The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese authorities pursuing "forced assimilation" of children in Tibet, where one million children are said to have been taken from their families, according to UN experts.
In the most recent series of US actions against Beijing that come despite a revival of high-level dialogue, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools.
“These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” Blinken said in a statement.
“We urge PRC [People’s Republic of China] authorities to end the coercion of Tibetan children into government-run boarding schools and to cease repressive assimilation policies, both in Tibet and throughout other parts of the PRC,” he added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
A representative for the state department stated that the new restrictions would be applicable to current and previous officials involved in Tibet's educational policy but withheld further information due to US confidentiality laws regulating visa records.
In his statement, Blinken mentioned data given in February by three UN experts who estimated that over one million Tibetan children had been forced out of their homes and sent to boarding schools.
The program appears to be designed to forcefully integrate Tibetans into China's Han-majority culture, with mandatory education in Mandarin and no instruction specific to the Buddhist-dominated Himalayan region, the special rapporteurs reported.
Thousands of Tibetans have reportedly been coerced into low-skill "vocational training" as a cover for upending their identity, according to another report from UN experts this year.
“Completely unfounded”, the Chinese foreign ministry said regarding the report and continued by saying the Tibet region “enjoys social stability, economic development, ethnic unity, religious harmony, and people live and work in peace.”
“As the Dalai Lama often says, Tibetan culture, based on peace and compassion, has value to offer to the entire world,” said the group’s president, Tencho Gyatso.
“This boarding school program targets the most vulnerable and impressionable minds and is aimed at converting Tibetans into Chinese, cementing the Chinese government’s control over Tibet and annihilating the Tibetan culture and way of life,” she added.
(Photos: AFP)
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