Precarious human rights situation in Tibet
Torture, forced labor, cultural extinction: Ever since the forceful occupation of Tibet by the Peoples Republic of China PRC in 1959, the human rights situation in the PRC has deteriorated massively. The Chinese government is taking particularly brutal action against the Tibetan population.
Tibetans continue to be severely oppressed in their daily lives. For example, in spring 2024, over a thousand people, including nuns and monks, were arrested in the region of Derge (Eastern Tibet) during protests against the planned construction of a hydroelectric power plant, which would flood several villages and Tibetan monasteries of great historical importance.
Up to one million Tibetan schoolchildren aged four and above – that is over 80 percent of all school-age Tibetan children – are forced to attend boarding schools far from their families, where they are taught only the Chinese language and culture. This is how a generation is growing up that neither speaks Tibetan nor has any connection to its own cultural heritage.
Exploitation of natural resources, environmental destruction and forced resettlement of nomads
The program to settle Tibetan nomads, which began in 2006, is almost complete. In the Tibet Autonomous Region, practically all 2.3 million nomads have been settled in newly built settlements, and in the neighboring province of Qinghai to the north, over 90% of all nomads are said to have been settled.
The official justification for settling down is based on ecological aspects, such as the risk of overgrazing. In reality, the government has a strong interest in easier social control of the nomads and the exploitation of natural resources in the former pastureland. Once settled in standardized settlement houses, they are deprived of their traditional way of life and work and are often no longer able to find new sources of income. Instead, they become impoverished and often become addicted to alcohol.
In March 2010, the Chinese government published plans to exploit a total of 3,000 deposits of ores and minerals with an estimated total value of the equivalent of USD 125 billion. Apart from forced relocations, the drastic increase in the mining of deposits has led to considerable conflict with affected Tibetans; peaceful protests have repeatedly resulted in arrests, abuse and even fatalities.
The pollution with increased concentrations of copper, lead, iron and aluminum in the soil and riverbeds poses a major threat not only to local Tibetans, but also to all neighboring countries through runoff into the major rivers of Asia.
Forced resettlement of villagers
Since 2016, around 500 entire villages with 140,000 inhabitants have been relocated to places several hundred kilometers away. Government cadres boast that they achieved „voluntary“ relocations through „public relations“ and „door-to-door ideological work“. In reality, cadres repeatedly visited households, sometimes for years, and threatened that important resources such as electricity and water would be cut off if consent was not given. Refusers were also threatened that they would be punished for „spreading rumors“. In the context of another program, around 567’000 households were relocated between 2016 and 2020. They were often given false promises of higher income and a better standard of living. The standard of living has usually not improved in the new settlements in urban peripheral areas because the knowledge of agriculture and livestock farming is not relevant there and those affected have to accept poorly paid wage labor instead.