An open letter to Wen Jiabao from a well-wisher
Tenzin Tsundue, Hindustan Times
December 15, 2010
Dear Mr Wen Jiabao, I welcome you to India. Although I am not a citizen of this country, I was born and raised here in exile. India is the only home I’ve known. I belong to the second generation of Tibetan
refugees, the children of Tibetans who escaped
Chinese aggression in
Tibet from 1959 by following in the footsteps of their leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
During your last India visit, on April 10, 2005, while you were busy addressing a group of Indian scientists on the ground floor of the Indian Institute of Science building in Bangalore, the media mob suddenly rushed out of the hall, leaving you speaking quite alone. Someone had climbed up the heritage building to the bell tower, unfurling a Free Tibet banner and bellowing slogans.
That was me.
Today I am writing this open letter to you. Even half a decade ago I knew that you were one of the more liberal leaders in China. Recently, your call for reforms to bring greater freedom and democracy to China reverberated across the international community. You already have a following among the ambitious and educated youth in China.
I have been following the epic struggle of Chinese writers, poets, film-makers and activists who have been bravely working for democracy and human rights in China. Many of them have been arrested or repeatedly harassed on charges of ‘sedition’ and ‘selling State secrets’. China’s first Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, is the best stellar example. He is a peace warrior, a new world hero. When Liu first demonstrated in Tiananmen Square in 1989, I was a boy. I grew up admiring all those Chinese students, teachers, intellectuals and labourers who sacrificed their lives and freedom by calling for reforms and universal rights to free speech the free world takes for granted.
These children of modern China truly are the guardians of the future People’s Republic. While appreciating and benefiting from the economic development in your country, they never stop working to push the limits of civil society’s universal norms. The world would be easier doing business with a prosperous new China that adheres to the principles of Beijing’s Constitution and legal framework. At the moment the free world is either intimidated by your formidable military prowess, or is in need of your dazzling financial reserves accumulated by selling cheap Chinese (‘slave’) labour to western corporations, not to mention the rampant exploitation of mineral deposits and other natural resources reaped from occupied countries like Southern Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan (which you label ‘Xinjiang’) and Tibet. Tibet is a major component of the larger problem of China.
In your ‘settlement of nomads projects’, thousands of Tibetan nomads have been coerced into selling their huge herds of yaks and sheep and been settled in matchbox concrete housing in the middle of nowhere — just as American Indians were herded into restricted ‘reservations’ in America a century or so ago. Proud Tibetan nomads, who enjoyed a rich culture and sustainable way of life, today watch impotently as their traditional pastures are dug up for mining, military airports, or road and railways infrastructure. Nomad boys are washing dishes in Chinese roadside take-aways while young nomad girls are quickly pulled into prostitution.
This year, when the earthquake struck the Jeikudo area of Yushu, you were the first Chinese leader to be there among the Tibetan population. You have seen for yourself that Yushu is the watershed of some of Asia’s most important rivers. Rivers rising in Tibet providing the downstream flows to the Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtse and Yellow River feed more than one-and-a-half billion of the populations of South Asia and China. But these rivers are now being dammed at many stages downstream — especially along the mighty Yarlung Tsangpo that flows into India as the Brahmaputra. Siltation on these rivers causes them to change course. Is Beijing oblivious to the fact that catastrophic flooding, already being suffered downstream from the Tibetan Plateau, will adversely affect the geopolitics of South Asia and its citizens?
The 2008 uprising in Tibet was brutally suppressed by a People’s Liberation Army crackdown. Today, Tibet is a militarised zone where people live under constant fear and suspicion. Despite the persecution of Tibetans and Uighurs, China is one country that is not threatened by terrorists. Even as you and your business delegation are in India for this State visit, we come out on the roads to stage our peaceful, non-violent protests. But will airliners be hijacked? Will suicide bombers attempt to assassinate a world leader? No.
Our activist ethics and restraint hold firm because we still haven’t lost faith in non-violence and its adherence by our leader, the Dalai Lama. And yet his proposal to accept ‘genuine autonomy within the People’s Republic of China’ has been rejected outright by China. While you are here in India, why don’t you make the time to sit down and talk with him? There was a time in the 1960s when older generation Tibetans were concerned about the future of Tibet. Today, the struggle is lead by young Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet. We are electing our new prime minister and 44 members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile next year. The more educated, skilled, wealthy and with international contacts the Tibetan youngsters grow up to be, the more they will burn with the angst for a sense of belonging. The fact that we are not citizens of any country — living in uncertainty — the struggle means much more to us than our parents and grandparents. So among the youngsters the demand for independence is stronger. The recent change in the education policy in Tibet replaced Tibetan textbooks with Chinese ones. This further united our resolve that only independence can guarantee the survival of our people and nation. The 60 years of Sino-Indian relations is the statement of 60 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet. Mr Prime Minister, you will be retiring in 2012. You have a saying in Chinese: “Ren zhi jian si qi yan ye shan” (The man at his death tells the truth). It’s time the true wishes of the Chinese people be expressed. And there’s no one who can do it more effectively than you, Mr Wen.
Tenzin Tsundue, Dharamsala, India
Tenzin Tsundue is a Tibetan writer and activist based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh The views expressed by the author are personal.
Candor 31 minutes ago
It was a Nehru mistake to accede Chinese claim on Tibet though Britishers had captured the Tibet and decalred it an autonomous area. However, Dalai Lama too had not built an army to defend the Tibet from Chinese aggression. He fled and got asylum in India due to his intimacy with Nehru and India too suffered because China attacked India also and captured 1, 25, 000 square kms. Indian territory also including Lord Shiva Kailash mountains.
What had prompted Nehru to accept Chinese claim on Tibet ? Because the man was not in senses and had already mingled with Dalai Lama to come to India with all his empire. What did India achieved by giving asylum to Dalai Lama ? Because Nehru always treated India as his ancestral property.
Tibetans must learn that to defend themselves and throw out China from Tibet. India and US and Europe Unions are ready to lend them any support they need. However, India cannot send its soldiers to take on mighty China now. India is not able to liberate own territory from China and acceded to it, what help India will lend to Tibetans instead of letting them come to India and live in Dharamsala.
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NathuramGodse 42 minutes ago
China does not give a damn about Tibet.
Indians care but they are scared sh1tless of mighty China and are incapable of doing anything.
4 people liked this. Like
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Cybert 48 minutes ago
India of 2010 has got more serious problems than to care for such "freedom" struggles. India supported Bangladesh and see what happened. Now Bangladesh is posing more problems then ever. An independent Tibet can be as threatening to India as the present China itself. I don't know why they're fighting for an Independent Tibet from our soil. If they're afraid of mighty Chinese army what they're going to do is anybody's guess. India, in its own interest, must concentrate more on its own problems that to bother itself about other's freedom. To be frank, India, scam ridden from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, is not yet ready for international responsibilities. As long as India is afraid of the so called Chinese might it may just forget its dreams of world leadership. First make India pleasant and habitable and strong. I don't know what these topiwallahs are going to do with a permanent UNSC seat. Just see what China is doing with that Permanent UNSC seat except protect Pakistan and N Korea.
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Himanshu 43 minutes ago in reply to Cybert
Oh dear, for your narrow outlook on India and what it's people want.
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Raman 1 hour ago
There's nothing wrong in suffering, if you suffer for a purpose. Our revolution didn't abolish danger or death. It simply made danger and death worthwhile.
Tenzin Tsundue, Hindustan Times
December 15, 2010
Dear Mr Wen Jiabao, I welcome you to India. Although I am not a citizen of this country, I was born and raised here in exile. India is the only home I’ve known. I belong to the second generation of Tibetan
refugees, the children of Tibetans who escaped
Chinese aggression in
Tibet from 1959 by following in the footsteps of their leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
During your last India visit, on April 10, 2005, while you were busy addressing a group of Indian scientists on the ground floor of the Indian Institute of Science building in Bangalore, the media mob suddenly rushed out of the hall, leaving you speaking quite alone. Someone had climbed up the heritage building to the bell tower, unfurling a Free Tibet banner and bellowing slogans.
That was me.
Today I am writing this open letter to you. Even half a decade ago I knew that you were one of the more liberal leaders in China. Recently, your call for reforms to bring greater freedom and democracy to China reverberated across the international community. You already have a following among the ambitious and educated youth in China.
I have been following the epic struggle of Chinese writers, poets, film-makers and activists who have been bravely working for democracy and human rights in China. Many of them have been arrested or repeatedly harassed on charges of ‘sedition’ and ‘selling State secrets’. China’s first Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, is the best stellar example. He is a peace warrior, a new world hero. When Liu first demonstrated in Tiananmen Square in 1989, I was a boy. I grew up admiring all those Chinese students, teachers, intellectuals and labourers who sacrificed their lives and freedom by calling for reforms and universal rights to free speech the free world takes for granted.
These children of modern China truly are the guardians of the future People’s Republic. While appreciating and benefiting from the economic development in your country, they never stop working to push the limits of civil society’s universal norms. The world would be easier doing business with a prosperous new China that adheres to the principles of Beijing’s Constitution and legal framework. At the moment the free world is either intimidated by your formidable military prowess, or is in need of your dazzling financial reserves accumulated by selling cheap Chinese (‘slave’) labour to western corporations, not to mention the rampant exploitation of mineral deposits and other natural resources reaped from occupied countries like Southern Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan (which you label ‘Xinjiang’) and Tibet. Tibet is a major component of the larger problem of China.
In your ‘settlement of nomads projects’, thousands of Tibetan nomads have been coerced into selling their huge herds of yaks and sheep and been settled in matchbox concrete housing in the middle of nowhere — just as American Indians were herded into restricted ‘reservations’ in America a century or so ago. Proud Tibetan nomads, who enjoyed a rich culture and sustainable way of life, today watch impotently as their traditional pastures are dug up for mining, military airports, or road and railways infrastructure. Nomad boys are washing dishes in Chinese roadside take-aways while young nomad girls are quickly pulled into prostitution.
This year, when the earthquake struck the Jeikudo area of Yushu, you were the first Chinese leader to be there among the Tibetan population. You have seen for yourself that Yushu is the watershed of some of Asia’s most important rivers. Rivers rising in Tibet providing the downstream flows to the Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtse and Yellow River feed more than one-and-a-half billion of the populations of South Asia and China. But these rivers are now being dammed at many stages downstream — especially along the mighty Yarlung Tsangpo that flows into India as the Brahmaputra. Siltation on these rivers causes them to change course. Is Beijing oblivious to the fact that catastrophic flooding, already being suffered downstream from the Tibetan Plateau, will adversely affect the geopolitics of South Asia and its citizens?
The 2008 uprising in Tibet was brutally suppressed by a People’s Liberation Army crackdown. Today, Tibet is a militarised zone where people live under constant fear and suspicion. Despite the persecution of Tibetans and Uighurs, China is one country that is not threatened by terrorists. Even as you and your business delegation are in India for this State visit, we come out on the roads to stage our peaceful, non-violent protests. But will airliners be hijacked? Will suicide bombers attempt to assassinate a world leader? No.
Our activist ethics and restraint hold firm because we still haven’t lost faith in non-violence and its adherence by our leader, the Dalai Lama. And yet his proposal to accept ‘genuine autonomy within the People’s Republic of China’ has been rejected outright by China. While you are here in India, why don’t you make the time to sit down and talk with him? There was a time in the 1960s when older generation Tibetans were concerned about the future of Tibet. Today, the struggle is lead by young Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet. We are electing our new prime minister and 44 members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile next year. The more educated, skilled, wealthy and with international contacts the Tibetan youngsters grow up to be, the more they will burn with the angst for a sense of belonging. The fact that we are not citizens of any country — living in uncertainty — the struggle means much more to us than our parents and grandparents. So among the youngsters the demand for independence is stronger. The recent change in the education policy in Tibet replaced Tibetan textbooks with Chinese ones. This further united our resolve that only independence can guarantee the survival of our people and nation. The 60 years of Sino-Indian relations is the statement of 60 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet. Mr Prime Minister, you will be retiring in 2012. You have a saying in Chinese: “Ren zhi jian si qi yan ye shan” (The man at his death tells the truth). It’s time the true wishes of the Chinese people be expressed. And there’s no one who can do it more effectively than you, Mr Wen.
Tenzin Tsundue, Dharamsala, India
Tenzin Tsundue is a Tibetan writer and activist based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh The views expressed by the author are personal.
Candor 31 minutes ago
It was a Nehru mistake to accede Chinese claim on Tibet though Britishers had captured the Tibet and decalred it an autonomous area. However, Dalai Lama too had not built an army to defend the Tibet from Chinese aggression. He fled and got asylum in India due to his intimacy with Nehru and India too suffered because China attacked India also and captured 1, 25, 000 square kms. Indian territory also including Lord Shiva Kailash mountains.
What had prompted Nehru to accept Chinese claim on Tibet ? Because the man was not in senses and had already mingled with Dalai Lama to come to India with all his empire. What did India achieved by giving asylum to Dalai Lama ? Because Nehru always treated India as his ancestral property.
Tibetans must learn that to defend themselves and throw out China from Tibet. India and US and Europe Unions are ready to lend them any support they need. However, India cannot send its soldiers to take on mighty China now. India is not able to liberate own territory from China and acceded to it, what help India will lend to Tibetans instead of letting them come to India and live in Dharamsala.
4 people liked this. Like
Reply
NathuramGodse 42 minutes ago
China does not give a damn about Tibet.
Indians care but they are scared sh1tless of mighty China and are incapable of doing anything.
4 people liked this. Like
Reply
Cybert 48 minutes ago
India of 2010 has got more serious problems than to care for such "freedom" struggles. India supported Bangladesh and see what happened. Now Bangladesh is posing more problems then ever. An independent Tibet can be as threatening to India as the present China itself. I don't know why they're fighting for an Independent Tibet from our soil. If they're afraid of mighty Chinese army what they're going to do is anybody's guess. India, in its own interest, must concentrate more on its own problems that to bother itself about other's freedom. To be frank, India, scam ridden from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, is not yet ready for international responsibilities. As long as India is afraid of the so called Chinese might it may just forget its dreams of world leadership. First make India pleasant and habitable and strong. I don't know what these topiwallahs are going to do with a permanent UNSC seat. Just see what China is doing with that Permanent UNSC seat except protect Pakistan and N Korea.
Flag
4 people liked this. Like
Reply
Himanshu 43 minutes ago in reply to Cybert
Oh dear, for your narrow outlook on India and what it's people want.
Like
Reply
Raman 1 hour ago
There's nothing wrong in suffering, if you suffer for a purpose. Our revolution didn't abolish danger or death. It simply made danger and death worthwhile.
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