Washingtong DC — CECC released 2023 Annual Report on human rights conditions and rule of law developments in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on May 10, 2024. The report states, "During the 2023 reporting year, Tibet remained one of the most closed-off areas in the world, with tight restrictions on communications into and out of the region. Chinese authorities continued to restrict contact between Tibetans in Tibetan areas of China and individuals or groups abroad, including by punishing or threatening to punish those found to have contact with Tibetans in exile."
U.S. Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Chair and Cochair of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) issued the Commission’s 2023 Annual Report on human rights conditions and rule of law developments in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in Washingtong DC, USA, on May 10, 2024. “The Annual Report sets the standard in terms of documenting the People’s Republic of China’s failure to abide by human rights norms and in holding Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their repeated and sustained atrocities and crimes against humanity – up to and including that most pernicious of human rights violations, genocide,” said CECC Chair Smith.
"The CECC staff does great work on the Annual Report and throughout the year, maintaining a state-of-the-art political prisoner database and organizing cutting-edge hearings that lead to heightened awareness and actionable legislation. The annual report will continue to guide Congress and the Administration on PRC policy, and I hope provide corporations with clarity, so that they are no longer complicity in the subsidization of tyranny. Above all, it is my hope that the long-suffering people in Communist China know through our report that they have not been forgotten, and that they, and we, can look forward to that day when oppression ends,” he added.
“The people of China deserve to enjoy the full range of human rights to which they are entitled under international law. As the Congressional-Executive Commission on China documents in this report, the Chinese government continues to deny them their ability to exercise these rights,” said CECC Cochair Merkley.
“This report highlights the new ways that Chinese authorities are violating their citizens’ basic rights, including the use of digital and biometric surveillance and transnational repression of Americans and others, and calls attention to the prisoners of conscience for whom we must continue to raise our voices. I urge Congress and the Biden Administration to act on the CECC’s policy recommendations,” he added.
Concerning religious freedom in Tibet, the annual report states: "The PRC continued to restrict, and seek to control, the religious practices of Tibetans, the majority of whom practice Tibetan Buddhism. Authorities in Tibetan areas issued prohibitions on forms of religious worship, particularly during important religious events or around the times of politically sensitive anniversaries, and restricted access to religious institutions and places of worship, including Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples. The PRC continued to assert control over the process of selection and recognition of Tibetan Buddhist reincarnated teachers, including the Dalai Lama."
"During the 2023 reporting year, PRC organizations continued to target Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns with propaganda in ideological education sessions held at monastic institutions and other sites. These propaganda efforts included the study of Chinese Communist Party ethnic and religious policy initiatives and priorities, such as the ‘‘sinicization’’ of Tibetan Buddhism and managing the practice of Tibetan Buddhism ‘‘to adapt to socialist society’’ as well as Chinese legal provisions, including the Measures on the Management of the Reincarnation of Living Buddhas and local religious regulations," the report added.
The CECC's report says: "PRC authorities in Tibetan areas issued prohibitions on forms of religious worship, particularly during important religious events or around the times of politically sensitive anniversaries, and restricted access to religious institutions and places of worship, including Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples."
Reporting on the linguistic and cultural rights of Tibetans in Chinese-occupied Tibet, the report states: "China’s Constitution and laws contain provisions affirming the freedom of ethnic minorities to ‘‘use and develop’’ their languages, yet Chinese authorities continued to threaten linguistic rights in Tibetan areas, including through implementation of policies promoting or enforcing the use of Mandarin Chinese instead of Tibetan, as well as policies of neglect with regard to minority languages. PRC ethnic policy ignores unrecognized linguistic communities, including in Tibetan areas, and individuals or communities with languages that lack official recognition are deprived of access to official support in education and other government services."
With regard to restrictions on freedom of expression of Tibetans and the free flow of information from Tibet, the report states: "During the 2023 reporting year, Tibet remained one of the most closed-off areas in the world, with tight restrictions on communications into and out of the region. Chinese authorities continued to restrict contact between Tibetans in Tibetan areas of China and individuals or groups abroad, including by punishing or threatening to punish those found to have contact with Tibetans in exile—often those in India—or who have shared information in Tibet about Tibetans living abroad. Chinese authorities also strictly monitored online communications platforms to find and punish Tibetans who were alleged to have committed crimes online."
"In contravention of international human rights standards, officials punished residents of Tibetan areas for exercising protected rights, including the expression of religious belief, criticism of PRC policies, and sharing information online. Notable cases this past year included those of writer Rongbo Gangkar, a writer and translator detained since 2021 after he led a discussion at a meeting in which he advocated celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday; Thubsam, accused of sending “information about Tibet” to individuals in Europe and India, and later sentenced to two years in prison for “leaking state secrets” and “separatism”; and Jamyang, also known as Zangkar Jamyang, a writer detained in June 2020 and held incommunicado until information emerged in March 2023 on his four-year sentence related to his advocacy for Tibetan language rights in schools," the report mentioned.
The CECC recommends Members of the U.S. Congress and Administration officials are encouraged to take the following actions:
- Work with the United Nations to help set up visits by U.N. human rights officials, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, to Tibetan areas of China to independently assess the human rights situation there, free of any restrictions or hindrances by Chinese Communist Party or government officials, to be followed by a full report to the United Nations on their findings.
- Adopt and implement appropriate legislation to prohibit American companies doing business with Chinese police and other law enforcement agencies in Tibet from selling or providing equipment used by those forces in gross human rights violations, including mass coercive biometric data-gathering and surveillance programs.
- Work with government officials, parliamentarians, and nongovernmental organizations in like-minded countries to pressure the Chinese government and Communist Party to respect, as a matter of the right to religious freedom and as recognized under Chinese and international law, that it is the right of Tibetan Buddhists to identify and educate all religious teachers, including the Dalai Lama, in a manner consistent with Tibetan Buddhist practices and traditions.
- Urge the Chinese government to cease treating the Dalai Lama as a security threat, and encourage the resumption of genuine dialogue, without preconditions, between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama or his representatives.
- In interactions with Chinese officials, call for the release of Tibetan political prisoners currently detained or imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Urge the Chinese government and its law enforcement and security forces to end the use of arbitrary detention, disappearance, beatings, torture, and intimidation to suppress and punish Tibetans for the peaceful exercise of their rights.
- Urge the Chinese government to invite representatives of governments and international organizations to meet with Gedun Choekyi Nyima, whom the Dalai Lama recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama, and his parents, all three of whom disappeared shortly after his recognition as Panchen Lama in 1995.
