By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, June 16: 57 parliamentarians from 19 countries including the members of the European parliament signed an op-ed first published in the Pan-European news network EURACTIV on Monday to demand reciprocal access to Tibet. It demanded that “most European governments allow Chinese citizens to travel freely throughout our countries, while China routinely forbids Europeans from visiting Tibet.”
It mentioned the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act (RATA) passed by US Congress in 2018 that insists on China to allow US journalists, diplomats and ordinary citizens to enter Tibet. The editorial signed by representatives from 19 countries blamed China’s secrecy and misinformation for the COVID-19 crisis, and noted the need for reciprocity in order to prevent any potential global crisis.
China has permitted only select groups of foreign visitors into Tibet even before the outbreak of the coronavirus. The op-ed cited ICT’s new report Access Denied: New Legislation, the Quest for Reciprocity in Europe and Lockdown in Tibet which has shown that over the last decade, nearly three times the number of Chinese government delegations representing Tibet have visited Western countries than the number of Western delegations allowed into Tibet.
“The Chinese Communist Party has no respect for a free press in its own territory, especially in Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region (which is not actually autonomous at all) is the only region of China that foreign journalists need special permission to enter. That permission is rarely granted however, and foreign journalists based in Beijing have stated that it’s easier for them to travel to North Korea than to Tibet,” reported the European news network.
The report recorded instances of Tibetans exiles in Europe who have been subjected to a discriminatory and humiliating process by the Chinese embassy before their application gets rejected. “With China posing a greater threat to global freedom and stability than ever before, we must stand up to its secrecy and authoritarianism before we find ourselves with another global crisis on our hands,” the op-ed further remarked.
It maintained that Tibetans’ non-violent struggle has been greatly influenced by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. China’s attempt to put its own illegitimate successor has been condemned by various European officials and parliamentarians but Beijing has said that the outside world has no right to get involved in its internal matters.
It reasserted the need to push back, “If we’re going to prevent China’s authoritarianism and lack of transparency from creating further pain around the globe in the future, demanding reciprocal access to Tibet – as former High Representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini has done – would provide a strategic inroad for doing so.”
