DHARAMSHALA, May 24: Recent reports by China’s state controlled media on Tibetan monks and nuns “initiating a signature campaign to express love for the country” have been called an eyewash, receiving flak from Tibetans in exile.
The Dharamshala based rights group, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said that Chinese authorities have regularly coerced Tibetan monks and nuns into showing signs of patriotic zeal for Beijing.
“Chinese authorities in Tibet are forcing the Tibetan monks and nuns to sign such petitions,” Tsering Tsomo, executive director of TCHRD said. “If the monks and nuns don’t comply, their monasteries and nunneries are sure to be locked down or land in big trouble.”
“These campaigns are all part of China’s patriotic re-education campaign where monks and nuns are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama and express love for the Chinese government,” Tsomo added.
The media reports have come days after Chinese authorities in Tibet announced the re-launch of the infamous ‘strike hard campaign’ and the ‘patriotic re-education campaign,’ targeted at “maintaining stability, enhancing unity, and promoting harmony.”
A Tibetan exile who was formerly a monk in central Tibet told Phayul that China regularly uses such “media gimmicks” to fool the Chinese public and international observers.
“Even when I was in Tibet, there were instances when Chinese officials carried out campaigns forcing Tibetans to sign petitions denouncing His Holiness Dalai Lama and pledging love to China’s rule,” the monk who didn’t want to be named said.
Just last month, Chinese authorities in Lhasa had given away the ‘harmonious and law abiding awards,’ to around 6,773 monks and nuns from 59 monasteries and nunneries with promised subsidies such as pension and health insurance.
Reacting to the ill-timed awards, given at a time when Tibetan monks and nuns have set themselves on fire demanding freedom in Tibet, Jamphel Monlam, a senior researcher at TCHRD said that the awards, instead of “creating harmony and peace has created more disharmony and chaos.”
“Because of China’s repressive policies and brutal actions under the name of ‘harmony’ and ‘law,’ monasteries are being shut down and many monks have been forced to leave their monasteries,” Monlam had told Phayul.
Since November last year, China has been implementing a grand plan of deploying 20,000 Chinese officials in Tibetan villages with a mandate to “re-sculpture the minds of Tibetans.”
These Chinese officials have been deputed for a year in the Tibetan villages to “espouse patriotism and love for China” while handing out Chinese national flags and photos of Chinese leaders in large quantities in all Tibetan villages.
This move was followed by the implementation of the “Nine Must-Haves” policy, which requires nine items, including portraits of Communist leaders, the Communist flag and a copy of the state-run People’s Daily to be displayed in all Tibetan monasteries and nunneries.
According to the state run Xinhua news agency, over a million Chinese national flags and portraits depicting four generations of China’s top leadership were distributed to monasteries, schools, offices, and rural households in Tibet for mandatory display.
