U.S. Dept. of State - IIP: The United States and China

Text: Senate Foreign Relations Committee Release on Tibet
(Granting PNTR would "ignore the struggle" of Tibetan people)

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations issued a press release September 11 quoting the U.S. State Department's 1999 Country Report on Human Rights Practices and Amnesty International's Country Report to show that Chinese government repression of Tibet is intensifying, and to support the claim that granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status is "a bad idea."

"By granting PNTR to Communist China, we ignore the struggle of the Tibetan people to resist China's brutality," the press release says.

September 11, 2000
TIBET
Continued Persecution of Tibetan People Underscores Why PNTR is a Bad Idea

Since the Communist Chinese invaded Tibet some fifty years ago, the PRC has waged a relentless war aimed at the destruction of Tibetan culture and religion. This year's State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices confirms that the dismal situation in Tibet is deteriorating. By granting PNTR to Communist China, we ignore the struggle of the Tibetan people to resist China's brutality.

Some minority groups, particularly Tibetan Buddhists and Muslim Uighurs, came under increasing pressure as the Government clamped down on dissent and "separatist" activities.

In June two Tibetan Buddhist monks reportedly were arrested at Ganzi monastery, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Region in western Sichuan (Tibetan Kham); they were charged with handing out leaflets supporting Tibetan independence. On October 24, three Tibetan Buddhist monks, Sonam Phuntsok, Agya Tsering, and Sonam, were arrested at Dargye monastery in western Sichuan province. The three reportedly were suspected of being in contact with exile groups, and of supporting the Dalai Lama. These arrests reportedly were linked to the bombing of a medical clinic on October 7. Their detention sparked a large local protest later in the month, during which police reportedly fired into the crowd and injured demonstrators.

The Government continued its campaign to discredit the Dalai Lama and to limit the power of religious persons and secular leaders sympathetic to him. The "patriotic education" of monks and nuns continued to be an important part of the campaign, which in the last 2 years was extended throughout Tibet and to monasteries outside of the TAR.

There were reports of imprisonment and torture or abuse of monks and nuns accused of political activism the death of prisoners, and the closure of several monasteries.

A TIN report put the number of political prisoners in Tibet at 500 as of the end of the year. TIN reports that in Tibet, 80 percent of female detainees are nuns and approximately 66 percent of male prisoners are monks.

Chinese government authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses in Tibet, including instances of torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without public trial, and lengthy detention of Tibetan nationalists for peacefully expressing their political or religious views.

The "patriotic education" campaign intensified with further closures of monasteries, and ill-treatment and expulsions of monks and nuns deemed "unpatriotic."

Many Tibetan prisoners suffered health problems as a result of inadequate conditions. Many detainees were tortured and ill-treated.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)