Focus Switzerland

Journey of the Federal President to Communist China: Clear Advocacy for Tibetan Rights!

Media release of GSTF and TGSL

On the occasion of Federal President Maurer's China trip next week, Tibetan organizations in Switzerland are calling for their explicit opposition to repression in Tibet and for human rights. Furthermore, the Federal President should take decisive action to end the intimidation and spying on Tibetans living in Switzerland through China.

Switzerland has come a long way towards China in recent years. The commitment to respect the rights of Tibetans has been lost. This is particularly evident in the 2013 signed free trade agreement. The observance of human rights and the situation of the Tibetans, but also of other oppressed communities, are not mentioned here.

Last year, the public began rethinking its assessment of how to deal with China. The thesis of "change through trade" is now consistently considered refuted. The awareness that China is irreverently and aggressively trying to expand its sphere of influence and acquire critical infrastructure and high-tech knowledge worldwide is increasingly leading to initiatives in Switzerland to curb this endeavor. "It would be naive to think that the Belt and Road Initiative would only be an innocent project with third countries," says Thomas Büchli, President of GSTF.

For years, calls for the Federal Council to do more to promote human rights in Tibet and other regions of China were reluctantly referred to the “human rights dialogue” with China. “This dialogue has been going on for over 15 years without any tangible results being discernible, on the contrary,” the President of the TGSL expresses his concerns. All political observers agree that the human rights situation in Tibet and East Turkestan has deteriorated drastically over the past 10 years and that President Xi Jinping has been working to make himself the absolute ruler for life since he took office. He relies on the passivity of the international community.

In Switzerland, restrictions on the right to freedom of expression are increasingly evident when it comes to Tibet. This was particularly noticeable during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in January 2017. Due to the feared political and economic consequences, the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly of Tibetans and their supporters were curtailed. While Chinese were allowed to welcome their president to the Federal Square, approval for the Tibetan community rally was limited to the orphanage and a time frame before Xi Jinping's arrival. The police gave the order to remove all Tibetan flags on the access roads to the city of Bern. As part of an approved rally on the 17. In January 2017 several activists of Tibetan origin were arrested.

The efforts of the Chinese government to increase its political influence worldwide are clearly noticeable in Switzerland. The Tibetan exile community in Switzerland is increasingly being monitored and systematically intimidated. This is especially noticeable in rallies. Regularly, Chinese and Chinese mix with the crowd and photograph the Tibetan activists, which leads to great uncertainty of those affected. The control of the Tibetan exile community is increasingly taking place digitally. Ex-Tibetans have been the focus of cyber attacks for years, especially through so-called phishing attacks. In Switzerland, evidence of China's surveillance of the Tibetan digital community is mounting. These facts were also clearly described in the "Situation Report 2016 of the Federal Intelligence Service"!

We urge the Federal President to raise this issue if, as mentioned in the Federal Council press release, he will lead a "dialogue on human rights". If official Switzerland does not change its position and finally resolutely and explicitly advocates for the oppressed Tibetans and Uighurs, then it will only be another round of the long-obsolete, even failed, so-called "human rights dialogue".

Without any externally visible support for our demands, we regard the mention of "human rights dialogues" in media releases as nothing more than a "fig leaf," behind which people just go on doing what they do and human rights fall by the wayside for economic interests.

Contact: Thomas Büchli, President of the Society Swiss-Tibetan Friendship GSTF,  praesident@gstf.org      078 847 09 84  

Norbu Tsamda, President of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein TGSL

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