(TibetanReview.net, Jun27’24) — In the name of regulations for implementing Sinicization, China officially controls all aspects of religious life in occupied Tibet and is guilty of serious violations of human rights of believers there, according to the US State Department in its 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom which was released on Jun 26. In Particular, the report criticizes China’s ongoing campaign to Sinicize Buddhism under which much of the violations take place.
Across the People’s Republic of China (PRC), authorities continue to arrest “thousands” of people a year for practicing their faith in ways that undermine the primacy of the Chinese Communist Party, the report says.
With regard to the situation in Tibet, the reports says the “CCP [Chinese Communist Party] regulations stipulate official control of all aspects of Tibetan Buddhism, including the recognition of lamas, religious venues, groups, personnel, and schools.”
And, as in previous years, there were “forced disappearances, arrests, physical abuse, and prolonged detentions without trial of monks, nuns, and other persons due to their religious practices.”
Releasing the report with Secretary of State Antony J Blinken, The US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain has referred to the Chinese government’s “decades of persecution of religious communities“, including Tibetan Buddhists.
Dwelling on the Sinicization drive under which Tibetans are deprived of their religious freedom and human rights, the report says: “The government continued carrying out its 2019-23 five-year plan to Sinicize Buddhism in China by emphasizing loyalty to the CCP and the state. The Sinicization plan included Tibetan Buddhism, with the involvement of the state-run BAC (Buddhist Association of China). Regulations promulgated in 2020 and 2021 further formalized administrative procedures for Sinicizing all religions, including Tibetan Buddhism, in order to ‘follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics,’ ‘correctly handle the relationship between national law and canon,’ and place more ideological controls on the training, selection, and monitoring of clergy.“
Focusing on Tibetan Buddhism specifically, the report says: “Authorities continued to require Buddhist monasteries to translate texts from Tibetan to Mandarin in what observers said was an effort to erase the Tibetan language. Authorities also continued to force monasteries to display portraits of CCP leaders and Tibetans to replace images of the Dalai Lama and other lamas in their homes with portraits of CCP leaders, including former Chairman Mao Zedong and General Secretary and PRC President Xi Jinping. Images of the Dalai Lama were banned, with harsh repercussions for owning or displaying his image. Repression, including arbitrary surveillance, increased around politically sensitive events, religious anniversaries, cultural events with religious components, and the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Authorities cancelled or curtailed lay attendance at religious events, including some that had received advanced official approval.”
Noting that the regulations regarding religion are issued by the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), the report notes that this body’s Bureau of Ethnic and Religious Work manages religious affairs through the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) in carrying out the Sinicization drive.
“The UFWD controls the selection of Tibetan religious leaders, including lamas. Regulations stipulate that, depending on the perceived geographic area of influence of the lama, relevant administrative entities may deny permission for a lama to be recognized as reincarnated (a tenet of Tibetan Buddhism), and that these administrative entities must approve reincarnations. The UFWD claims the right to deny recognition of reincarnations of high lamas of ‘especially great influence’.”
The regulations also stipulate that all reincarnate lamas must be reborn within China, with the CCP maintaining a registry of officially recognized reincarnate lamas.
The report further notes: “UFWD regulations allow citizens to take part only in officially approved religious practices; these regulations assert CCP control over all aspects of religious activity, including the managing of religious venues, groups, personnel, and schools. Through local regulations issued under the framework of the national-level Management Regulation of Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries, governments of the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region) and other autonomous Tibetan areas control the registration of monasteries, nunneries, and other Tibetan Buddhist religious centers. The regulations also give the CCP formal control over building and managing religious structures and require monasteries to obtain official permission to hold large-scale religious events or gatherings.”
The report continues to highlight the disappearance of Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure, saying, “The whereabouts of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama by the Dalai Lama and most Tibetan Buddhists, remained unknown since his 1995 forced disappearance by Chinese authorities. Nyima was six years old at the time he and his family were reportedly abducted.”
Welcoming the latest report’s release, Ms Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, has said, “The suppression of religious freedom in Tibet, including the efforts by the Chinese government to control the succession of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are core issues for the survival of Tibetan civilization and its future.”
She has said that given the gravity of the worsening situation in Tibet, the shedding of spotlight on Tibet in this year’s report was welcome “as this is needed more than ever today.”
The report notes that a little more than half of Chinese people are atheists or religiously unaffiliated, while 18.2% are Buddhists, 5.1% Christians, 1.8% Muslims and 21.9% followers of folk religions.