<div dir="ltr">Thanks, Hal, for sending this out. Outrageous, but also timely, in that I'm giving a talk in a couple of hours at Champlain College (as part of the college's Dr Martin Luther King Day special activities) on the relationship between language and power, and I'll include mention of this....<div>Cheers,</div><div>Tim</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 10:00 AM, Harold Schiffman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div id="m_5863109968845008489gmail-main">
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<h1>Free Tibetan activist Tashi Wangchuk</h1>
<div class="m_5863109968845008489gmail-meta">
<span class="m_5863109968845008489gmail-date">January 13, 2018 11:28 pm</span>
</div>
<div class="m_5863109968845008489entry"><div class="m_5863109968845008489gmail-pf-content"><p><strong>Calling for the right to use Tibetan language in schools is not a crime</strong></p>
<p><span id="m_5863109968845008489gmail-more-16793"></span></p>
<p>Adam N. Lee, <a href="http://chinaworker.info" target="_blank">chinaworker.info</a></p>
<p>A nine-minute video made by the New York Times may cost Tibetan
language rights activist Tashi Wangchuk fifteen years in prison. He is
the latest victim in an <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/2017/11/18/16310/" target="_blank">unprecedented crackdown </a>in
which hundreds of dissidents and rights advocates have been arrested,
abducted, disappeared, tortured, forced to appear in televised
‘confessions’ and in many cases served with harsh prison sentences as a
deterrent to others who would challenge Beijing’s policies.</p>
<p>32-year-old Tashi, a shopkeeper from the Tibetan prefecture of Yushu
in Qinghai province, was arrested two months after featuring in the
Times’ video documentary. He was held for two years in secret detention
and then tried on 4 January this year for “inciting separatism”. The
video film (see below) was played at the four-hour trial and according
to Tashi Wangchuk’s defence counsel was the main “evidence” against him.
The court will pronounce sentence at a later date but it is feared he
could be handed a fifteen-year prison sentence.</p>
<p>China’s courts are under tight regime control and have a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/12193202/Chinese-courts-convict-more-than-99.9-per-cent-of-defendants.html" target="_blank">99 percent conviction rate</a>,
100 percent in the case of political trials like this one.
International observers have condemned the detention and trial of Tashi
Wangchuk, with <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/01/china-sham-trial-against-tibetan-activist/" target="_blank">Amnesty International calling it a “sham”</a> based on “blatantly trumped-up charges”.</p>
<p>The case also highlights the worsening oppression of ethnic minority
groups in China. Tibetans, Uighur Muslims and other minorities<a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/in-xinjiang-ethnic-kazakhs-and-kyrgyz-face-increased-pressure/" target="_blank"> including Kazakhs </a>who
mostly also live in Xinjiang and are now under increasingly ferocious
repression, face discrimination, loss of rights, repression and economic
hardship. This fate is also being extended to “privileged” and
nominally <a href="https://stophkrepression.net/" target="_blank">“autonomous” Hong Kong</a> under current regime policies.</p>
<p>Since mass protests erupted in Tibet in 2008, a state crackdown in
the name of fighting “separatism” and “terrorism” has escalated to
unprecedented levels. In his short video interview, Tashi Wangchuk
describes the life of ordinary Tibetans as “full of pressure and fear”.
Some facts illustrate the anguish of the Tibetan people under China’s
ultra-repressive policies:</p>
<ul><li>There have been 140 self-immolations since 2009 – desperate protests against repression.</li><li>There are more than 1,800 Tibetan political prisoners – many are in prison for writing or speaking out.</li></ul>
<p><strong>New York Times video documentary, “A Tibetan’s Journey for Justice”:</strong></p>
<p><code></code></p>
<p><strong>Not a revolutionary</strong></p>
<p>Tashi is clearly not a revolutionary nor an advocate of Tibetan independence. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/insider/tashi-wangchuk-documentary-china.html" target="_blank">New York Times reporter Johan M. Kessel</a>,
who made the film of Tashi, says that during their meeting the Tibetan
specifically told him he did not support independence. Like many others
who have been targets of the crackdown of recent years they have simply
called for reform within the system, rather than advocating more radical
political change or the downfall of the dictatorship.</p>
<p>“All Tashi Wangchuk has done is peacefully advocate for
constitutionally guaranteed rights,” said Human Rights Watch China
director Sophie Richardson. “If Chinese authorities consider that
‘inciting separatism,’ it’s hard to tell what isn’t.”</p>
<p>Tashi went to Beijing to appeal for the restoration of Tibetan
language teaching in schools – which, like other minority languages, has
effectively been eliminated at every level from primary education
upwards in favour of Mandarin (Putonghua) as the only language of
instruction. Tibetan, Mongolian and the Turkic Uighur language, for
example, can be studied on the same basis as English or French, i.e. as
“foreign” languages, but they are no longer languages of instruction.</p>
<p>This was not the case in the past. Even during the Mao years –
universally referred to as a ‘dark age’ of repression – such a rigid and
heavy-handed language policy was not applied. And certainly the current
policies of the Chinese regime have nothing in common with genuine
Marxism or socialism – take for example the extremely sensitive and
democratic approach taken by Lenin, the leader of the Russian
Revolution, towards the language question:</p>
<blockquote><p><em><a>“That</a> is why Russian Marxists say that there
must be no compulsory official language, that the population must be
provided with schools where teaching will be carried on in all the local
languages, that a fundamental law must be introduced in the
constitution declaring invalid all privileges of any one nation and all
violations of the rights of national minorities.” [Lenin, Is a
Compulsory Official Language Needed? January 1914]</em></p></blockquote>
<p>The regime’s claim that a single official language, i.e. Mandarin, is
needed to facilitate economic development and integration is a false
and blinkered standpoint. It reflects a crude police mentality that
coercion is the answer to every problem. Many economically developed
societies operate multi-lingual education systems and business
environments – from Switzerland to Singapore. But Beijing’s language
policies have been adapted to its nationalistic agenda for maintaining
political control by the centre.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/jan/18.htm" target="_blank"><strong>Read more: Lenin against a compulsory official language ➵</strong></a></p>
<p><strong>Fracturing of China</strong></p>
<p>In the past decade, as Beijing’s fears of mass unrest and the
fracturing of China have risen, extensive repressive measures have been
implemented especially in Tibetan regions and <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/2017/05/03/14761/" target="_blank">in Muslim-majority Xinjiang.</a>
Tens of thousands of auxiliary police have been recruited, religious
establishments have been militarised, and an unprecedented ‘deep state’
has been assembled with the latest mass surveillance technology. These
methods are being tested in minority regions to be used against the Han
Chinese majority – striking workers or anti-pollution protesters – in
the future.</p>
<p>The current language policies are in breach of China’s constitution
which includes guarantees of the freedom of ethnic nationalities to use
their own spoken and written language. These clauses, like much else in
the constitution (which also ‘guarantees’ democratic rights and freedom
of speech) are meaningless. This is central to the alleged ‘crime’ of
Tashi Wangchuk who, as shown in the Times’ documentary, went to Beijing
to petition the authorities to uphold the Tibetan people’s
constitutional language rights.</p>
<p>His trial for “inciting separatism” therefore sends an unmistakeable
message and perhaps not the one the Chinese regime intends. They want to
project strength, their resolve to crush opposition. But another
message, intended or not, is that it is impossible to pursue ‘reform’
within China’s authoritarian system. If you call for even very limited
reforms, especially if you do this publicly or embarrass the
dictatorship by proffering its own constitution, you will be punished
with the same malice as if you advocated revolution. In this way, the
dictatorship is leaving only one road open to those who want and need
change – the road of revolution.</p>
<p>Rather than create ‘stability’, the unprecedented crackdown in
China’s ethnic minority regions is breeding an explosive mix of
disillusionment, fear and anger, and makes the Chinese regime the most
powerful promoter of demands for national independence, as it has become
in Hong Kong. With such policies, China’s rule is not strengthened but
actually undermined in the longer term. Tashi Wangchuk’s futile mission
to Beijing and the regime’s cold-blooded reaction have made him a hero
among Tibetan youth. But will the younger generation share his belief
that it is possible to make Beijing ‘listen’ to reasonable arguments?</p>
<p>Only by building working class organisations that unite the oppressed
of all ethnicities in common struggle, is it possible to defeat
repression and the arbitrary rule of a dictatorial regime. This is part
of a global struggle against grotesque inequality, national oppression,
environmental destruction, war and foreign occupation. These horrors
flow from the nature of global capitalism which is a major supporting
pillar of the current ‘Communist’ regime in China.</p>
<p><a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/2013/03/13/514/" target="_blank">Read more: Tibetans in revolt – What is the way forward? ➵</a></p>
<p><a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/2008/04/21/3265/" target="_blank">Read more: Tibet and the National Question ➵</a></p>
<p><img class="m_5863109968845008489gmail-alignnone m_5863109968845008489gmail-size-large m_5863109968845008489gmail-wp-image-16794" src="http://media.chinaworker.info/2018/01/tashi-wangchuk-free-now-600x250.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="250"></p>
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<span class="m_5863109968845008489gmail-tag-links">Tags: <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/independence/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Independence</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/language-rights/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Language Rights</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/national-question/" rel="tag" target="_blank">National Question</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/new-york-times/" rel="tag" target="_blank">New York Times</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/repression/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Repression</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/tashi-wangchuk/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Tashi Wangchuk</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/tibet/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Tibet</a> <a href="http://chinaworker.info/en/tag/xinjiang/" rel="tag" target="_blank">Xinjiang</a></span>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="m_5863109968845008489gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<wbr>=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: <a href="tel:(215)%20898-7475" value="+12158987475" target="_blank">(215) 898-7475</a><br>Fax: <a href="tel:(215)%20573-2138" value="+12155732138" target="_blank">(215) 573-2138</a> <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~<wbr>haroldfs/</a> <br><br>------------------------------<wbr>-------------------</div>
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