China’s latest White Paper on Tibet “Human Rights in Xizang in the New Era” released on 28 March is a testimony to what extent the CCP could go to impose its blatant lies on its people and the international community. The very concept of human rights has been assaulted and distorted to legitimize the genocide the regime committed and is committing in Tibet and other occupied territories. The white paper has portrayed as if the Chinese Liberation Army came to liberate Tibet from some imperialist force and feudal lords. This is completely wrong and not true. It does not become of an aspiring superpower to stoop so low distorting reality, historical facts, and spreading disinformation.
This is China’s 1
8th white paper on Tibet. No country has issued as many white papers on its territories as China has. This betrays China’s uneasy guilt and its fragile grip on the Tibet issue. The fact that despite the CCP’s rule for more than seventy years Tibet still remains an unresolved international issue demonstrates the illegitimacy of the CCP’s occupation of Tibet. This prompts the Chinese leadership to issue white papers on Tibet from time to time updating its false claims. However, the Chinese leadership should know that the over issuance of white papers on the same subject is construed as propaganda and disinformation.
The latest white paper has eight chapters and a concluding remark. It is primarily focused on human rights in Xizang, and talks about the effective safeguarding and protection of people’s democracy, economic and social rights, cultural rights, religious freedom, and environmental rights. The first white paper on Tibet issued in 1992 has the title “Tibet – its Ownership and Human Rights Situation“. No matter the tall tales and mendacity in the contents, it at least talked about Tibet. But this time, China has made a deliberate effort to avoid the use of the word “Tibet” and adopted their own nomenclature of Xizang for Tibet. Note the change of policy to wipe off the historical Tibet of the Three provinces of U-tsang, Amdo, and Kham and replace it with Tibet Autonomous Region and then with Xizang Autonomous Region.
Tibetans should have no reason to protest if justice and human rights are handled that way. Unfortunately, contrary to what is said in the white paper, Tibetans are arrested and detained arbitrarily and sentenced without proper trials. It talks of transparency in government affairs in accordance with law, China must first reveal the whereabouts of Panchen Lama; what happened to Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche; and where are Tashi Wangchuk and Dorjee Tashi before it boasts of the existence of transparency and rule of law in Tibet.
China’s white paper on Tibet release
d on 28 March 2025
The white paper is another desperate attempt by the CCP regime to glorify its rule in Tibet and justify its illegal occupation of the land. It was released on March 28, the day the CCP designated as “Serf Emancipation Day” and dissolved the legitimate Tibet government sixty-six years ago.
The opening line of the white paper goes like this: “It is a common h
uman aspiration for every individual to fully enjoy their human rights. This is also the goal of the Chinese people of all ethnic groups, including those in the Xizang Autonomous Region.” How good it would be if this is true! Unfortunately, it is not. From these two lines, we can identify a technical glitch in the statement and deduce what can be expected on the following pages.
“It is a common human aspiration for every individual to fully enjoy their human rights.” This is true and this is very much enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and China is a signatory to this document. The Chinese constitution also speaks of these rights. However, the first and important question here is: does the CCP regime fully understand this dictum and is the regime really practicing it?
The hard truth is: that many Chinese, Tibetans, and minority nationals died fighting for these rights. Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate, died seeking these rights for the Chinese people. More than 157 Tibetans self-immolated themselves to demand the rights that the white paper says China is safeguarding and protecting. People are tortured and disappearing just for having photo of the Dalai Lama and talking about the importance of the Tibetan language, culture, and religion. Around one million Tibetan children are forced into Chinese colonial boarding schools and are denied education in Tibetan language and history. The regime disparages H.H. the Dalai Lama and Tibetans as separatist and anti-China and tries to misinform the Chinese people. It has deliberately kept the 2008 Tibetans’ proposal “Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy For the Tibetan People”, popularly known as the Middle Way Approach to live with China, secret and away from the eyes of the Chinese people.
The second line says “This is also the goal of the Chinese people of all
ethnic groups, including those in the Xizang Autonomous Region.” These two lines are also very misleading and distortion of the facts.
There are supposed to be five distinct nationals with fifty-six ethnic groups, including Han Chinese, in the so-called People’s Republic of China. All these nationals are not Chinese people; there are Tibetans, Mongolians, East Turkistan, Manchu, and others. China is not a nation-state; it is a neo-colonist multistate. It is wrong even from the point of Marxism-Leninism to identify the minority nationals as Chinese. This concept of China with Tibet, East Turkistan, Southern Mongolia, Manchu, and others as one nation-state is not valid. It is a fiction created by the CCP. If we study the old map of East Asia, the Song Dynasty in the southeast is the original China, all others are occupied territories. The Great Wall of China is a living witness to this historical fact. So, the connotation of “Chinese people of all ethnic groups” is wrong and misleading.
Therefore, the very first two lines in the opening sentences of the white paper is façade and disinformation intended to deceive the international community of the real issue of Tibet. Now let us b
riefly study the contents of the white paper.
The white paper says “After the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century, the United Kingdom invaded Xizang on two occasions, posing a significant threat to China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
We must check historical records to verify the accuracy of this assertion. The UK never invaded Xizang. The fact is the British incursion in Tibet took place once in 1903 under the infamous Young Husband expedition. There was no China in the scene. Tibet, not Xizang, fought and negotiated alone with the invading force. China itself was under the occupation of Manchu’s Qing regime (1644-1911). So what sovereignty and territorial integrity is the white paper talking about?
In the second chapter, it says “The people of Xizang enjoy full, extensive, genuine, concrete and effective democratic rights in accordance with the law.” The fact that all the leadership powers are held by Han Chinese is a clear indication that there are no democratic rights at all. For all these more than seventy years of occupation, no Tibetan has become the Party Secretary of Tibet. The important point to note is when the Chinese on the mainland are denied democratic rights, how the leader
ship let Tibetans have democratic rights. If China is serious about democracy, it should study how the Tibetans in exile are exercising their democratic rights.
It talks of “Full protection of people’s rights to be informed and to participate” and brags of “various internet platforms through which people express their opinion.” This is all propaganda. In reality, just during the recent earthquake in Shigatse area of Tibet, China closed the area and did not allow Tibetans from neighboring regions and foreign missions to participate in the relief work. It banned some twenty-one Tibetan netizens from sharing information on the earthquakes.
If this right to information is correct, Gonpo Kyi should be allowed to have information on her brother Dorjee Tashi’s whereabouts. There should not be cases of people disappearing and dying in and after custody.
In the education section, it says right to education is protected, guaranteeing the right to study and use the Tibetan language. “Students and parents can choose if they wish to board at schools. These measures aim to protect the equal rights of students from all ethnic groups to high-quality education.”
Here, the white paper attempts to justify the Chinese colonial-style boarding schools in which around a million Tibetan children from age 4 to 18 are forced to attend. There is a report that in 2020, Mandarin was made the primary medium of instruction in all the primary and secondary schools in Tibet. If the CCP is protective of the Tibetan language, why the Tibetan are demanding reinstatement of the Tibetan language use in schools? Why Tashi Wangchuk, who was arrested and imprisoned, is still being tortured? If what China says is true, it must let the international rapporteurs visit these boarding schools to see what this “high-quality education” is all about.
Talking about religious freedom, the white paper says “Xizang allows religi
ous groups to manage their own affairs independently. All normal religious activities are carried out by religious groups or individuals of their free will, and no organization or individual may interfere with them.” If this is true, what about the destruction of the monastic complexes of Larung gar and Yachen gar and the dismantling of the huge statues of Buddha, Guru Rinpoche, Maitreya, prayers wheels, and the closure of the monastic schools? Why children and their parents are not allowed to visit monasteries and attend religious events? If the regime is serious about religious freedom, it should first withdraw the CCP’s sacrilegious religious order no. 5 of 2007 and order no. 19 of 2024, which are clear proof of religious oppression and interference.
China must reveal the whereabouts of the real Panchen Lama, Gedhun Chokey Nyima, and stop imposing false Panchen Lama on Tibetans and other Buddhist communities. The CCP leadership must explain the recent sudden disappearance and death of Hungkar Rinpoche, a high Tibetan Buddhist monk, in Vietnam.
In the Chapter VI, it talks of “Full and Effective Protection of Environment Rights” and says “Xizang has become one of the regions with the healthiest eco-environment in the world, where the protection of the people’s environmental rights has been steadily upgraded.”
Tibetans have had environmental protection laws since ancient times. Tibetans lived in harmony with nature and ensured a steady flow of fresh water to Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. What has China done now? It has dammed most of the rivers flowing from Tibet creating great ecological damage to the regions, displacement of more than 23 million people, and putting the riparian nations at the mercy of China’s “open and close water-tap policy“. The CCP regime has had most of the Tibetan environmentalists arrested, tortured, and confined the prisons. China must release and reveal information on all those Tibetans, Tsongon Tsering, Karma Samdup, Dhongye, Anya Sengdra, and so on, who are tortured and still languishing in prisons for speaking for environmental protection.
In the last Chapter VIII “Steady Improvement in the Legal Protection of Human Rights”, it says “Xizang continues to strengthen law-based administration to see to it that power is prescribed by law, and that it is exercised, constrained and supervised in according with the law, thereby ensuring all government activities are consistent with the rule of law.”
This is what exactly it should be in an ideal democratic society.
One true thing that the white paper has is that it says at the conclusion “A lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie.” This is a great diversion from what Mao Zedong said earlier “A lie repeated hundred times becomes the truth.” The CCP has been following this dictum for the last seven decades and the latest white paper is the ultimate height of the regime’s lies. Now reversing this dictum is a clear acknowledgment that all that is said in the white paper are lies.
It further says “The ultimate human right is that people can lead a happy life, which is true of the people in Xizang.” If the Chinese leadership really believes in this and practice it, the world would be much safer and peaceful than it is right now.
H.H. the Dalai Lama has on many occasions said that if the Tibetans in Tibet are happy, then we have no argument. His latest book “Voice of the Voiceless” summarizes this fact succinctly. He writes, “If China wants Tibet to stay with China, then China must create the necessary conditions for this. The time has come now for the Chinese to show the way for Tibet and China to live together in friendship.”
If the Chinese leadership is serious about resolving the Sino-Tibetan conflict, it should heed H.H. the Dalai Lama’s words “The simple fact is Tibet today remains an occupied territory, and it is only the Tibetan people who can confer or deny legitimacy to the presence of China on the Tibetan plateau.” Therefore, instead of issuing white papers one after another with disinformation, it should respect the Tibetans’ sentiments and talk with the Tibetans for a mutually agreeable solution.
*Dr Arya Tsewang Gyalpo is the former Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) and former Director of the Tibet Policy Institute (TPI). He is currently the Representative of the Liaison Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan and East Asia. His books include, Harnessing the Dragon’s Fume and The Ancient Tibetan Civilization.
The view expressed above is the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Tibet Policy Institute. Another version of the article was published in Japan Forward on 17 April 2025.