Insights From The Roof Of The World: Conversations on Tibet

This talk is part of the FNVA’s Round Table titled as “Next Decade of India-China Relations: Scope for Policy Alternatives?”, held at the India International Centre, New Delhi – 2013.

The late Lodi Gyari Rinpoche was the key Tibetan statesmen when the Sino-Tibetan Dialogue initiated and took place. He explains to us in his presentation what this dialogue is and how it is pivotal in resolving the Tibet-China conflict. Furthermore, he gives insights on the Chinese leadership including the diplomatic tactics employed by the former presidents of the PRC, late Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. He also asserts the importance of Tibet when it comes to Chinese bilateral relationship with India and also the USA, sharing anecdotes to back his statements.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, we engage with Simon Cheng, Rahima Mahmut and Tenzin Kunga on how their respective communities and councillors came together to prevent the establishment of a Super Chinese Embassy at Tower Hamlets, London.

This podcast brings together three campaigners who worked with local residents and councilors to achieve this major victory. We discuss the significance of this development in the context of reconfigured UK-China relations and what may happen next. Rahima Mahmut, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress and Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide; Simon Cheng, founder of the UK-wide diaspora group Hong Kongers in Britain and Tenzin Kunga, Chair of the Tibetan Community in Britain and Advocacy Officer for Free Tibet in London.

It discussed Beijing's plans to open a new super embassy at a historic site in London, received an unexpected blow when local councillors in the London borough of Tower Hamlets rejected plans for construction of the embassy opposite the Tower of London. It would have been the largest diplomatic base in Britain. The site where China planned to relocate falls within the Tower of London conservation area, and is the symbolic former site of the Royal Mint, which produced British currency.

In a tense meeting on 1 December, the Tower Hamlets council voted unanimously against the proposed development to move China’s current embassy to the new 2 hectare site. The vote was unanimous and crossed Party divides. Around 38% of residents of the London borough are Muslim, the highest proportion in the UK. Former local Labour councilor Rabina Khan said during the campaign: “People see the oppression of the Uyghurs, when they are thirsty, they are forced to drink alcohol though they are Muslim, forced sterilisation and rape - we condemn the atrocities. We stand with the Hong Kong people and let’s not forget the oppression of the Tibetan people.” Rabina added: “The East End has a rich heritage and history of standing together on the principles of humanity – of standing together to challenge oppressors and today we challenge the Chinese Communist Party.”

The podcast also discusses two more new developments:

1. A few days after the Tower Hamlets decision, on Human Rights Day, 10 December, the Biden administration sanctioned two Chinese officials over their abuse of Tibetans' human rights. The two senior officials sanctioned were Wu Yingjie, Tibet Autonomous Region Party Secretary between 2016 and 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, director of the TAR Public Security Bureau from 2018 to this year. Both were accused of 'serious human rights abuse' and under the sanctions the US freezes any property owned by the officials, and together with their families, they are barred from entering the country.

2. Our earlier Roof of the World podcast focused on China’s transnational policing (https://fnvaworld.org/chinas-transnat...) and how Hong Kong protester Bob Chan was beaten up by Chinese consular officials in Manchester. We report in this podcast about the outcome – that the Chinese diplomats involved have now left the UK.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives in exile, their future aspiration for Tibet and give them a platform through which they can freely express themselves and in many ways decide their own future. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who are silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode we engage with Tibetan activist and community organiser Chemi Lhamo sees here engage upon several topics ranging from her engagements with Tibetans, the recent Chinese mass uprising, Sports, Activism and the FIFA world cup, her personal life journey which she still embarks upon, What Tibetans migrating from India means, activity and initiatives by Tibetans in Canada for Tibet, China’s tactic and polices in occupied Tibet, on Reincarnation (His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and here experience in contesting at the Parkdale-High Park Councillor Elections this year.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives in exile, their future aspiration for Tibet and give them a platform through which they can freely express themselves and in many ways decide their own future. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who are silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode we engage with Tenzyn Zöchbauer who shares with us the functions and activities by the Tibet Initiative - Deutschland. She also highlights her journey in the Tibet struggle and how her mother played a pivotal role here.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, we engage with Gabriel Lafitte, Lobsang Yangtso and Tenzin Choekyi on Climate Change in Tibet and how it impacts the world.

Tibet is a biodiversity hotspot that governs the flow of the monsoon rains and creates the rivers that are sourced from Tibet – it matters to the rest of the world. Known as the Earth’s Third Pole, Tibet holds the largest store of fresh water outside the Arctics, providing water for one fifth of the global population. Like the Arctic, Tibet is experiencing profound climate change impacts. China’s hydro-damming and mineral extraction in Tibet, combined with climate change, threaten to destroy Tibet’s unique ecosystems.

This podcast focuses on the climate emergency and the critical ‘India China Tibet Triangle’. Tenzin Choekyi and Lobsang Yangtso were part of an all-female, mostly Tibetan team who spoke for Tibet at the most important meeting for the future of our planet, the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, held in Egypt from 6-20 November.

Gabriel explains why Tibet matters to the rest of the world, because Tibet governs the flow of the monsoon rains and creates the rivers that are sourced from Tibet. “In Tibet, China sees an abundant source of hydro power, solar power, wind power, oil and gas, all to be exported to the heavy industrial users of lowland China. In Tibet the climate is warming faster than most, as the jet stream in the upper atmosphere diverts around the plateau, which is such a massive island in the sky that it affects even the jet stream. Globally, the increasingly common droughts, forest fires, also extreme downpours and floods are intensified by the increasing meandering of the jet stream. Yet China sees only a payoff, a dividend it collects as the Tibetan Plateau gets wetter and warmer, its glaciers melt, the great rivers of Tibet increase streamflow, and China benefits.”

This session sees various experts and scholars tackle and try to gauge the path that the current Chinese government under President Xi Jinping is heading towards. It also provides a deep analysis on the recently concluded National Party Congress which saw a major shift in Chinese leadership.

The speakers include Amb. Kanwal Sibal, the former foreign secretary of India and Padma Shree recipient as the chair and moderator. Prof. Srikanth Kondapalli, the Dean of School of International Studies - JNU. Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, the Diplomatic Affairs editor of the Economic Times. Tenzin Lekshey, The official Spokesperson of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Roger Liu, The department head of Social Sciences - FLAME University.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, we engage with Laura Harth who is the Campaign Director of Safeguard Defenders in understanding the truth of China's Transnational Policing.

Their report "110 Overseas: China's Policing gone wild" documents that Chinese police forces have been running “overseas police service stations” in “dozens of countries” across five continents since 2018, constituting illegal policing operations on foreign soil.

Since the report was released on 12 September, 14 governments have started investigations into the police stations on their territory - including Austria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, the UK and the US, documented here: https://safeguarddefenders.com/sites/default/files/pdf/110%20Overseas%20%284%29.pdf

The podcast opens with a discussion about a shocking incident in Britain when Chinese consular officials assaulted a peaceful protester from Hong Kong on 16 October. Hong Kongers were holding a peaceful demonstration outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester coinciding with Xi Jinping’s assertion of power at the Party Congress in Beijing.

Chinese consular officials escalated the protest by tearing down images of Xi Jinping displayed by the protestors. Then Hong Konger Bob Chan was set upon by masked Chinese men and physically dragged into the grounds of the consulate.

After initial denials were disproved by the video clip, Zheng told Chinese state media that he was merely ‘doing his duty’. Greater Manchester police have launched an investigation into the assault. The incident was a frightening demonstration of the efforts made by the Chinese government and their proxies to silence and instil fear not only their own citizens but beyond their borders.

The podcast features a discussion on the significance of a new development on 6 October, a landmark decision by the European Court of Human Rights that could herald an end to Europe’s extraditions to China. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) unanimously found that the extradition of a Taiwanese national to China, which Poland’s courts had cleared earlier, would place him at significant risk of ill-treatment and torture. This decision will most likely mean European countries will find it near impossible to extradite suspects to China again.

Safeguard Defenders has called for democracies worldwide to recognize the domestic threat represented by these rapidly expanding transnational repression operations and adopt a whole-of-government approach to:

1. Investigate the PRC's transnational repression tactics and underlying networks – also in countries where no police service station appears to have been set up
2. Set up adequate reporting and protection mechanisms for communities at risk and ensure local law enforcement offices are aware of the particular threats they face
3. Urgently review – and possibly suspend - judicial and police cooperation agreements with the PRC;
4. Coordinate information-sharing and adequate responses with like-minded countries, including targeted sanctions and visa restrictions on those responsible for or complicit in these efforts.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives in exile, their future aspiration for Tibet and give them a platform through which they can freely express themselves and in many ways decide their own future. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who are silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode we engage with Tenzin Zompa. She is a journalist and worked at ThePrint and Phayul media. We deliberate upon Tibetan and Indian media, her journey into journalism, the significant role her schooling played and the issue of accessibility when it comes to reporting on Chinese occupied Tibet.

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode we engage with two Tibetan scholars in understanding the situation in Tibet especially those who disappear including Go Sherab Gyatso and many others.

Unsilenced: Voices of Young Tibetans is a podcast series where we have conversations with young Tibetans who will offer an interesting view of their lives in exile, their future aspiration for Tibet and give them a platform through which they can freely express themselves and in many ways decide their own future. The podcast is also a tribute to all those brave Tibetans in Tibet who are silenced both physically and mentally by the Chinese occupiers.

In this episode we engage with Tenzin Thinley la who is a Political Science student who has completed his Under Graduation from Methodist University, North Carolina, USA. We deliberate upon his experience studying in the USA and also the UK, on Tibet and experiences of a Tibetan Refugee and on the Chinese Communist regime along with the upcoming 20th National People's Congress.