Graphic courtesy of @anonymoustibet

With reports Sunday May 27 of two more self-immolations in occupied Tibet, reported to have happened in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, once again the mainstream media has been serving as a willing servant of China’s propaganda. The reportage has  been saturated with China’s distortions on Tibet and describing what are Tibetan locations, regions and territory as Chinese.See Here For Example Please help our efforts to expose and challenge such gross disinformation and if you see such reports kindly think before sharing on Twitter or Facebook, as that action spreads the lies and misleads others.

Graphic courtesy of @tibettruth

Graphic:courtesy of @tibettruth

Image:archivenet

Graphic courtesy of @AnonymousTibet

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson in Beijing, With China’s Propaganda Maestro, Li Congjun

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Once again the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has revealed an unhealthy willingness, to parade as fact, China’s propaganda, more on that shortly, it has served as a conduit for Beijing’s disinformation for a number of years now, influenced and encouraged by the foreign policy objectives of its colleagues in the Foreign Office (equivalent of the State Department) whose task is to maintain positive relations with China at any cost. The BBC’s senior executives enjoy trips to Beijing to attend media summits hosted by China’s disinformation agency, Xinhua, relations at a senior level are cordial to say the least. As this special cooperation has developed we have witnessed, in BBC reportage, a corrosion of the truth on issues relating to China, a withdrawal of independent and forceful analysis, replaced by a syntax that bears a worrying similarity to the official disinformation of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Information. This is most noticeable on subjects of political sensitivity to the Chinese Regime such as Tibet, East Turkestan and related issues on human rights, such matters as reported by the BBC often repeat China’s official position and are virtually absent of critique, balance or an alternate perspective and context.

Such a development must be a source of satisfaction to China’s propaganda ministry and its front organization, Xinhua, whose chief and World Media Summit President, Li Congjun wrote in the Party’s official Seeking Truth journal in February 2009:

“We must actively seek out new horizons, new mechanisms, new channels and new methods in the area of outside dialogue and cooperation, particularly, as by the demands of central party leaders, successfully organizing the first meeting of the World Media Summit, building a platform for dialogue among first-rate international media (, further raising the capacity of Xinhua News Agency to make its voice heard in the international news and information sector.” (Source CMP)

Dotun Adebayo Offered An Uncritical Platform For Robert Kuhn

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This accommodation reached a new level of appeasement during a late night radio show from BBC Radio Five Live, a station which has previously been exposed as displaying a bias towards China’s official orthodoxy. We are extremely grateful to one of our friends in England for providing details of this latest incident, which was broadcast on May 5 during a program called ‘Up All Night’ hosted by one Dotun Adebayo. Towards the end of his show the presenter featured the story of Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese activist, noted for his campaigns to expose the forcible sterilization and forced abortions of women in China, who recently sought sanctuary in the US Embassy. Following the usual template of such segments, the show featured a guest, who was presumably invited on the basis of providing an authoritative and impartial analysis, unfortunately in this case the researchers had either clearly not done their homework, were incapable of recognizing a propagandist, or worse simply conformed to an Editorial attitude sympathetic to a pro-China position.

Well listeners surely got that (and how!) as they listened to the comments of a Doctor Robert Lawrence Khun. Before we look at the nauseating disinformation that saturated his commentary it maybe helpful to examine briefly significant and revealing aspects of this individual’s résumé. He is described as “an international corporate strategist, investment banker and expert on China” and there’s no doubting his credentials regarding his relationship to the Chinese Regime, having cooperated since 1989 with senior Chinese leaders and served as an adviser on economics and other subjects to the Regime. Robert Kuhn is also a senior consultant to China Central Television (CCTV) and Xinhua News Agency, both of which are main channels of official propaganda in China.

Robert Kuhn

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In researching a suitably balanced and objective guest to feature in that item were BBC researchers not troubled by such a curriculum vitae? Did they not pause to question if this individual may in fact have developed a certain bias towards China’s Regime, or that his position as adviser to Xinhua was an indication of views somewhat tainted with officially sanctioned disinformation? Yet, with a minimum of scrutiny they would have found expressions of concern regarding the ideology and words of Robert Kuhn. Most recently documented in his florid hagiography of China’s Regime titled, ‘How China’s Leaders Think: the Inside Story of China’s Reform and What This Means for the Future’.

An insightful review of this book appeared in Forbes by noted author on China, Gordon C Chang. In a highly critical dismissal of Kuhn’s work, which the reviewer notes: “I gave up reading with 401 pages to go. I wanted to stop earlier, after Kuhn stated–on the fifth page of the introduction–that Chinese leaders are not authoritarians. That’s demonstrably untrue, but I struggled on for another hundred pages before finally realizing there was no point in reading a work of propaganda…..it’s evident that Kuhn is not going to say a critical word about the theoretical underpinnings of present-day Chinese authoritarianism.”

There were then serious questions being asked about the impartiality of Robert Kuhn, yet such concerns did not trouble the producers, editors, researchers and presenter of the BBC show ‘Up All Night’, which allowed this individual a generous platform to air China’s toxic propaganda and effectively act as an apologist for a Regime and downplay the case of Chen Guangcheng. The following are extracts taken from the show in question, responding to the assertion by the presenter that Chen was a dissident, Kuhn was at pains to dismiss that and relegate the activist as an ‘irritant’, a far more pejorative an inaccurate term. He then described Chen Guangcheng’s actions in the following manner:

“He started out trying to help poor people who were being forced to have abortions or be sterilized or something” (Emphasis Added)

Note the vagueness, along with the the sly implication of an uncertainty to Chen’s activities, suggesting such may either have been misplaced, inaccurate or targeting issues which may not have been operating. Yet the entire world knows very precisely what Chen was campaigning against, the human rights violations generated by China’s coercive population control program, a widely reported fact in western media. How curiously singular then for this uniquely experienced and knowledgeable scholar of China’s political scene to demonstrate such vagueness and hesitancy, clearly it is difficult not to consider that Robert Kuhn would be very aware, something however prevented any clear assertion on the issue, could that be explained by his seeming fondness and tolerance of China’s Regime?

This was followed by comments, the nature of which suggested an experienced and willing propagandist for China, referring to the tortuous abuse inflicted upon Chen Guangcheng, which Mr Kuhn presented in the following manner:

“He was treated, as the reports go, very poorly and oppressively by local officials, often times what happens at local levels is not what Beijing and senior leaders would like to see happen. My experience of the Chinese leaders is they are very compassionate..when policies get translated into local areas then it gets more repressive..” (Emphasis Added)

This is a classic application by apologists for China, drenching descriptions in euphemism and extenuation to minimize or deflect from the odious realities of the tyranny of China’s regime and then seeking to distance the central government by claiming abuses are the responsibility of over zealous local officials. The truth is that as the harrowing atrocities of the Gestapo could not have operated to the extent they did without the sanction,funding, administration and encouragement of the National Socialist Party, the vicious oppression, human rights violations and censorship cannot operate in China without the authorization, and political and economic support and knowledge of the communist leadership of China’s Regime. Not that Robert Kuhn would agree, indeed as loyal friend of the Chinese leadership he calmly assured the program’s audience that there is a

“..great deal of public oversight of the Government, the Government just cant do what it used to do in the past” adding that “To some Chinese leaders people like that (Chen) are very helpful today because they are able to put pressure on local officials to change policies which are repressive to people, that the central leaders don’t even know about”. (Emphasis Added)

Chen Guangcheng, Not A Dissident According To Kuhn, But An ‘Irritant

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How telling that Mr Kuhn holds the opinion that a totalitarian state, which has invasive and limitless control over every aspect of people’s lives, is seemingly so ignorant of its draconian policies, that are imposing widespread oppression and suffering across China. Take the very issue which Chen Guangcheng has been active on, China’s notorious population control program, in particular the medical atrocities and human rights violations it forces upon countless numbers of women. Such abuses are well documented and their existence and implementation cannot be ascribed to simply local excess or misreading of state regulation, they are a vital element, without which China’s Regime would not be able to have secured, behind the vague euphemism of its national and regional family planning laws and policies, such colossal reductions in the number of of births. It is state imposed violent coercion, financial penalties, loss of homes, confiscation of property and fear which characterizes the very program that Chen Guangcheng has so courageously campaigned against. There is no question that this policy is centrally engineered and approved by the Chinese Regime, the mobilization, administration and funding of the nationwide program of forced sterilizations and forced abortions is not a random or occasional local aberration from some benign government policy, rather the application of a highly coercive program that is imposed and authored by the Chinese government.

It is a matter of great disappointment that once again a mainstream media organization has permitted such obvious propaganda to be presented as fact, without any serious counter-view or challenge. The team responsible for the offending Radio Five Live show have at best been found wanting in terms of being able to identify such a biased and partisan source, at worst they are guilty of assembling a flawed and distorted program that has seriously mislead its audience and denied them a balanced, impartial and factual coverage of a story of great concern and interest to many. This would be in violation of the BBC’s stated editorial policies and relevant broadcasting commitments to its license fee payers, anyone  who wishes to lodge a formal complaint about this subject may do so online here: https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=

Image: via tibettruthUK

Tibettruth has for the past two years been running a lobbying campaign to inform and question on Tibetan independence, Senators and Parliamentarians in Europe, it has proved a highly effective means of ensuring that politicians are reminded of the true nature of Tibet’s cause and of the political objectives and aspirations of Tibetans inside occupied Tibet. In Britain this lobbying asks two basic, yet important, questions:

Will the Government, and Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
acknowledge that Tibetans inside Tibet, in their ongoing resistance to
Chinese occupation, are demanding independence for Tibet?

Will the Secretary of State, Rt Hon. William Hague MP, provide official written
confirmation that there has been a formal and written change of Britain’s
policy on the status of Tibet?

Thanks to our British friends and supporters we have received some revealing response from Members of Parliament and most recently a reply from the Minister with responsibility for China, Jeremy Browne MP, we have included it as an example of how supremely evasive and sensitive the Foreign Office (equivalent of the State Department) is on the subject of Tibet’s independence. Regarding the supposed ‘change of policy’ we have challenged the claim made by the British Foreign Office, details of which may be read  HERE

We hope it proves informative for anyone in Britain who is considering writing to their Representative and illustrates just how unwilling is Government to address truthfully these important issues, you can see how the two questions have been ignored and misrepresented. What counts though is the fact that people are raising this matter with politicians, and for that Tibettruth is extremely grateful to all those who are reminding their Senators or Parliamentarians of Tibet’s true cause.

The quake shattered the town of Jyekundo

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Two years ago the eastern Tibetan town of of Jyekundo was struck by a devastating earthquake, flattening houses and leaving Tibetans homeless and traumatized by the destruction and loss of life. The event was swiftly seized upon by China’s regime as another propaganda exercise and with the uncritical support of its friends within the western media the global information highway was buzzing with reports and images of Chinese relief workers extending care and support to the stricken Tibetan community. It was of course a carefully staged illusion, more about politics than genuine humanitarian aid, that reality though did not prevent a number of foreign agencies from collaborating with China’s regime to offer limited support, including Operation Safe, whose website featured photographs of smiling Tibetan children along with a commentary that was saturated in China’s propaganda terminology.

Two years on and Tibetans still surviving under tented squalor

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What such assistance, which trumpeted much about marvelous achievements, chose to ignore was the fact that it was not Chinese troops providing genuine relief and emotional and physical support but Tibetans themselves, many monks from monasteries in the region. This was a truth that China’s regime did not wish to be reported and sadly media coverage complied in the censorship and concealment by paying scant attention to the extent and scale of Tibetan efforts to bring relief.. There was instead much reportage of Chinese convoys and financial aid supposedly pouring into the area, dutifully repeated as fact by foreign correspondents who had been effectively excluded from the region by a security zone. Meanwhile good-hearted people donated to various projects that promised to deliver direct aid to Tibetans, not mentioning that any and all funds would require the approval and administration of the occupying regional Chinese authorities, a reality that should have urged caution, but in the scramble to offer support such considerations were ignored.

Daily life remains a grim struggle for Tibetans

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So it is that in May 2012 thousands of Tibetans are still living in squalid tented settlements, the much reported funds have either mysteriously disappeared, projects left incomplete and donations that promised urgent relief unaccountable, or not delivering the benefits claimed. It is an appalling situation and the world and its cynical media has moved on to feed upon the next news corpse, indifferent to the ongoing suffering of those Tibetans whose lives were forever scarred by that seismic upheaval.

Financial aid, reconstruction and support failed to materialize

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Can anyone be surprised by the Declaration of The Sixth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet (WPCT), which was adopted on April 29, 2012, its wording advocated a cause and strategy that has been acknowledged as a failure by the Dalai Lama. That singular and sobering truth however did not prevent the assembled Parliamentarians from endorsing proposals which abandon Tibet’s nationhood, and the rightful aspirations of Tibet’s people, for a solution that would see Tibetans become another ethnic minority group under the tender mercies contained in China’s national and regional laws on so-called ‘autonomy’

For ease of reference here are the key extracts from the Declaration which should be of concern to any who support Tibet’s true cause and stand in solidarity with the struggle waged by Tibetans for their nation’s independence.

“Reject the argument made by the government of the PRC that the engagement of governments with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and members of the elected Tibetan leadership and the expression of support by governments for the peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet through dialogue and negotiations constitute breaches of the ‘one China policy’ “

So the World Parliamentarian Convention on Tibet sees the issue of Tibet as being resolvable through the domestic law and policies of communist China, with the clear implication that it considers Tibet and its people as not separate from China, but as an internal issue, defined by the cynical fabrications of the so-called One China Policy.

“Remain convinced that a sustainable solution to the issue of Tibet can be achieved  through genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within the PRC, as evidenced by the positive experience of the many autonomous regions around the world, and note in particular the example set by the creation of the Territory of Nunavut as a self governing community within the sovereign nation of Canada.”

Does the WPCT not realize that autonomy, as understood or experienced in more liberal states, such as Canada, Spain or Scotland cannot in any intelligent or realistic manner be projected upon or realized under what remains a totalitarian system? Moreover, while particular indigenous groups may be tolerant or welcoming of limited freedoms offered by autonomous conditions, in say Canada,  those people may not be actively struggling for national liberation or seeking an independent status. Furthermore, while there is an historic record of exploitation, occupation and cultural genocide experienced by such groups in North America, the tragic process of assimilation and economic and political domination has left such peoples with little choice but to accept whatever social or cultural freedoms such autonomy provides. The situation in occupied Tibet is of course entirely different, in the sense not only of the nature and extent of brutal expansionism, colonization and human rights atrocities and cultural erosion, but in that Tibetans are resisting China’s tyranny to demand, not ‘genuine autonomy’ but their national independence. This reality, ignored by the WPCT, illustrates another important distinction, unlike indigenous groups within Canada, Tibetans were in possession of, not just lands but an independent political nation, one which enjoyed its own Government, currency, international treaties and was marked by a national boundary.

“Express solidarity with the Tibetan people in their non-violent struggle for their rights and freedoms including the right to determine their own destiny”

If the WPCT truly stands in solidarity why during the entire proceedings of it meeting, and the contents of its Declaration is there no reference to Tibetan independence, or any assertion that such is the demand of political protests by Tibetans inside occupied Tibet. The Tibetan people already have the right to determine their own destiny, they exercise that by courageously resisting China’s occupation and demanding national independence. Sadly the WPCT refuses to express such solidarity with that rightful cause.

“Dispel the false accusation that His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration is seeking separation from the PRC since the Tibetan proposals expressly formulate a solution within the constitutional framework of the PRC and therefore call upon the government of the PRC to cease to propagate such misinformation”

Let get this right shall we? The Dalai Lama has formally relinquished political authority so it is reasonable to ask why the WPCT continues to deliberately equate his name with the issue of Tibet, and more significantly conflating Tibet’s cause with the proposals made by Tibetan spiritual leader, which have been formalized as the Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for Tibetans. The cause of Tibet belongs not to any one Tibetan but to the six million Tibetan people, inside occupied Tibet, where virtually all Tibetans survive under China’s oppressive and illegal occupation, a movement for national independence has been waged for decades, a fact the WPC make no mention of. Yet the truth is that protests, be they by individuals or mass uprisings consistently demand Tibetan independence. It is therefore misleading and disingenuous of the WPCT to claim that the Dalai Lama is not seeking the separation of Tibet from China, firstly because he is now divested of political authority and more importantly because it is the voice and political aspirations of Tibetans in Tibet that should be respected and supported. In that context we remind Parliamentarians of the plain fact that Tibetans are not seeking ‘separation’ as their nation already existed, Tibetans seek independence from an illegal occupation. An objective which the WPCT, in its effusive support for the Dalai Lama, chooses to ignore.

“Offer to work with members of the National People’s Congress to jointly ascertain the causes of protest and unrest in Tibet, including the self-immolations”

Having expressed grave concern for human rights violations and oppression in Tibet the World Parliamentary Convention on Tibet now volunteers to collaborate with China’s political establishment, to examine possible reasons which explain Tibetan dissent. What planet are these Parliamentarians living on, are they not already aware of the catalog of atrocities and cultural genocide that Tibetans suffer? Do they not yet understand that Tibetans are not taking to the streets to demand moderation or improvements in any policies applied by their oppressors. That would be a gross misrepresentation of the facts and a betrayal of the struggle waged by Tibetans, that the WPCT can make such a statement reveals either a damning degree of ignorance or a cynical effort to distort and conceal the political nature and objectives of Tibetan protests. Imagine a global body of Parliamentarians offering to collaborate with the Apartheid Regime of South Africa, to better determine why the Black township of Soweto was the scene of repeated protests. Of course at that moment the world knew precisely the reasons for such dissent and thankfully no offer of collaboration was extended to the racist government of South Africa. Why then this absurd proposal to cooperate with they very tyrants whose illegal occupation and genocidal assimilation of Tibet are the obvious causes of Tibetan unrest?

Tibettruth had produced a briefing paper for the 6th World Parliamentary Convention on Tibet which raised some very important questions and exposed the nonsense of the failed proposals to seek ‘autonomy’ for Tibetans. It appealed to participants to recognize that Tibetans in occupied Tibet are not seeking such a solution, but are actively protesting for Tibet’s independence. Furthermore it called upon Parliamentarians to note the acknowledgement made by the Dalai Lama, that the proposals for a ‘Middle Way’ solution (autonomy) had failed, and that any support for Tibet should honor and respect the political aspirations and struggle of Tibet’s people. Unfortunately those Parliamentarians supportive of Tibet, have in this latest Declaration, again abandoned the very people whose cause they continue to evade and dismiss.

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No matter how devoted to the cause of Tibet supporters of Tibetan national freedom may be, the distracting currents of confusion, resulting from conflicting statements issued by Tibet’s, now only spiritual leader, continue to generate puzzling diversions. Take the latest comments, reported April 22 by Voice of Tibet, in which the Dalai Lama is claimed to have made the following request

‘Instead of independence, I plead other freedom fighters to adopt middle way’:

For anyone not familiar with that term, ‘middle way’ refers to a set of proposals put to China by the Tibetan leader, in which he abandoned aspirations for Tibet’s rightful independence, in exchange for seeking a form of autonomy under China’s national and regional laws. Here’s the confusing part. In 2009 during an NBC television interview the Dalai Lama conceded that his ‘Middle Way’ proposals had proved a failure, which he again repeated during a BBC interview in 2012 , where he affirmed that:

“Our approach [has been] more or less failure to get some kind of cross understanding with the Chinese government and some kind of improvement inside Tibet. In that aspect [it has] completely failed,”

This somewhat contradictory circumstance is difficult to understand, a situation in which inside occupied Tibet courageous Tibetans are resisting China’s vicious occupation to demand independence for Tibet, yet in exile their spiritual leader is asking them to forgo that struggle and embrace a policy, which he himself has conceded has proved a singular failure. Beyond this troubling contradiction however lie even darker waters, the consequences and challenges of which can only be fully understood or felt by Tibetans themselves, arising from their deeply profound and historically established faith and reverence towards the Dalai Lama.

In making such an appeal the Tibetan leader is unwittingly placing a colossal burden upon the shoulders of those who are actively seeking Tibet’s national freedom, as his words speak directly to the heart of each Tibetan, forcing an impossible dilemma upon individuals to honor and respect the wishes of the Dalai Lama, at the expense of surrendering Tibet’s just cause, for a condition in which Tibetans would remain under China’s draconian grip, with at best cosmetic improvements and limited religious or cultural freedoms. It is nothing less than asking Tibetans to give up their decades old struggle and endorse a ‘solution’ which not only has been consistently rejected by China’s Regime, but one in which the very author of that proposal, the Dalai Lama, has admitted has failed.

What is going on behind the scenes which may help to explain this remarkable appeal? Is it simply the words of an enlightened Buddhist who wishes to see an end to the suffering of his people and feels the surrendering of their struggle would best serve that objective? Alternatively, are his words constructed to send a positive signal to China, in a bid to encourage negotiations between his representatives and their counterparts from the Chinese government? Without doubt the ongoing self-immolations and violent oppression inside occupied Tibet have focused minds within the exiled Central Tibetan Administration, yet as their compatriots defy the tyranny of China’s paramilitary forces, to demand national independence, such an appeal not only undermines their efforts and sacrifices but generates confusion for a people who would follow their leader over the edge of a precipice.