
Original Image: expressandstar/augmented for accuracy and education by @tibettruth
Original Image: expressandstar/augmented for accuracy and education by @tibettruth
Image: original photo State Department, amended for accuracy by @tibettruth
Of course Secretary Blinken did not appear Feb 12 with the Tibetan national flag, either behind him or upon his lapel. He followed a long line of Secretary’s of State by avoiding any reference to the notion of Tibet as a nation, either through displaying emblems or via his carefully scripted New Year greeting. While many Tibetans are encouraged that he offered up solidarity on Tibetan culture, language and religion, it should never be forgotten that since Nixon reached an accord with Mao Tse Tung in 1972 successive administrations, be they Republican or Democrat, have recognized the bogus claim, and affirmed, that Tibet is part of China. This been the central policy of the State Department for decades, encouraged and shaped by a powerful coalition of corporate interests, whose prime goal is maintaining and expanding financial ties with China.
The following religious leaders are utterly silent on China’s genocidal persecution of Tibetans in occupied Tibet and Uyghurs in occupied east Turkistan (so-called Xinjiang region)
Grand Imam of al-Azhar
Image: elcomerico
Regarded by some as the highest authority in Sunni Islamic thinking, the present incumbent, Ahmad al-Tayyeb has offered no words of concern or opposition on China’s genocidal assault against his Uyghur Muslim brothers and sisters.
Primate Of The Russian Orthodox Church
Image: ria.ru
Mr Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev like his political colleagues within the Kremlin is completely silent on the odious excesses of the Chinese regime and has not spoken a word of concern on the terrorism being inflicted upon the Uyghurs.
The Pope
Image: theguardian
His church cut a secret deal with the Chinese regime in a what has proved to be a failed effort to protect Catholics in China. That arrangement required from the Vatican silence on issues such as the plight of Tibetans and Uyghurs.
Chief Rabbinate Council Of Israel
Image: timesofisrael
This body, headed by the Rabbis of various Jewish schools, has neither condemned or opposed the brutal tyranny waged against the Uyghur people.
Archbishop Of Canterbury
Image: theguardian
The Church Of England is deeply enmeshed within the British political establishment. The current office-holder Justin Welby has like his Catholic colleague, remained tight-lipped on the persecution of Uyghurs.
Moderator Of The Church Of Scotland
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Martin Fair, like his predecessors refuses to comment on China’s vicious oppression of the Uyghurs, or indeed offer any concern on the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh offering a fellowship to Professor Jiang Hiefu. An individual with close links to China’s forced-organ removal atrocities.
There’s numerous reasons for the ghastly silence of these supposedly compassionate and spiritual figures, in essence though their refusal to speak out against China is a result of political and economic forces. Be that a shared political ideology with China’s regime, trade considerations; or in the case of the Vatican naive and misguided collaboration, the result is complicity.
Image: NPR
There’s a whole bunch of governments around the world who for years have happily gorged themselves at China’s money trough. Even the platitudes on human rights and freedom where swiftly jettisoned by states who valued profit above such democratic principles. It’s been a scramble for money, and its ongoing.
Of all countries none have appeased the Chinese regime more than that of the UK, it’s equivalent of the State Department (known as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) has since engineering the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed on December 19,1984, given a new meaning to the term softly-softly.
Image: SCMP
Their advisors and specialists have consistently urged governments to be sensitive towards China, counseling a constructive engagement, while paying scant and cosmetic attention to the vicious oppression, censorship and cultural genocide waged against Tibetans, Uyghurs. Mongolians and Manchurians.
This approach has proved a complete failure in moderating such troubling excesses, of course any claim that positive relations with China would lead to reform and a reduction in human rights abuse was completely exposed as a fig-leaf when the pro-democracy students in Tienanmen Square were murdered in June 1989. Apart from a few acutely composed words of sympathy and hand-wringing it was to be business as usual, with the blood still on the streets of Beijing.
Image: SCMP
Since then China’s economic and global reach has become dominant, along with that rise the UK government has continued to blindly follow the counsel of its foreign policy strategists. Chinese money has bought considerable sections of the British economy, while the influence of China upon British academic institutions has grown considerably. Trade deals have flourished, corporations and politicians falling over themselves to benefit from positive relations with China’s totalitarian state and its many corrupted businesses. Including of course Huawei, one of China’s go-to mass surveillance providers, concerns on exposing critical communications infrastructure to control by Chinese tech-companies have been brushed aside by the British government.
Image: DALE DE LA REY / AFP) Epoch Times
Little wonder its Foreign Office has remained virtually silent on the false promises made to Hong Kong, now cruelly revealed as China makes legislative move to criminalize any and all forms of opposition and dissent there. Like the Tibetans and Uyghurs suffering the destruction of their culture and brutally denied their freedom,the UK authorities; driven by foreign policy advice, will serve up similar excuses, warm words and platitudes to the brave and determined people of Hong Kong.
It was always a betrayal, always duplicity and having kowtowed to the Chinese regime perfidious England is too busy making money from China to give a damn!
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Like the rest of the corporate world England’s premier soccer teams feed from the trough of China’s regime. Chinese money and with it a corrosive influence is increasingly funding English clubs, as witnessed by pitch-side commercials, shirt branding and Chinese language fan sites. Teams are also investing inside China, seeking to maximize their commercial footprint. The potential profits ensure an active collusion from soccer’s elite who close their eyes to China‘s dark record of human rights violations, censorship and forced labor-camps.
So desperate are clubs to nurture and maintain positive relations with China, that like many governments, they signal to the Chinese regime that they will not permit concerns on human rights to interfere with their lucrative corporate objectives. When presented with criticism on this they employ the classic excuse of declaring themselves as being non-political. Which is a joke since their collaborative silence in knowledge of persecution and oppression is a conscious decision very much defined by politics!
Against this background of craven appeasement, yesterday, we noted the comments of the Arsenal player, Mesut Özil who posted on Instagram
“East Turkistan, the bleeding wound of the Ummah, resisting against the persecutors trying to separate them from their religion. They burn their Qurans. They shut down their mosques. They ban their schools. They kill their holy men. The men are forced into camps and their families are forced to live with Chinese men. The women are forced to marry Chinese men. But Muslims are silent. They won’t make a noise. They have abandoned them. Don’t they know that giving consent for persecution is persecution itself?”.
We applaud and respect the integrity and conviction of this player to add his voice and status to give greater exposure to the cultural genocide waged against the Uyghur people. He is right to draw attention to the apathy of fellow Muslims, yet such callous indifference and silence is not restricted to the followers of Islam. Western governments and Non-Governmental Organizations such as United Nations Women and UNCSW are silent on the harrowing abuses being forced upon Uyghurs.
What of his club Arsenal? What’s their response? Within hours of his online comments they posted a statement on a number of prominent Chinese social-media platforms, including Weibo in which they stated:
“Regarding the comments made by Mesut Özil on social media, Arsenal must make a clear statement…The content published is Özil’s personal opinion. As a football club, Arsenal has always adhered to the principle of not involving itself in politics.”.
That grovelling appeasement may not be sufficient to satisfy the extreme nationalism of Chinese opinion, engineered by years of state imposed indoctrination. As in other recent cases were corporations have been required to issue apologies it may well be that Arsenal will be issuing further statements, would they if pushed release Mesut Özil? You betcha!
Image: archivenet
In collaborating with China’s regime; ignoring the atrocities and misery inflicted upon Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, Manchurians and the Han Chinese people, premier league clubs such as Arsenal are very much engaged in politics. Their collective silence is nothing less than a willing complicity!
Image; archivenet
In 2015 the mountainous land of Nepal, which borders occupied Tibet was hit by a massive earthquake. There was much loss-of-life and destruction. Yet the natural disaster which struck resulted in tremendous courage, and sacrifice as people banded together to rescue survivors, bring relief and hope.
A little reported component of such humanitarian efforts was the contribution made by the Tibetan refugee community within Nepal, who despite their marginalized and impoverished status demonstrated an inspiring sense of compassion and generosity. Tibetan monks and nuns organized food supplies, offered transport to medical centers, formed human chains removing rubble and provided shelter and comfort. Donations were raised from the wider Tibetan Diaspora and made to the Nepalese authorities.
Despite such a compassionate response there was no statement of thanks from Nepal’s government, it was as if the Tibetans were invisible to them. The reason for that callous indifference is that the corrupted Nepali authority is an active collaborator of China’s regime and for its appeasement receives considerable funding.
This has resulted to a policy of oppression against local Tibetans who live under constant fear, denied freedom-of-assembly or any expression of dissent. While those Tibetans who manage to escape from occupied Tibet find their desperate appeals for sanctuary denied by the Nepalese border force. They are detained, chained and handed over to the Chinese authorities to face torture, forced labor and years of misery.
On Sunday October 13, during a visit to Nepal China’s Xi Jinping met with Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. During which the Chinese dictator announced that: “Anyone attempting to split China will be crushed and any external force backing such attempts will be deemed by the Chinese people as pipe-dreaming,”. His remarks reflect ongoing pressure from the Chinese regime upon Nepal to intensify their oppressive measures against local Tibetans. Responding Mr. Oli said his country will never allow any force to use its territory for separatist (sic) activities against China.
Clearly Nepal’s government has a very short memory and values its lucrative relations with the blood-stained Chinese regime above the contributions, culture and rights of its Tibetan refugees.
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The decision by Apple to once again appease China and, pull from sale an app which the Chinese regime objected to on the grounds it enabled Hong Kong’s protesters to view location and movement of local police units, reveals its core values. The corporation cares little about human rights or freedom, its entire structure is dedicated to profit, at any cost it would appear. Including grovelling to dictatorships such as Xi Jinping’s regime to maintain its market position within China. This action by Apple places them even more firmly on the side of the oppressor. Moreover in denying the people of Hong Kong a resource to monitor what is an increasingly violent and brutal police force it is enabling and empowering the enemies of free-speech, public assembly and the right to dissent.
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It would be easy for people, on the basis of President Trump’s comments on China to conclude that the USA is on a course of getting tougher with the Chinese authorities, trade of course is key in the present tensions between the two.
However behind the scenes, the State Department and its foreign policy experts are still applying a thick layer of appeasement when it comes to China. The occupants of the White House come and go but that failed and fossilized approach of ‘constructive enagagement’ continues within the corridors at 2201 C St., NW.
On February 8 Ms Alice G. Wells Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs hosted at the State Department a reception to mark Tibetan New Year. We just got a copy of her speech in which she repeatedly references ‘Himalayan Region, peoples or communities’ There is of course no mention of Tibet, quite what those Tibetans gathered there thought of this would be interesting to note. As it will be to see how long her remarks remain on the State Department website!
Image: Nyima Binara/CTA
Now that omission is no accident, the deliberate avoidance of mentioning Tibet in favor of ‘Himalayan Region’ is a reflection of the mindest of appeasement within the State Department to China. Fearful, even within the bowels of its Washington DC HQ of causing any offence, or being seen to endorse the very notion of an actual land called Tibet! Pathetic!
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Would you like to know what postive action the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is taking to support and protect the Tibetan language? We would too, especially as today is International Mother Language Day, which aims to highlight the importance of peoples linguistic and cultural diversity. The threat to languages it ranks as: vulnerable, definitely endangered, severely endangered and critically endangered.
We ran an online search ‘UNESCO concerned about Tibetan language’ and could find no reference, variants were used and still no results showed. It appears the global champion of linguistic diversity doesn’t regard Tibetan as under any danger. Yet the evidence coming from occupied Tibet has documented the increasing marginalization of Tibetan, threatened by mass-colonization of Chinese speakers. While Tibetans who seek to protect their language are jailed and the informal teaching of Tibetan by monasteries was banned December 25 2018
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Equally disturbing is that across Chinese run schools in occupied Tibet children are increasingly not being educated through the medium of Tibetan but bullied into learning the language of their persecutors.
None of these facts seem to concern UNESCO or Mr Chris Mosely, editor of its report: Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger 2010 in which Tibetan does not appear as an endangered language The online interactive version of that supposedly authoratitive report is not running, and for some reason it’s been difficult to locate a downloadable PDF version.
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We wonder also what Norway’s Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, which partnered the UNESCO report, would think about the indifference towards the considerable threats to Tibet’s language? The Norwegian capital of course proudly hosted the Dalai Lama to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in which he highlighted to Norway’s political establishment, the assault upon Tibetan culture arising from China’s occupation of Tibet.
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The ongoing offensive against the Tibetan language is born from a political ideology which ultimately seeks to eradicate Tibetan cultural identity. From its founding communist China embraced the Marxist theory which held ethnic culture and nationalism as a temporal anomaly which would finally be replaced by a unified proletarian culture. Within the context of its occupation of Tibet the Chinese regime applied such dogma with a particular ferocity, that process is intensifying, with the nationalistic addition of regarding China as being the center of civilization.
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To realize these ambitions China’s authorities are seeking to eradicate the Tibetan language and in so doing remove any sense of a distinct Tibetan identity. Yet UNESCO instead of raising concerns to the Chinese government lauds China’s dictator, Xi Jinping and appoints his wife as a Special Envoy. It’s been said elsewhere that such international programs can be used by states in a cynical way to further policies of cultural domination and eradication. A warning which is being wilfully ignored by Director-General, Audrey Azoulay and her colleagues!