Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 31: Members of the Tibetan and Chinese communities gathered to foster dialogue and unity at a New Year Gathering event organised by the Office of Tibet in New York on December 29.
According to the exile Tibetan government run tibet.net, the gathering served as a platform for dialogue between the Tibetan and Chinese communities. Tsultrim Gyatso, the Chinese Liaison Officer of the Office of Tibet, highlighted the office’s ongoing outreach efforts to the Chinese community in North America, guided by the non-violent principles of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
He also paid tribute to the recently deceased contemporary Tibet historian Li Jianglin, expressing gratitude for her work in helping many Chinese and foreign people understand Tibet’s true historical situation through her books and articles such as “Lhasa 1959” and “When the Iron Bird Flies.” He encouraged the Chinese community to help share His Holiness’ vision of peace and compassion.
Chinese speakers at the event included Hu Ping, Zhou Fengsuo, Chen Chuangchuang, Rong Wei, and Yang Ruohui. They expressed appreciation for His Holiness’ promotion of peace and non-violence and supported the Middle Way Policy as a constructive approach to Sino-Tibetan relations. They also recognised the contributions of Li Jianglin and called for more open-minded engagement between the communities.
The event was attended by approximately 40 Chinese participants, including democracy advocates, intellectuals from the New York area, and recently arrived individuals from China. Tibetan representatives from the Tibetan Community of New York & New Jersey, six local Tibetan organisations, and the Global Movement for the Middle Way Approach attended the event.
The event aligns with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s longstanding efforts to foster harmony between Tibetan and Chinese people. In 2009, during a visit to Sydney, Australia, His Holiness emphasised the importance of mutual understanding and transparency while addressing members of the Chinese community. He highlighted the need for compassion alongside economic development and called for dialogue and reconciliation.
In 2008, His Holiness the Dalai Lama reflected on the historical ties between Tibetans and Chinese, acknowledging a complex history marked by both cooperation and conflict. He emphasised the importance of mutual respect, particularly through shared Buddhist traditions, and advocated for dialogue as the foundation for a harmonious future.
“Since ancient times, Tibetan and Chinese peoples have lived as neighbors. In the two-thousand-year-old recorded history of our peoples, we have at times developed friendly relations, even entering into matrimonial alliances, while at other times we fought each other. However, since Buddhism flourished in China first before it arrived in Tibet from India, we Tibetans have historically accorded the Chinese people the respect and affection due to elder Dharma brothers and sisters,” he stated.
2 Responses
The vision of His Holiness is very essential to reach grassroot of the Chinese people. There is no other way than making social interaction with Chinese people. If we close door, the communication gap will remain enhance and cannot find any peaceful solution. Try our best to make both the winners of peace and look positively.
The Tibetan authorities must have put lot of effort and even lot of money to organise this meeting between Chinese and Tibetans in New York! The attitude of Tibetan exiles towards the Chinese have brought down disrepute to the Tibetan Freedom Movement! It has proved that Tibetans are double faced about their freedom movement. On the one hand they appeal to western Government for help but on the other hand they are in cahoots with the Chinese to strike a deal behind the backs of the western supporters! This policy of double face (མགོ་གཉིས་པ་) seems a rather common trait of Tibetans including among the Tibetans themselves such as Lithang Athar! The exile authorities are running a twin track of getting western support but at the same time “win the support of the Chinese diaspora”. The Chinese diaspora is strongly influenced by the Chinese communist Party. This is an open secret! Most Chinese diaspora have been brainwashed by the CCP from their childhood and they have family members in communist China. So, their loyalty to their “motherland” is unquestioned and their fear of being in the bad books of the CCP prevents them from doing anything that is against China! If they do, they will be arrested in China and jailed like China born Australian journalist Cheng Lei and China born human rights and democracy activist Yang Hengjun. Cheng Lei spent three years in atrocious conditions while Yang Hengjun is still languishing in a Chinese jail. There are many other Chinese expats who are caught in CCP’s political dragnet to intimidate others. Therefore, with few exceptions, all the Chinese attendees are only symbolic gestures of solidarity but in reality they may be in fact working for the interest of the Chinese Government! We have many ABC (America Born Chinese) professors, scientists and businessmen working for the CCP! We have had 33 year old Baimadajie Angwang (Pema Dorje Ngawang) who worked as a New York Department officer who turned out to be a CCP spy who had close contact with the Chinese consulate in New York. He was invited and feted by the NY Tibetan community. He advised the Tibetan community leader at the time not to fly the Tibetan National flag! He also caused division between Tibetan groups who were sloganeering Tibetan freedom such as Students for a Free Tibet and pro-China Umay-Lampas who detest shouting, FREE TIBET! It can’t be ruled out that among those Chinese delegates who attended the gathering may have had fellow travellers like Baimadajie Angwang masquerading as “Tibet supporters”. I am especially suspicious of those who arrived from China! Most of the Chinese living in America have not changed their attitude and you can see them performing theatrics of carrying the communist flag and screaming expletives against the Japanese! These are children of Chinese who now live in the USA. In Canada, the Hong Kongers and Chinese don’t live in the same suburbs. They despise each other. Those who arrived from China are against the Hong Kongers and vice versa! The Tibetans are rather foolhardy to embrace the Chinese and seek dialogue when in fact these people are only looking to bring “glory to China”. The Tibetans are not shrewd like the Chinese. They are more like simple Simon of the nursery rhyme fame! The outcome of such meeting will be; the Tibetans will become apologetic CCP admirers through their interaction with the Chinese and will be disdainful of Tibetans who are fighting for Tibetan freedom. There are already many Tibetan exiles who are deadly against Tibetan independence and have become patriotic Chinese communist sympathisers! As a result, it is killing the Tibetan freedom movement. We are seeing less and less people attending 10th March Tibetan Uprising Day. It is gradually petering out and in another 25-30 years, it may be no more! This is because our pro-China leaders have doused the spirit of Tibetan resistance in exchange for friendship with the Chinese colonisers. All independence advocates have been disparaged, slandered and discredited! As a result, the Tibetan movement is slowly but steadily dying with a new generation of young people who have never seen Tibet and who are barely able to even speak the Tibetan language! They have little or no interest in the Tibetan cause! The CCP uses its United Front agents in the disguise of academics, friends and donors to elicit support for them to neutralise the Tibetan freedom movement! They are seeking to undermine and destroy the movement through a myriad of tactics that hoodwinks the foolhardy Tibetans until the movement is so damaged that it is impossible to salvage!