that everything becomes Chinese,” the Tibetan leader specified, insisting that his government is trying to achieve, without violence, that their basic fundamental rights, such as environmental protection, are respected. and preserve their culture, their religion and their language.

On his Australian tour, Tsering called for the introduction of targeted sanctions against China for human rights violationssimilar to those applied against Russia, Iran or Burma.

“If it’s a foreign policy, it has to be the same for everyone, whether it’s a big country or a small country,” the political leader said, questioning Australia’s policy towards China, its main trading partner.

Last March, Amnesty International (AI) condemned China’s rise in internet repression and censorship, where authorities continue to persecute Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, or “systematically repress ethnic minorities”, including Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans.