Day: January 24, 2022

Popular Tibetan writer and poet Gendun Lhundrub is incommunicado more than a year after his arrest in western China’s Qinghai province, with family members still in the dark as to his whereabouts or current condition, Tibetan sources say.

Lhundrub, aged around 46 and formerly a monk at Rongwo monastery in Rebgong (in Chinese, Tongren) county in the Malho (Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, had been monitored by authorities for signs of political dissent over a long period of time before being detained, A Tibetan living in exile told RFA.

“It has now been more than a year after his arrest, and very little is known about his condition or the official reason for his arrest,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his contacts in the Rebgong area.

Lhundrub was arrested on Dec. 2, 2020, while on his way to attend a religious debate held in Rebgong, the source said, adding, “The event was witnessed only by a vegetable seller who saw him put into a black car by Chinese police, and no one else has any information about his arrest.”

“Though his family was informed by phone on Sept. 27, 2021, that Gendun Lhundrub’s trial date would be set soon, there has been no follow-up about this, and we have heard that he is being forced to undergo political re-education.”

Ordered by authorities to help translate Tibetan Buddhist texts into Mandarin Chinese, Lhundrub may have questioned the need to do this, leading to open disagreement, “and he was arrested only a few days after voicing his objections,” the source said.

“Many Tibetan scholars and writers promoting Tibetan identity become the targets of the Chinese government, and most of them are eventually detained,” said Pema Gyal, a researcher at the London-based rights group Tibet Watch.

“The Chinese government believes that suppressing Tibetan scholars and writers will help to eradicate Tibet’s identity, so Chinese bilingual education policies and the translation of Tibetan Buddhist texts into Chinese are all part of this larger agenda,” Gyal said.

Formerly an independent Himalayan nation, Tibet was invaded and incorporated into China by force in 1950.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has hit out at the organizers of the Australian Open for “capitulating” to Beijing, after they banned fans from wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Where is Peng Shuai?” during the competition.

Tennis Australia security officials and police ordered fans at a match on Saturday to remove the shirts supporting the Chinese former world doubles No. 1 who has been largely incommunicado after accusing a former vice premier of sexual assault.

The organization said it doesn’t allow “political statements” at the event.

“I find it really, really cowardly,” Navratilova, a 18-times Grand Slam winner, told the U.S.-based Tennis Channel. “I think they are wrong on this. This is not a political statement, this is a human rights statement.

“[They are] just really capitulating on this issue … letting the Chinese really dictate what they do at their own Slam. I just find it really weak,” she said.

Meanwhile, French player Nicolas Mahut suggested via his Twitter account that the move was linked to the Australian Open’s Chinese sponsors: “What lack of courage! What if you did not have Chinese sponsors.”

Baijiu distillery Luzhu Laojiao and Chinese mattress company De Rucci are among the event’s sponsors.

Tennis Australia said Peng’s safety was its “primary concern.”

“We continue to work with the [Women’s Tennis Association] WTA and the global tennis community to do everything we can to ensure [Peng’s well-being,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters on Monday.

“Our work is ongoing and through the appropriate channels,” they said.

The organization said it would continue to enforce the ban on T-shirts supporting Peng Shuai.

The uncertain fate of Peng, who disappeared from the public eye after posting allegations of sexual abuse against former vice premier Zhang Gaoli, only to re-emerge in carefully controlled photos, videos and pro-CCP media interviews, led the WTA to suspend all tournaments on Chinese soil.

China didn’t mention Peng Shuai directly when asked about the T-shirt incident on Monday.

“China has always opposed the politicization of sports. Such behavior is unpopular and will not succeed,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news briefing in Beijing.

Pressure from Beijing

Australia-based activist Wu Lebao called on the Australian government to investigate whether the T-shirt ban had been the result of pressure from Beijing.

“For someone to be barred from entering a venue in Melbourne because they are wearing a T-shirt supporting Peng Shuai is a serious violation of Australians’ right to freedom of expression,” Wu told RFA. “To what extent were the organizers influenced by Chinese sponsors … and was there any kind of maneuvering by the CCP regime in the background?”

“We need to get to the bottom of this, and the government and intelligence services should take it very seriously,” he said.

Former city councilor Hu Yuming said censoring concern for Peng Shuai is a form of global censorship.

“The Australian Open is doing this out of political considerations … and selling its soul for financial interests,” Hu told RFA. “What are the people with the power to make these decisions doing behind the scenes?”

“The dictatorship of the CCP has started extending itself to a lot of democracies, to every part of life, and it’s an abuse of power,” he said.

Liberal Senator James Paterson, chairman of the Australian Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, told The Australian newspaper that the decision was definitely deserving of further scrutiny, and shouldn’t be accepted uncritically.

Call for diplomatic boycott

Meanwhile, calls are growing for a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics on the basis of China’s mass incarceration of Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang, as well as human rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet and the rest of China, and the CCP’s ongoing military threats against the democratic island of Taiwan.

Forum 2000, the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal founded by former Czech leader Vaclav Havel, called on democratic governments and international institutions not to send official political representation to the 2022 Winter Olympics and to diplomatically boycott the Games.

“Abuses are being committed daily against the Uyghurs, the people of Hong Kong, Tibet and countless other Chinese citizens, whose freedom and dignity are being attacked by the CCP government,” the group said in an open letter published on its website.

“In Xinjiang, [where] at least two million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities are involuntarily detained in so-called ‘re-education camps,’ there is evidence that Uyghurs are used as forced labor and women are forcibly sterilized,” it said.

“Further concerns have been raised over the disappearance of tennis player Peng Shuai from the public view in November 2021.”

It said a number of Chinese lawyers, journalists and activists are also behind bars, with citizens subjected to “excessive surveillance through sophisticated technology.”

“In addition, China is also intensifying military threats and intimidation against Taiwan,” the letter, signed by Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov, Germany-based writer Liao Yiwu and World Uyghur Congress leader Dolkun Isa, among others.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Preparations for the Lunar New Year created a sea of red and gold in cities across Asia – as millions prepare for the Feb. 1 celebration with red envelopes and decorative lights, while tiger ornaments are popping up in stores to celebrate the upcoming Year of the Tiger.

Two years after authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan placed the city’s 10 million residents under lockdown at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the northern city of Xi’an was also placed under tight restrictions, cutting off access to basic foodstuffs and medical treatment for some stranded in their homes.

But Xi’an residents told RFA there was little to celebrate under the gradual easing of restrictions that is currently under way, as the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursues a “zero-COVID” policy ahead of the 2022 Winter Games that opens on Feb. 4.

“They say the lockdown has been lifted, but I’m not happy,” a resident of Xi’an surnamed Chen told RFA. “There’s nothing to be happy about.”

“All that’s happened is that I’m now allowed to go out once every couple of days to buy my own supplies, and the prices have come down a little bit,” Chen said. “But if we can’t leave the residential compound, then we’re stuck buying overpriced groceries from stalls at the compound gate, and that’s not acceptable.”

Since Jan. 20, residents have been allowed out every other day to buy supplies, but may only stay out for up to two hours, she said.

And there is still the risk that a person’s “health code” app could turn red while they are making that trip, barring them from getting back to their own home, she said.

“Nobody wants to risk getting a red code [indicating close contact with a known case of COVID-19],” Chen said.

“Officials in China aren’t here to work for ordinary people at all; just themselves and their superiors,” she said. “Nobody cares about the people at the bottom [of the social hierarchy].”

In Wuhan, people who lost relatives during the first wave of the pandemic said they are still trying to find out exactly how government policies at the time contributed to their loved ones’ deaths.

COVID-19 campaigner Zhang Hai, who lost his father in the first wave, is under close surveillance by the municipal authorities, two years later.

But he said he hasn’t given up.

“The truth remains covered up, even now,” Zhang told RFA. “Where did the virus come from, and how many deaths were there in Wuhan?”

“Officials in China have taken the Wuhan lockdown as a template for everywhere else, including the blocking of information,” he said. “My father would have contracted that virus inside of a hospital, which means that this was a man-made disaster.”

Lockdowns in Tianjin

In Tianjin, where authorities have imposed a number of smaller lockdowns in certain neighborhoods in a bid to contain a nationwide outbreak of the highly transmissible omicron variant, people are once again finding it hard to get enough food, especially migrant workers who don’t have the right ID.

“It’s hard to get meals delivered in Tianjin if you have a rural household registration [hukou],” one man said in a video clip that went viral on Chinese social media in recent days.

Nobody talks about “lockdowns” in Tianjin, where the authorities have already carried out a fourth round of mass COVID-19 tests of the city’s 15 million population in a bid to get to zero cases as soon as possible.

Xia Ming, political science professor at New York’s City University, said part of the problem is the lack of checks and balances on official power under the CCP.

“All of China’s dynasties have a shared characteristic, namely, centralization and control, and this has been even more the case under the CCP,” Xia told RFA.

“A government that cannot be held accountable will appear arbitrary and arrogant in the way it wields power,” Xia said. “As long as the regime stays in power, what do they care if people die?”

“The system wastes life; we have seen this in the famines of the past, too,” he said.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.