The Tibetan Challenge in the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue
A meeting in Washington this week provides an instructive look into the Obama Administration’s willingness to match the President’s championing of the universality of human rights with his desire for pragmatic policies that achieve results. As a further challenge, this engagement occurs with China, a bilateral relationship that the Administration has affirmed as its most critical, and thus provides a window on their priorities.
On May 13-14, American and Chinese officials will conduct the first U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue since May 2008 (which was the first since 2002). The dialogue offers the opportunity for U.S. officials to advocate for human rights improvements and press for the release of political prisoners. The State Department said it expects to bring up religious freedom, Internet freedom and rule of law.
Critics contend that previous dialogues have suffered from the U.S. side’s lack of benchmarks and deliverables and China’s habit of stonewalling, serving as ‘check the box’ exercises for both governments. But as this is the Obama Administration’s formal engagement with the Chinese dedicated solely to human rights issues, it offers a fresh opportunity. President Obama has made clear his interest in policies that achieve results, and Secretary Clinton has expanded on this in the China context, highlighting the need for creative approaches and to “focus in on where to make progress.”
The human rights agenda with China offers no shortage of topics. Within that agenda, Tibet should receive ample attention. China’s unabated crackdown against Tibetans is now in its third year. Beijing has elevated Tibet to a “core interest” in its relations with Washington. And Tibet has attained emblematic status in perceptions of the Administration’s commitment to human rights, following the recent off then on talks between President Obama and the Dalai Lama.
On Tibet, the U.S. side can advance its stated emphasis on freedoms of religion and the flow of information. While the Google case has crystallized global attention on China’s insidious censorship regime, it merely publicized pervasive trends inside, especially for restive populations, like Tibetans and their defenders.
Since the Spring 2008 uprising in Tibet, the Chinese government has engaged in a systematic campaign to block news of the torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across the Tibetan plateau. A simple e-mail or telephone conversation about the current situation can get a Tibetan branded as ‘reactionary’ or ‘splittist’ and penalized with a long prison sentence. The penalties attached to these cases indicate a zero tolerance policy for even low-level information sharing in Tibet that is counter to China’s obligations to freedom of speech under its domestic law and international human rights law.
An upcoming report by the International Campaign for Tibet details the cases of more than 50 Tibetans, mostly writers, bloggers, intellectuals and civil society leaders, who have been imprisoned, tortured, ‘disappeared’ or harassed for merely expressing their views.
Even the humanitarian moment of the April 14 earthquake in Tibet couldn’t give pause to the crackdown. Official media reported that authorities are to pay special attention to “lawbreakers who use illegal publications to disturb people’s hearts and disrupt the relief effort.” A new directive called for state media to de-emphasize the role of Tibetan Buddhist monks in helping victims.
On April 23 (one day after the U.S. announced the resumption of the dialogue), authorities detained Shogdung, an editor at an official publishing house in Xining. He is the most high-profile Tibetan writer to be detained in the crackdown following the Spring 2008 uprising. His detention may be connected to his signing a letter critical of the government’s handling of the Tibetan earthquake. He also authored a new book indicting China’s policies in Tibet, describing Tibet as “a place of terror.”
In her January speech on Internet freedom, Secretary Clinton cited the United States’ responsibility to stand up for the free exchange of ideas. She said the U.S. would address China’s denial of these rights “candidly and consistently.” Rather than wither in the face of deepening repression, a new generation of Tibetans is taking on more personal risks by daring to refute China’s official narrative. The U.S. side carries into the Human Rights Dialogue the responsibility not only of standing firm on its principles, but of putting them into action through tangible results that the President desires. How they handle the case of Tibet bears watching.
PHOTO: Dhondup Wangchen, the director of the film ‘Leaving Fear Behind,’ sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2009.
6 Responses to “The Tibetan Challenge in the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue”
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The chinese only understand force. No point in negotiating because they are such liars.
If only H.H. had not fobidden the Khampas to fight, the chinese would not have found their foothold in Tibet so easily, then maybe the rest of the world might have helped. Now all is too late. The greedy world wants chinese trade so no one is willing to help Tibet.
Someone should drop a bomb on china.
Moderation of previous blogs:
1) To The Chinese Government in Beiijing:
Many in the world not only want to boycott everything you sell, but many do not even want relations with you, until you are willing to sit down with only DIALOGUE.
2) You must seriously and finally realize, The Dalai Lama is growing old, and miight die SOON. He is almost 80 years old, and lives in a climate not like Tibet at all. It takes at least two full generations for one’s Genetic Predispositions to change at the DNA microcosm.
3) The greatest scare of all however is crystal clear:
The Youth in Tibet, many already tortured, literally, are waitig until His Holiness, dies of old age, and of sheer exhaustion, until they transform into, Terrorists!
4) Both The Former USSR, and now America, have suffered horribly in Afghanistan, due to the terrorist major advantage of high, mighty Mountain rugged terrain. In Tibet, wherein lie the world’s most rugged and unforgiving Mountain Terrain, The Mighty Himalayans, please consider with all due speed, The Govt. of China, the youth of Tibet could make easily, by far, the world’s most terrifying terrorists, with the combination of being totured, treated as second-hand citizens and in their very own Country, Tibet, and again, add the impenetrable might of the world’s most rugged mountain ranges, making the Kyber Pass, the worst of the Middle East’s most unforgiving, hostile terrain, appear like as if Child’s Play. Not even the Americans dare invade the Kyber Pass. Imagine the plight of the Chinese in the mighty Himalayans, against the pent-up rage of the youth in Tibet, suffering having lived through a hell so horrific, like having to watch in horror, as the Chinese Soldiers, even killed the very young Tibetan’s Parents, and, in front of the Tibetan Children’s eyes!
5) Therefore: The Chinese can never win a mountain war against the decades of pent up rage in those, the world’s highest and, most troublesome Mountain Passes. Chinese Govt.: Deal Directly with The Dalai Lama, before PRECIOUS TIME RUNS OUT.
I agree, but only when the Chinese Agree to meet H. H. The 14th Dalai Lama. Only then will the peoples of the world feel comfortable sitting at the bargaining table with the Chinese Mainland Govt.
Many in America believe only by Bo
ycotting all China made products, can we politically force the Chinese Communist Government to stop the unbearable genocide going on, as I write with horrific veracity, and to tell the truth, no one can ever stop this sentiment until the Chinese Government indeed stops the awful genocide. Yet however, let us Westerners clean up our own genociding first, namely, of all our indigenous peoples, from the Great Sioux Nation in North America, to the indigeneous Peruvians in S. America, why, to every country: Stop already treating your respective first Anscestors of all Lands as 2nd Class Citizens. To China I ask you to heed sound advice: For the sake of NOT having homegrown terrorists of your own, meet with His Holiness The Great 14th Dalai Lama, and, soon! Why? Because, I, and many others feel with tremendous trepidation, once H.H. indeed dies, the youth of Tibet will(No, not all, but in all liklihood the vast majority,) become, most sadly, mountain guitellas. If you think Afganistan is tough terrain, compared to the Mighty Himalayas, the Kyber Pass is akin to the flatlands of most Chinese Cities at sea level! No Chinese, American, or Russian forces, all combined, could beat the youth of Tibet, for make no mistake about it, the anger of Tibetan young grows exporntially by the day, as more and more atrocities are committed by the brute savagery of too well trained to kill and even torture, Chinese troops, stationed in places in Tibet, most Chinese were never brought up to survive. In other words, what we saw American troops do in Abu Garib, is nothing to what the Chinese soldiers are doing in Tibet!
Please，China：Meet with The Dalai Lama, before he dies! He is almost 80! And, the Tibetan body is NOT used to India’s climate, not after only one generation in India! It defies the Laws of Genetic Predisposition. Really. Act now while there is stii some reasonable time to negotiate, for you Chinese know only too well, just how slowly Geopolitics, and the fine tuning of treaties really does take: Many, many years. G
Finally, the entire rest of the world is deeply worrying, as in one year, all the Chinese factories belching out mega-tons daily of unbelievae amounts of Mega-Pollutions, more than America has, in fifty years! Therefore there is, scientifically, a direct correlation, between, Chinese Mainland Pollution, and: Quickly Changing, dangerously so, Climate Change, and, most so: In, CHINA.
I am pleased regarding this meeting b-u-t truly do not believe it will help. The Chinese use their own rules as well as punishment which is the most cruel.
Please Mr. President be strong, it is for now Tibets only hope for relief.
The U.S. desire for good economic relations with China must not override the intolerance of China’s treatment of minorities, particularly Tibetans. Let’s hope something concrete results from today’s meetings, not just empty words.