Live Online Briefing: Uncovering China’s Coronavirus Agenda

Online Briefing: Uncovering China’s Coronavirus Agenda: Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Chinese activists speak up

WHAT: On World Health Day, Tuesday 7 April 2020, a panel of Chinese, Tibetan, and Uyghur rights leaders joined by Chinese-focused human rights experts  conducted an online media briefing on the People’s Republic of China’s escalating repressive agenda in the age of the novel coronavirus. 

The panel discusses the repressive security and surveillance measures that have been put in place to prevent the spread of information and opinions that challenge China’s constructed narrative around the origination of the coronavirus and its handling of what has unfolded into a global crisis. The domestic and international propaganda efforts being rolled out by China, including its rush to declare victory in its struggle against the coronavirus, will also be addressed, and how this affects Tibetans and Uyghurs, in particular, as extremely repressed people, as well as any Chinese citizen who is seen by the Chinese Communist Party to challenge their absolute control at this time.

As the world remains transfixed by the rapid spread of the virus, the panel also spoke to a growing trend of concern about other countries adopting or championing the authoritarian measures used by the Chinese Communist Party to not only respond to the virus, but also impose new restrictions on freedom of speech, assembly, and information.

Panel:
Dorjee Tseten, Executive Director, Students for a Free Tibet
Kyinzom Dhongdue, Executive Director, Australia Tibet Council
Lobsang Gyatso, Digital Security Program Director for Tibet Action Institute
Dr. Teng Biao, Chinese human rights lawyer, and scholar
Yaqiu Wang, China researcher, Human Rights Watch
Zumretay Arkin, Program and Advocacy Manager, World Uyghur Congress
John Jones, Campaigns and Advocacy Manager, Free Tibet

https://www.facebook.com/InternationalTibetNetwork/videos/986786728384049/

 

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES:

Dorjee Tseten is the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International and an elected member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile –  www.studentsforafreetibet.org

Kyinzom Dhongdue is the Executive Director of Australia Tibet Council and an elected member of Tibet’s Parliament-in-exile – https://www.atc.org.au/

Lobsang Gyatso is Digital Security Program Director at Tibet Action Institute. He is a Tibetan born in exile dedicated to increasing cybersecurity among Tibetans inside Tibet and in the diaspora. https://tibetaction.net 

Dr. Teng Biao is a Chinese human rights lawyer and scholar, an early promoter of the Rights Defense Movement in China, and co-founder of the Open Constitution Initiative and China Against the Death Penalty. He is currently a visiting fellow at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, New York University.

Yaqiu Wang is a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, working on issues including internet censorship, freedom of expression, protection of civil society and human rights defenders, and women’s rights. Wang was born and grew up in China, and has a MA degree in International Affairs from George Washington University –  https://www.hrw.org/

Zumretay Arkin is the Program and Advocacy Manager at the World Uyghur Congress, an organization representing the collective interests of the Uyghur population living in East Turkistan and abroad –  https://www.uyghurcongress.org

Chair: John Jones is the Campaigns and Advocacy Manager for Free Tibet. The organization was established in 1987 with the vision of a Tibet where Tibetans are able to determine their own future and the human rights of all living there are respected –   https://www.freetibet.org