By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, July 12: The Lhasa Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice that offered rewards for Tibetans to report dissent, two days prior to July 6 birthday celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with incentives up to 300,000 Chinese Yuan ($44,840). The 12-point notice detailed various “scopes of reporting” to the bureau considered “illegal and criminal” by the Chinese communist regime.
The translation of the Chinese notice, provided by US-based International Campaign for Tibet, revealed that eight out of twelve points are “directly related to what can be considered as protected expression of thought and opinion”, while the seventh point stated that online activities on “Tibetan independence” must be considered a criminal case, including any form of speech, audio, or video material which are also listed as crimes to be reported to the authorities. This unquestionably includes any mentions or shares of anything related to the exiled leader Dalai Lama.
“The Chinese authorities in Tibet are using tactics to turn Tibetans against each other by creating further fear and distrust among families, friends and neighbors. These rewards represent measures of a totalitarian system, deeply affecting the lives of Tibetans and criminalizing peaceful dissent and activities that are protected by international law,” rights group ICT remarked on Friday.
“Illegal and criminal clues that use the name of religion to endanger national security, collude with foreign forces to interfere in domestic religious affairs, distort religious teachings, or use other methods to incite and advocate violence and other extremist and ethnic discrimination ideas,” one of the points in the notice read. Other points referred to illegal funding or support for “terrorist” activities that “undermine rural governance and social stability”. A circular on social media by the Public Security Bureau in 2018, obtained by ICT, stated that 30 boxes had been set up across Lhasa for citizens to report on such “criminal issues.”
