Will strike against Dalai Lama clique: China

In Sydney, 200 protesters marched through the central business district to the Chinese consulate to protest against the lack of human rights in Tibet, while protestors marched in Taipei and London as well. The sensitive anniversary coincided with the yearly news conference of Tibet’s delegation to China’s annual meeting of parliament, under way in Beijing. 

Che Dalha, Tibet’s governor, said the government would “hold a clear-cut stand against separatism, resolutely strike against the Dalai clique’s damaging and separatist activities. 

The most important task is to protect our motherland’s frontier regions, build up our homes, absolutely not allow any groups to separate even one inch of our land from the motherland,” said Tashi Yangjen, a delegate representing the tiny Lhoba ethnic minority group of southeast Tibet. 

Chinese troops marched in and took control of Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a “peaceful liberation”. China views the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s Buddhist spiritual leader who fled into exile in India after the failed uprising, as a dangerous separatist. 

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate denies espousing violence and says he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet. International human rights groups and exiles routinely condemn what they say is China’s oppressive rule in Tibetan areas. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said Chinese authorities were again shutting off travel and holding military parades “to bully the Tibetan population into silence”. 

“Progress on human rights is only going to happen if the Chinese government replaces its intimidation tactics with a more open approach to information, expression and peaceful dissent,” she said. Foreign journalists are not allowed to travel to Tibet without government approval, while all foreigners have been barred from entering during sensitive periods.