China Focus International Tibet

«I am seen by China as a threat to its propaganda»

Tibetan protest against Beijing 2022

Read here the original article by Vincenzo Capodici, published: on 25.01.2022 in the BaZ. Pictures of the original article: Urs Jaudas.

Dhondup Wangchen suffered torture and imprisonment for making a China-critical documentary about Tibet. Now he's campaigning for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics.

China is his nightmare and Tibet his mission. Dhondup Wangchen has been traveling the world for years to report on China's unjust state. The 47-year-old Tibetan talks about his time of suffering as a political prisoner and about the cultural genocide in his former homeland. This winter he is traveling in Europe: He is promoting a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which begin on February 4th.

Wangchen has no understanding that this major sporting event can take place in China - and that most governments do not show a clear stance. "A diplomatic boycott would be the least the international community could do," Wangchen said in an interview with our newspaper in Zurich. At the invitation of the Association of Tibetan Youth in Europe (VTJE) based in Zurich, he recently stayed in Switzerland.

"The truth about China must be spoken," Wangchen emphasizes. "The human rights situation in Tibet is getting worse and worse." But there is much more at stake: the Uyghurs, the Mongols too, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The fact that the government in Beijing is obstructing the clarification of the origin of the pandemic in Wuhan shows that China cannot be a partner country for democratic, free countries, Wangchen explains. (Also read the article on the subject "Where is Switzerland's sovereignty?")

False promises before the Olympics

The Tibet activist, who lives in the USA, finds it shameful that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is being harnessed for Chinese propaganda. False promises were also made. One more time. This happened at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The Chinese regime and the IOC issued the slogan "One world, one dream" for the major sporting event at the time. Statements by the Communist Party had also raised hopes that the Olympics would bring human rights and freedom of expression.

Wangchen, a farmer from eastern Tibet, was in his early days as an activist. In 2007 he decided to make a documentary about the situation in Tibet. With a comrade-in-arms, he questioned old and young, monks and nomads, farmers and city dwellers about their living situation and their expectations associated with the Olympics.

The result was a 25-minute film entitled "Leaving Fear Behind" - a video document which the Chinese government did not like. "We Tibetans have no reason to celebrate," says one informant in the film, for example. Or also: “Our language is in danger. There is no freedom of religion." The film can be found on the Internet, for example on the YouTube and Vimeo video platforms.

Source: Youtube/Journeyman.tv

Due to the political explosiveness of the film, Wangchen and his helper had taken precautions. They handed over the raw material with more than 100 interviews to a contact person, who sent it indirectly to one of Wangchen's cousins ​​living in Switzerland. The film was completed with the support of Tibetans in exile in Switzerland.

A few months before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the documentary film got Wangchen into serious trouble. Someone must have denounced him to the Chinese authorities. It was March 26, 2008 when he was abducted by police in Qinghai Province. In a "hotel" they put a sack over his head and put him in an iron torture rack and fixed him, says Wangchen.

"I was tortured for seven days and seven nights." Dhondup Wangchen

With such a “tiger chair”, victims are forced into painful postures, among other things. During interrogation, he was beaten on the head with fists and given electric shocks in his neck. "I was tortured for seven days and seven nights." No sleep, no food, no lawyer.

Eventually, the filmmaker was sentenced to prison in a secret trial for inciting separatism. Wangchen was held in the Xining City No. 1 Prison for six years and three months. The prison sentence meant daily forced labor of up to 16 hours, including making soldiers' uniforms.

Re-education lessons were also part of everyday prison life. "They wanted to teach us, for example, that the Dalai Lama is an enemy of the state of China," reports Wangchen. His case sparked international protests at the time, and Amnesty International launched a campaign. But China's regime left all this cold.

Wangchen was released from custody on June 5, 2014. But he could not live in freedom in his homeland. "I wasn't allowed to travel without permission from the authorities and I wasn't allowed to meet friends." Because his life felt "like a second prison" after his release from prison, he decided in December 2017 to flee China at risk. His way to freedom led him through several Asian countries. In order to protect this route for future refugees, Wangchen does not want to disclose his escape route.

In the end, it worked out with the desired special permit for entry into the USA. It was a reunion with his family after a long time. His wife and four children had already been granted political asylum in the US in 2012 after fleeing Tibet to India before 2008. Wangchen's family now lives in San Francisco. Because his wife works and secures the family income, he can devote himself to political work.

Wangchen visits numerous countries and has many talks. Sometimes he appears in a committee of the US Congress, sometimes he gives a speech at the Geneva Summit on Human Rights. He talks to politicians and sports officials. In interviews and speeches, he calls on governments and sports organizations to always emphasize the importance of human rights when dealing with Beijing. China-critical politicians have an ear for his concerns, officials of Olympic federations much less. Most of the time they dodge, or they seem powerless, as Wangchen found out several times on his current European tour.

Nevertheless, he is not discouraged. Not even because of the fact that he is repeatedly harassed and harassed by the Chinese. He tells of punctured car tires in his new home, of attempts to damage his reputation, of insults and threats. "I am apparently seen by China as a threat to its propaganda. That means that my work is successful.”

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