The newly appointed head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet, a hard-line apparatchik who is subject to several international sanctions for serious human rights violations in neighboring Xinjiang, is expected to do the same harshly on Buddhists in Tibet Will apply policies that said against Muslims in Xinjiang, Tibetans and experts.
Wang Junzheng, deputy CCP chief and security chief in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), has committed atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkish minorities in the XUAR oversees what has been labeled genocide in the western capitals.
Tibet supporters welcomed the announcement of the promotion of 58-year-old Wang on Monday with concerns that he would take the repression of Tibetans known for decades to a higher level and called for the continuation of the UK’s coordinated sanctions against him. Canada, the European Union and the USA
« Wang Junzheng’s appointment as head of the Tibet Autonomous Region Party Committee shows that the Chinese authorities intend to continue to control the Tibetan people with an iron fist, » said the International Campaign for Tibet. an advocacy group with offices in Washington, DC and Europe.
“ICT expects Wang to bring his experiences to Tibet as part of the party’s Tibet-Xinjiang feedback loop. Chen Quanguo, his boss in Xinjiang, brought his Tibet experience as party secretary to Xinjiang from 2011 to 2016, where he led the ongoing, terrible genocide of the Uyghurs by the Chinese government, ”the group said in a statement > In August 2016, after five years as party leader in Tibet, Chen moved to the XUAR capital, Urumqi, where he established security measures and surveillance, suppressed support for the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader whom Beijing has accused of being a separatist, and criminalized many ordinary people religious and cultural activities.
Wang’s promotion, part of a list of new CCP leaders appointed to seven provincial governments across China ahead of a party convention next year, comes five years after Chen assumed the office of XUAR party leader and around 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities had been imprisoned in a network of internment camps in the name of the fight against terr orism and extremism.
« Wang Junzheng’s rule promises to be just as bad for Tibetans as Chen Quanguo’s or worse, » said the online religious freedom website Bitter Winter in an analysis.
« Indeed His appointment in Tibet is a slap in the face of the United States and democratic countries in general. The « butcher of Xinjiang » is not only not curbed by Beijing, he is also being promoted to higher office, « said the Italy-based website.
The newly appointed head of the Chinese Communist Party, Wang Junzheng, on an undated photo from the Chinese state media.
‘Sinizing Tibetan Buddhism’
In a speech in the capital Lhasa of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) on Tuesday, Wang did little to allay the fears of Tibetans.
« I will from now on as Designate Tibetans. My main task and responsibility is to create a harmonious society that is inevitable and resolutely opposes separatist activities, « he said, according to the state media.
» It is necessary to actively lead Tibetan Buddhism in order to adhere to the to adapt socialist society and to promote the Sinization of Tibetan Buddhism. «
Wang was one of the XUAR officials who were punished with travel bans and asset freezes in March by the UK, Canada, the EU and the US. </ "I have to emphasize that I have absolutely no interest in traveling to the European Union, the United States, Great Britain or Canada," Wang told state media at the time.
XUAR party leader Chen, architect of the internment camp system , was sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, a move that led to the passage of Uighur human rights policy Act of 2020 followed last year, which provides sanctions against the Chinese officials who implement arbitrary detention, forced labor and other abuses.
« The United States stands by the many Tibetans who are charged with the PRC exercising their human rights will be suppressed and imprisoned, « a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in response to an RFA question about Wang’s rendition.
» Tibet remains a priority for this government. We will consider the use of all appropriate tools to promote the accountability of officials in the People’s Republic of China responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet, « the spokesman told the RFA’s Tibetan Service.
An institution believed to be that it is a detention center north of Kashgar in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, June 2, 2019. Source: AFP
« Genocide under his supervision »
While the spokesman did not address Wang’s appointment, Rep. Jim McGovern, chairman of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, an advisory body in Washington, told RFA that he was « deeply concerned about Wang’s promotion. » « .
» Wang Junzheng was head of security in Xinjiang when the US government discovered that the Chinese government was committing genocide under his supervision, « he said.
» Whether his promotion shows that he is against him The disregard of the US sanctions imposed is less important than the concerns we have about what he might impose on Tibetans as party leader in the TAR, ”McGovern told RFA.
On Wednesday in Washington, President Joe’s candidate Biden as US Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, did not mince his words at his confirmation hearing in the Senate.
“The genocide of the PRC in Xinjiang, their abuses in Tibet, their suffocation of Hong Kong’s car onomie and liberties and their bullying against Taiwan are unjust and must stop, « said Burns, listing the points of conflict between Washington and Beijing.
Tibet was once an independent nation and was forcibly invaded and annexed into China almost 70 years ago, and the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India and other countries around the world after the failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
The Chinese authorities still have a firm grip on the region and restrict political activities Tibetans and the peaceful expression of their cultural and religious identity and expose Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings.
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