WHAT WE DO

Today I want to speak about two important developments in the landscape for freedom in Tibet. First, an update on the colonial boarding school campaign I spoke about last year that has gained major momentum in recent months. And second, the inspiring “White Paper Revolution” in response to the Chinese government’s Zero-Covid lockdowns.

As many of you know, China is currently engaged in a vast system of colonial boarding schools all across Tibet. In December 2021, Tibet Action Institute released a report called “Separated From Their Families, Hidden From the World” uncovering this devastating system and its potential impacts on children and families, providing detailed recommendations for governments and international bodies. I encourage you all to read it at tibetaction.net if you have not already. Through the course of research, we made the shocking and gut-wrenching discovery that approximately 1,000,000 Tibetan children – some as young as 4-year-olds – are living in colonial boarding schools across Tibet. 

It’s not hard to see that this system has similar designs to the residential schools that existed for so long in the United States, Canada, and Australia which have been categorically denounced for their tragic impact across generations of Indigenous and Aboriginal Peoples and First Nations. Like those schools – one of which was right down the road from here in Santa Fe – the colonial boarding schools in Tibet weaponize the schooling system. Authorities close village schools and private Tibetan schools while threatening parents with fines, banishment from future schooling, and being stripped of government benefits if they don’t cooperate. In this way, Tibetans are being forced and coerced into sending their kids away. Away from their families, language, religion, and way of life. The system is designed to strip away Tibetan identity and squash future resistance to China’s occupation of Tibet by filling children with political indoctrination in an environment almost exclusively constructed of Mandarin language and Chinese cultural learning.

Even though the Chinese government says it’s the rural landscape of Tibet that necessitates these schools, we know the truth is that it’s a racist policy of repression. We know this because in the most rural areas of China, the rate of boarding is around 22%, while it’s around 80% across all areas of Tibet combined. In 2015, China’s State Council underscored their plan, saying Tibetan children along with Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, and more should “study in a school, live in a school, and grow up in a school.” 

There is no denying that this is indeed a crossroads for Tibetan children, families, and Tibet itself that is a steep hill to climb. And yet, in the last couple months, after almost a year of meetings and testimony from a coalition of civil society activists, we are seeing the international community wake up to this challenge with action that is critical for success. The magnitude of the boarding school situation in Tibet has staggered and alarmed every single political leader that it has been put in front of, spurring many to make formal and informal statements on the issue. From Congressional and State Department people in the United States, to Parliamentarians and Foreign Ministry people in Canada and the UK, to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, to the United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Under Secretary Uzra Zeya, to the United Nations’ former High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet herself. 

Recently, the three United Nations special rapporteurs covering education, culture, and minority issues collectively and publicly conveyed their shock and alarm at China’s colonial boarding school system in Tibet, directly reprimanding the Chinese government and spurring outlets like Time Magazine, Newsweek, the BBC, and the Globe and Mail to cover the issue. And, most recently, the United Nations Committee on Economic Cultural and Social Rights issued an incredibly strong recommendation for China to “immediately abolish the coerced residential school system imposed on Tibetan children, as well as allowing private Tibetan schools to be established.” They went on to say it is critical that China ensures “Mandarin is not the only language allowed as the language of instruction” in Tibet.

Why is this important?

While it can sometimes be difficult to see in the outside world the impact of the inner workings of the UN, the special rapporteurs and the CESCR hold a special place in the eyes of world leaders, including China. In fact, the CESCR is considered one of the most important UN committees. So much so that all the top global rights experts want to be on it. And while China shuns most committees, they can’t avoid this one because it’s so consequential. So the fact that this committee is using words like “abolish” and “coerce” signals to all governments that this system is truly diabolical. This is an important marker for Tibet in and of itself. But in addition, world leaders often like to follow the lead of such important international committees and rapporteurs. So by laying the issue out so clearly, like-minded governments now have a pathway to come together to challenge China on the issue of colonial boarding schools.

This is truly exciting! And we will continue to press for this kind of multilateral action. To help with this, please, as always, write your Congressional representatives and Senators. Ask them to ask Secretary of State Blinken to speak out on the issue of China’s colonial boarding schools in Tibet, both making a statement himself and multilaterally with other leaders.

In addition, we will continue to make sure Tibetans inside Tibet know about these important developments from world leaders and the United Nations. So they can be inspired to continue the courageous acts of resistance they are undertaking in support of the Tibetan language and their right to access high quality, local, Tibetan education. 

We also saw incredibly courageous action recently with the White Paper Revolution. After months of lockdown due to China’s draconian Zero-Covid policy, people raised their voices in desperation from being locked behind closed doors – sometimes without food and medicine – for months. People in Lhasa, who are often the most surveilled and therefore silenced, sent out courageous messages of what they were facing. When Uyghurs died after being trapped inside their apartments, a boiling point was reached. In a rare act of solidarity and with unprecedented scenes from Shanghai to Beijing to Wuhan, thousands of Chinese citizens defied the lockdown and held memorials for Uyghur victims, chanting “Liberate Xinjiang.” Protests also soon included slogans seen on the Sitong Bridge in Beijing in October, calling on an end to Covid testing and quarantines, as well as the right to vote, freedom of speech, and for Xi Jinping to step down. While the protests were shut down after a few days, less than a week later, Beijing eased the lockdowns and started rolling back its Zero-Covid policy, a clear victory to people power!  

While it’s important not to think the next Tiananmen Square-level democracy movement is about to spring up tomorrow, it’s important to note that these protests have been building on the shoulders of decades of pressure, and that ordinary Chinese people showed incredible agency and planted a seed of hope that a more inclusive and progressive democratic movement for human rights and freedom in China could exist. This is important because Tibet’s freedom is tied to what happens in China too. Political scientist Erica Chenoweth says: “A mass uprising is more likely to succeed when it includes a larger proportion and a more diverse cross-section of a nation’s population.” This not only means various sectors of society, but in this case, we could also think it to mean Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Southern Mongolians, and potentially Taiwanese people joining forces to resist the Chinese government. This cross-movement thinking is taking hold more and more, establishing important building blocks for collaboration.

Tibetans know better than most that everything is impermanent. And modern, geopolitical history shows us that authoritarian regimes never last. Step by step, with eyes on the prize, taking advantage of strategic opportunities, and working to mitigate setbacks, this is the way movements advance. Even when hope is hard to assemble. Even when victory seems far away. Like the lifting of covid lockdowns. Like children being able to go to village schools. Coupled with decades of dissent on the books, things can change in a heartbeat. We have to remember this. And be ready to take advantage of any and all opportunities where even the smallest beam of light shines through. While also remembering that even under some of the worst repression in the world, when all may seem lost at times, Tibetans inside are STILL fighting. Are STILL finding a way to maintain their identity and their dignity. This is amazing. And I consider myself lucky to be able to be inspired by this every day.

Thank you for giving me your time and this space.

Abolish colonial boarding schools!

And Free Tibet!