This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
ETHNIC Tibetans living in the Indian city of Dharmsala voted at the weekend to create a shortlist for president of the so-called Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), which styles itself a government in exile of the Chinese autonomous region.
Current CTA chief Lobsang Sangay said the vote “sends a clear message to Beijing that Tibet is under occupation.”
The exile administration was formed in 1959 after the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism the Dalai Lama fled China following the failure of a CIA-funded monastic revolt against the abolition of serfdom.
It alleges that Chinese authorities suppress Tibetan culture, a charge that Beijing denies. The Chinese government points to an increase in life expectancy from 35 to 70 years between 1959 and 2020, an 80 per cent reduction in poverty and double-digit GDP growth as evidence that Tibetans have benefited greatly from the abolition of feudalism and the pursuit of socialist policies in the region.
CTA electoral candidate Lobsang Sither admitted that the exiled government nowadays had little contact with Tibetans in Tibet. “Unless we have reliable information on the situation inside Tibet, we cannot formulate policies to assist Tibetans,” he said.
