The Severe Human Rights Violations of China's Sinicization Policy in Tibet
The Sinicization policy of the CCP government in Tibet involves separating Tibetan children from their families and forcing them to attend residential schools far from home to eliminate Tibetan identity and culture by indoctrinating them with Chinese beliefs. The writer calls for the Chinese Communist Party to adhere to international norms, allow global media and NGOs to visit Tibet freely, and respect Tibetans' fundamental human rights and freedom of language and culture.
Recently, I was driving to work while listening to the Current on CBC radio when I became intrigued and emotional upon hearing about the re-education camps in Russia. According to the news interview, more than 6,000 Ukrainian children are in these camps.
My heart goes out to the family of the Ukrainian children, and I have sincere empathy for them. Unfortunately, many Tibetan children, like the Ukrainian children, suffer this terrible fate. Indeed, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, "Around a million children of the Tibetan minority were being affected by Chinese government policies aimed at assimilating Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically through a residential school system."
The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping is to eradicate Tibetan identity and culture by instilling Chinese values and indoctrinating young Tibetan children with Chinese-Communist ideology. Tibetan children are being used as political tools to fulfill the CCP's ambition of controlling and suppressing Tibetan minds and eliminating their cultural identity.
“The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Xi Jinping is to eradicate Tibetan identity and culture by instilling Chinese values and indoctrinating young Tibetan children with Chinese-Communist ideology.”
How would you react if your children were taken by force and forced to attend residential schools? Why are innocent children targeted and made victims to further a regime's political agenda?
On February 6, 2023, the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva released a media statement expressing alarm about the separation of one million Tibetan children from their families and the forced assimilation of these children into residential schools.
Further, it emphasized, "We are very disturbed that in recent years the residential school system for Tibetan children appears to act as a mandatory large-scale programme intended to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture, contrary to international human rights standards."
As a Canadian, I have learned how First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people on this land also experience systemic racism, cultural genocide, and intergenerational trauma. Yet, I have also seen how they demonstrate resilience daily.
As Canadians, we should be among the first to comprehend the irreparable impact of residential schools. This includes the reported one million Tibetan children aged 6 to 16 who will grow up to become adults with very little knowledge of their cultural identities.
See Tsering’s full profile
As an activist in exile, I follow media reports on the global refugee situation, internally displaced and uprooted stateless people, migrants, and human rights activists who risk their lives to advocate for the right to live with freedom and protection. Many reports and testimonies document that Tibetan people inside occupied Tibet cannot practice their Buddhist religion, beliefs, and cultural traditions, exercise their right to education in their native language, or express opinions about preserving their Tibetan identity and freedom. The Chinese Communist Party's work enforcement authorities ensure Tibetans are monitored by CCTV and spy apps installed on their mobile phones. As a result, they are imprisoned and accused of working with separatists in India. Furthermore, Tibetan flags or portraits of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, are banned, resulting in prison sentences.
According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the Xi government's implementation of the "Second Generation Ethnic Policy" has led to the closure of private schools run by Tibetans. As a result, UN experts have found that residential school enrollment in Tibet is much higher, with 78% of Tibetan children aged 6 to 18 and 81% in Tibet's Autonomous Region in 2019, compared to a national average of 22%.
Tibetan writers, artists, and teachers have reportedly been targeted and sentenced to detention to discourage and eliminate the promotion of Tibetan literature, culture, identity, and religion. Unfortunately, this continued clampdown and suppression of Tibetan minds has resulted in self-immolations. For example, Tsewang Norbu, a well-known singer, self-immolated in February 2022 at age 25. According to the International Campaign for Tibet, there have been 159 reported cases of self-immolation in Tibet and China and 10 in exile in Nepal and India.
Many people worldwide emphasize the importance of children's education and their right to learn in their native language. Children are encouraged to communicate and learn using their mother tongue. I have heard that Chinese parents are especially keen on having their children speak Chinese at home, which I fully support. They fear that their language and culture may be forgotten. This is the same fear Tibetan parents and elders have inside and outside Tibet.
The Sinicization policy of the CCP government is a severe human rights violation. This policy aims to restrict all Buddhist institutions and Tibetans to the Han supremacy belief, impose a mandatory school curriculum in Mandarin, eliminate Tibetan medium, and enroll a million Tibetan children from six to eighteen years in forced residential schools. These actions violate the International Covenants of Rights of Child, Right to Education, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and International Covenant on Elimination and Racial Discrimination.
This raises the question of what we can do to affect change and how we, as Canadians, can make a positive difference. First, the CCP and the Xi Jinping government must adhere to international norms by allowing global media, NGOs, UN experts, and civil society to visit Tibet freely and meet with Tibetans. Second, Tibetans should be allowed to preserve their language, culture, and identity and practice their core religion, Buddhism. UN expert reports and recommendations attest to the changes Xi Jinping's government must make to ensure fundamental human rights and freedom of language and cultural choice.
Children should have the right and access to education in their language and cultural ecosystem to enable the potential to explore free thought of learning opportunities.
