[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                  PRESERVING TIBET: COMBATING CULTURAL
                      ERASURE, FORCED ASSIMILATION,
                     AND TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION
=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

              CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             MARCH 28, 2023

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]


              Available at www.cecc.gov or www.govinfo.gov

                                __________

                                
                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
51-694 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2023                    
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------     

              CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

                    LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

House                                     Senate

CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey,       JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon, Co-chair
    Chair                            ANGUS KING, Maine
JAMES P. McGOVERN, Massachusetts     TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
BRIAN MAST, Florida
JENNIFER WEXTON, Virginia
MICHELLE STEEL, California
RYAN ZINKE, Montana
ZACHARY NUNN, Iowa
SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
ANDREA SALINAS, Oregon

                     EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

               DANIEL K. KRITENBRINK, Department of State

                  MARISA LAGO, Department of Commerce

                   THEA MEI LEE, Department of Labor

                 LISA JO PETERSON, Department of State

                     UZRA ZEYA, Department of State

                      Piero Tozzi, Staff Director

                   Matt Squeri, Deputy Staff Director

                                  (ii)


                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               Statements

                                                                   Page
Opening Statement of Hon. Chris Smith, a U.S. Representative from 
  New Jersey; Chair, Congressional-Executive Commission on China.     1
Statement of Hon. Jeff Merkley, a U.S. Senator from Oregon; Co-
  chair,
  Congressional-Executive Commission on China....................     3
Statement of Hon. Michelle Steel, a U.S. Representative from 
  California.....................................................     4
Statement of Hon. Zachary Nunn, a U.S. Representative from Iowa..     5
Statement of Hon. Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary for Civilian 
  Security,
  Democracy, and Human Rights, and U.S. Special Coordinator for 
  Tibetan Issues.................................................     6
Statement of Penpa Tsering, Sikyong, Central Tibetan 
  Administration.................................................     9
Statement of Richard Gere, Chair, International Campaign for 
  Tibet..........................................................    11
Statement of Lhadon Tethong, Director, Tibet Action Institute....    18
Statement of Tenzin Dorjee, Senior Researcher and Strategist, 
  Tibet Action Institute.........................................    21

                                APPENDIX
                          Prepared Statements

Penpa Tsering, Sikyong...........................................    34
Gere, Richard....................................................    35
Tethong, Lhadon..................................................    41
Dorjee, Tenzin...................................................    43

Smith, Hon. Chris................................................    45
Merkley, Hon. Jeff...............................................    46
McGovern, Hon. James P...........................................    47

                       Submissions for the Record

CECC Truth in Testimony Disclosure Form..........................    48
Witness Biographies..............................................    50

                                 (iii)

 
PRESERVING TIBET: COMBATING CULTURAL ERASURE, FORCED ASSIMILATION, AND 
                        TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION

                              ----------                              


                        TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2023

                            Congressional-Executive
                                       Commission on China,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The hearing was held from 10:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m., in Room 
106, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, 
Representative Chris Smith, Chair, Congressional-Executive 
Commission on China, presiding.

      OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, A U.S. 
REPRESENTATIVE FROM NEW JERSEY; CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE 
                      COMMISSION ON CHINA

    Chair Smith. This hearing, ``Preserving Tibet: Combating 
Cultural Erasure, Forced Assimilation, and Transnational 
Repression,'' will come to order.
    Today's hearing is an extremely important one. We are 
greatly honored and privileged to hear testimony from a 
distinguished panel of experts who will not only further 
document massive human rights abuses committed by the Chinese 
Communist Party against the people of Tibet, but will also 
point us toward a way forward to the preservation of Tibet, its 
language, its culture, its religion, and its people. All of us 
need to do a better job exposing and reversing, or at least 
mitigating, the ugly, hate-filled campaign by the Chinese 
Communist Party to erase an entire people, the people of Tibet.
    Cultural erasure happens when a people's language, and 
religious and cultural heritage are stripped from them, when 
children are taken from their parents and placed in 
institutions, colonial boarding schools, where they cannot 
speak their language or practice their religion but instead are 
taught in an alien tongue and aggressively indoctrinated, while 
the ties that bind them to their families and culture are 
eviscerated. Roughly 80 percent of all Tibetan children within 
the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China 
are housed in such institutions. This is child abuse of the 
cruelest kind.
    According to the 2022 State Department Human Rights Report, 
the Chinese Communist Party's human rights abuses in Tibet 
include effectively placing Tibetan Buddhism under central 
government control and subjecting Tibetan women to coerced 
abortion or forced sterilization. What is also shocking is how 
intrusive the CCP's totalitarian reach really is. Biometric 
data--DNA and its scans--of over a million Tibetans, and 
others, have been harvested and stored by the CCP. Blood 
samples were drawn even from children in kindergarten.
    And what is even more shocking is the role of an American 
company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, in this genetic data 
collection and genetic surveillance program. In December of 
last year, Senator Merkley and I, along with Ranking Members 
Rubio and McGovern, wrote a letter to Mark Casper, President 
and CEO of Thermo Fisher asking him why DNA kits and DNA 
sequencer replacement parts were still being sold directly by 
his company to police in the Tibet Autonomous Region for use 
and abuse in collecting biometric data.
    We know this--and more importantly, he knows this--because 
there have been multiple reports by Toronto-based Citizen Lab, 
and our Commission itself, of Thermo Fisher products being 
implicated in ongoing human rights abuse throughout the 
People's Republic of China, through the use of DNA obtained 
from Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other ethnic and religious 
minorities. Indeed, the most nefarious misuses of DNA collected 
have been to find matches for organ recipients from unwilling, 
healthy innocent people. There is a mountain of evidence that 
this is what is being done in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous 
Region against the Uyghurs and other Central Asians such as the 
Kazakhs and Falun Gong practitioners.
    And I would note, parenthetically, that last night the 
House passed with just two votes in opposition a bill that 
throws the book at this horrific forced organ harvest 
transplantation effort, where tens of thousands of people are 
murdered by Xi Jinping and the CCP to obtain their organs. The 
average is two to three organs per person. And I chaired a 
hearing last year with the Lantos Commission on this very issue 
and heard from experts. And I was shocked. I've been working on 
this for years. I was shocked by just how pervasive it is and 
how lucrative it is for the Chinese Communist Party. And one 
other footnote to that: When any Chinese Communist Party 
official gets sick and has needed a new liver, or a new lung, 
or heart, who do they turn to? Those people that they despise 
the most. And the average age of those who are murdered for 
their organs is 28 years old.
    Finally, I want to note that Tibet is important because of 
what has happened in Tibet. The early 50s is the template for 
so many of the crimes against humanity which we see play out 
within the recognized borders of the People's Republic of China 
today. Indeed, both Tibet and Xinjiang are autonomous only in 
name. Both suffer from Xi Jinping's genocide. For genocide is 
not only what we associate with the Holocaust, and surely that 
was one of the most egregious genocides ever to occur--but it's 
also happening today throughout China against the Tibetans, but 
slowly, beyond the visibility of the press, Congress, and 
parliaments around the world. It's also happening in Xinjiang, 
as we know as well.
    According to the Convention on the Prevention and 
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, acts of genocide include 
intending to destroy ``in whole or in part, a national, 
ethnical, racial or religious group.'' It also includes causing 
serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, imposing 
measures intended to prevent births within the group, and 
forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. 
That is what is happening in Tibet. And it is, as I said, 
genocide.
    Before I yield to my good friend and colleague, co-chair of 
the Commission, Senator Merkley, who, along with Ranking Member 
McGovern in the House, is the coauthor of the Resolve Tibet 
Act, which underscores as a matter of policy that the Tibet-PRC 
conflict remains unresolved and makes clear that our country's 
support for Tibet will never waver. Some of the policy--this is 
right from the text of the bill--it claims, and it's true, of 
course, that claims made by the officials of the People's 
Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party that Tibet 
has been part of China since ancient times are historically 
false.
    The policy directed in this legislation also says the 
government of the PRC has failed to meet the expectations of 
the United States to engage in meaningful dialogue with the 
Dalai Lama or his representatives toward a peaceful settlement 
of the unresolved conflict between Tibet and the PRC, and that 
the United States public diplomacy efforts should counter 
disinformation about Tibet from the government of the PRC and 
the Chinese Communist Party, including disinformation about the 
history of Tibet, the Tibetan people, and Tibetan institutions, 
including the Dalai Lama.
    It's an excellent bill, and the sooner it's on the floor 
for passage, the better. And I want to yield to the author of 
it over on the Senate side, my good friend Chairman Merkley.
    Co-chair Merkley. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I 
really appreciate that you have convened this hearing and I 
look forward to continuing to work with you on our shared 
agenda for this Congress.

STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF MERKLEY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM OREGON; CO-
       CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL-EXECUTIVE COMMISSION ON CHINA

    This hearing will touch on several aspects of that agenda. 
We'll hear about the unrelenting efforts by the Chinese 
government to erase cultural, linguistic, and religious 
diversity in China. We'll hear about the long arm of 
transnational repression and how authorities reach beyond 
China's borders to harass and intimidate, including here in the 
United States. We'll hear about how companies headquartered 
here can be complicit in the use of their technologies to abet 
the machinery of the surveillance state. And we'll hear about 
the indomitable human spirit of those yearning to live their 
lives in dignity despite these assaults on their families and 
their way of life.
    This hearing explores these issues through the lens of how 
they affect Tibetans. It builds on several hearings we held 
last Congress to give voice to the aspirations of the Tibetan 
people, in which we examined Tibet's environment, political 
prisoners, language rights, and obstacles to resolving conflict 
through dialogue. The chair and I have joined in shining a 
spotlight on these issues with one of Tibet's great champions, 
this Commission's former chair, Jim McGovern. Due to another 
hearing, Congressman McGovern cannot be here today but will be 
submitting a statement for the record.
    And I hope that the bipartisan legislation he has led in 
the House with Congressman McCaul, and which I lead in the 
Senate with Senator Young, the Promoting a Resolution to the 
Tibet-China Conflict Act, will advance during this Congress. 
And thank you so much, Chairman, for drawing attention to it 
and I really hope we can see it expedited. Dialogue to resolve 
this conflict remains frozen, as it has been for 13 years, due 
to Chinese authorities' refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama or 
his representatives. Our legislation aims to bolster existing 
U.S. policy seeking meaningful and direct dialogue without 
preconditions to lead to a negotiated agreement on Tibet.
    The Tibetan people, like people everywhere, deserve a say 
in how they are governed. The right to self-determination is 
foundational to the concept of universal human rights enshrined 
in the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 
Yet the Chinese government's policies preclude Tibetans from 
exercising that most basic right. I look forward to hearing 
from our witnesses on what those fighting for the rights of 
Tibetans can do about this. And I invite our witnesses to share 
their perspectives on how all of us can do better to protect 
and support Tibet's linguistic, religious, and cultural 
heritage.
    Much has been done in this area over the decades through 
the work of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan 
Administration. Yet as today's testimony will reinforce, 
Chinese authorities' frontal assault on Tibetan language and 
culture now brings elevated challenges, such as the Chinese 
attempt to erase Tibetans' Tibetan-ness. The vast majority of 
Tibetan children are now placed in colonial boarding schools, 
as the chairman has referred to--80 percent of the children six 
to eighteen are being placed in these schools, children now 
even in preschool are being put into these schools. This story 
gets worse with each passing month. The people of Tibet face 
urgent challenges and I hope today's hearing will help us 
understand better how we can support them.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chair Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have a member on 
remotely.
    Congresswoman Steel.

               STATEMENT OF HON. MICHELLE STEEL,
             A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA

    Representative Steel. Thank you, Chairman, for hosting this 
important hearing. Every person has the right to religious and 
cultural beliefs. Governments, including the CCP, have no right 
to restrict these fundamental beliefs. It was an honor to meet 
the 14th Dalai Lama in 2016. It is inexcusable that the people 
of Tibet are not free and are currently met with punishment 
ranging from warnings and surveillance to interrogation and 
detention. We cannot sit by while the Tibetans are being 
detained and imprisoned for political or religious reasons. So, 
to all the witnesses, the CCP continues to have oversight on 
Tibetan religious life by mandating political education for 
monks and nuns, can you believe, creating an apparatus to 
surveil and manage monastic institutions. Can you expand more 
on how CCP authorities continue to reorient Tibetan society?
    Chair Smith. Okay, thank you, Congresswoman Steel. We will 
ask that the panel respond to that after we get through all of 
their opening statements. I would like to now yield to 
Congressman Nunn.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ZACHARY NUNN,
                   A REPRESENTATIVE FROM IOWA

    Representative Nunn. First of all, thank you very much, Mr. 
Chair, for scheduling this important hearing to examine the 
impact of the Chinese Communist Party's repressive rule of 
Tibetans. And I look forward to the testimony today from this 
august panel who've taken time to be with us. I also want to 
express my gratitude for being able to serve on this 
bipartisan, bicameral commission with my colleagues in the 
House as well as in the Senate and the executive branch who are 
with us. It's a privilege to participate because I believe very 
strongly that this is a critical examination of what needs to 
be done to ensure that China's compliance with international 
human rights standards is held firm.
    Look, as a former intelligence officer myself, with nearly 
two decades of experience both in the military and working in 
counterintelligence operations inside of China, I've seen 
firsthand the national and the economic threat posed by China's 
global interests. And we've seen throughout the course of 
recent events, China will do whatever it takes for that level 
of global domination. In Wang Jingze's book Thirty-Six 
Stratagems, he highlights a theory that is steeped in Chinese 
cultural history, this idea of sacrificing the plum tree to 
preserve the peach tree. Now, what they mean by this is that 
you can sacrifice in the short term those who are most 
vulnerable for the strength of those who are in power.
    We are seeing this play out constantly in the autonomous 
state of Tibet today by the Chinese government. Even 
individuals who are here in this room today know that the 
Chinese government is relentless in its approach to applying 
advanced technology to repress and track its very own people. 
Intrusive electronic surveillance is prevalent at every level. 
With this fact alone, it is cause for concern. The forced and 
often arbitrary collection of sensitive biometric information 
on millions of Tibetans and other local residents by their 
government officials is dangerous, it is repressive, and it is 
a clear violation of basic human rights.
    By leveraging this technology, the Chinese government can 
identify people not only by their face but also by their 
cellular data, the very essence of who they are. The Tibetan 
population is put at serious risk of genealogical repression 
for future generations, who will be targeted on the basis of 
their DNA. In fact, between 2016 and 2022, the DNA collection 
program in the Tibet Autonomous Region is believed to have 
catalogued as many as 1.2 million, approximately a third of the 
entire population of this region. And worse yet, Chinese 
authorities are targeting this data collection, as the chairman 
highlighted, at primary schools where they're taking blood from 
children as young as five years old--all of this done without 
any parental notification or consent.
    China's pervasive surveillance technology does not stop at 
the Tibetan border. The CCP's repression efforts extend to 
Tibetan communities abroad and are further evidence of the 
extreme lengths to which the Communist Party will go to 
undertake the dismantlement of the entire Tibetan civilization. 
This biometric data is a legitimate threat that will only 
deepen the CCP's control over indigenous populations around the 
globe, and its use violates international norms and concerns 
with privacy. Ownership of this biometric data is a basic human 
right and deserves protection everywhere in the world.
    And so, Mr. Chair, before I conclude my opening statement, 
I want to make my position on the United States companies 
selling technology to China today very clear. Any U.S. company 
transacting with the Chinese government to sell technology that 
can be used to further the Chinese government's repression is 
equally complicit. China's blatant human rights violations 
should immediately be clear, and those companies need to sever 
their ties with these violators.
    So, again, to both the chairman in the House and the 
Senate, I look forward to our witnesses' statements today, the 
recommendations that you're providing to us, so that we can 
take constructive action on this and make sure that China does 
not use their authoritarian surveillance or put others in a 
place where they also become subject to this type of 
totalitarian state.
    With that, I yield back the remainder of my time and thank 
the panel for being here today.
    Chair Smith. Thank you so very much for your very strong 
statement. We welcome you to the Commission and look forward to 
your leadership, which will be greatly appreciated. [Applause.]
    Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya is here remotely. She's 
going to now provide her opening comments as well.

 OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. UZRA ZEYA, UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE 
 FOR CIVILIAN SECURITY, DEMOCRACY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS, AND U.S. 
             SPECIAL COORDINATOR FOR TIBETAN ISSUES

    Secretary Zeya. Thank you, Representative Smith, Senator 
Merkley, and my fellow distinguished commissioners for the 
opportunity to speak today on this timely and important topic. 
I'd like to welcome our distinguished guests, Sikyong Tsering, 
Mr. Gere, Ms. Tethong, and Mr. Dorjee, whose valuable insights 
I look forward to hearing.
    We're gathered here today at a critical moment for Tibet. 
PRC authorities continue to wage a campaign of repression that 
seeks to forcibly sinicize the 6 million Tibetans in the PRC 
and eliminate Tibet's distinct religious, cultural, and 
linguistic heritage. Recent reports on government-run boarding 
schools and involuntary mass DNA collection in Tibetan areas 
shock the conscience. These policies, targeting ethnic 
minorities and religious practitioners, are part of broader PRC 
efforts to reshape and undermine human rights globally, 
including through various acts of transnational repression.
    This administration will continue to shine a light on 
Tibet-
related issues within our broader human rights concerns with 
the PRC, bilaterally and jointly with multilateral partners, 
and promote accountability for the PRC's human rights abuses in 
Tibet and elsewhere. As U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan 
Issues, I am committed to continuing this administration's 
close and sustained cooperation with Congress to deepen our 
strong track record of support for the Tibetan community and 
uphold an affirmative vision for human rights.
    I'd also like to put forward two questions to our 
distinguished panelists. First, as we know, the PRC subjects 
Tibetans to intense surveillance and draconian controls over 
the flow of information, including the simple act of talking to 
those outside the PRC. These threats extend outside the PRC, as 
authorities target Tibetans through in-person and virtual 
harassment, as well as threats to family and friends still 
living inside the PRC. Understanding the impenetrability of the 
Great Firewall, how can we improve information flow into and 
out of the Tibet Autonomous Region?
    As U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, I've 
prioritized engagement with our partners and allies to enlist 
multilateral support for the global Tibetan community, 
especially on the issue of the Dalai Lama's succession. My 
second question is, how can the international community 
continue to elevate this issue multilaterally and what actions 
have you seen as being most effective to challenging PRC 
narratives? Thank you.
    Chair Smith. Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. And 
thank you for those excellent questions, which I know the panel 
looks forward to answering.
    I would like to welcome, again, an incredibly distinguished 
panel, beginning with the Sikyong of the Central Tibetan 
Administration, Penpa Tsering. He's the leader of Tibet's 
government-in-exile, known as the Central Tibetan 
Administration. He was sworn in as the Sikyong at an official 
ceremony graced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself, on May 
27th, 2021.
    Mr. Tsering's service to the Tibetan cause and people 
includes his election in 1996 to the Tibetan parliament-in-
exile, employing his knowledge of economics, and he also served 
in the parliament's budget estimate committee multiple times. 
In 2001, he was reelected as a member of the Tibetan 
Parliament, during which time he took the role of executive 
director of the Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research 
Center, a research agency based in New Delhi. As executive 
director, his outreach efforts directed toward Indian political 
leaders led to the successful revival of the All-Party Indian 
Parliamentary Forum for Tibet.
    In 2008, after his reelection to a third term as a member 
of the Tibetan parliament, he was elected as a speaker of the 
14th Tibetan parliament-in-exile, and in 2011 he was again 
elected as speaker. He is a tremendous diplomat. Many of us who 
have met him are very much impressed with his skills, his 
diplomacy, and his compassion. And he will be coming to us 
remotely from India and will be our first witness.
    Our next witness, no stranger to the Congress--House and 
Senate--and to this Commission, a true champion of human rights 
and democracy, and for the people of Tibet, is Richard Gere. He 
is chairman of the board of directors for the International 
Campaign for Tibet. He's a very successful actor. And I've 
seen, and my wife, most of his movies. We love them. ``First 
Knight'' was my favorite, but there are many other good ones in 
there. [Laughter.] He's an amazing humanitarian, as I said, and 
a man of tremendous compassion.
    For more than 30 years, he has worked not only to draw 
attention to the situation in Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai 
Lama, but also to provide practical resolutions and solutions 
to the humanitarian crisis that is rooted in injustice, 
inequality, and intolerance. He also campaigned for awareness 
and education in HIV/AIDS-
affected communities. He has helped to build the first female 
dormitory in India for HIV-positive women, their children, and 
HIV-positive orphans. In 1991, he founded the Gere Foundation, 
a private foundation focused on advocacy, education, human 
rights, and cultural preservation.
    Richard has also used his popularity and his very 
articulate voice to amplify the nonviolent struggle for Tibet, 
which he brings to us again today. He's co-founder and chairman 
of Tibet House in the U.S. since 1987. He joined the 
International Campaign for Tibet's board of directors, where he 
has served as chairman since 1995. So I just want to thank him 
for that tenacious and longstanding leadership. It has made a 
difference. [Applause.]
    Our next witness will be Lhadon Tethong, who is co-founder 
and director of the Tibet Action Institute, where she leads a 
team of technologists and rights advocates developing open-
source technologies, strategies, and training programs for 
Tibetans and others living under extreme repression. Formerly 
the executive director of Students for a Free Tibet 
International, she led the campaign against the 2008 Beijing 
Olympics.
    I'd note parenthetically that Frank Wolf and I tried very 
hard to get the IOC first not to award it, and then we went a 
couple weeks before and told everyone, including our own 
embassy, what a farce it was for all of these politicians to be 
flocking to that 2008 Olympics. And I would say ditto for the 
one that just occurred. You don't become complicit in an IOC 
event when a genocide is occurring in real time. Now we've had 
another Olympics occurring during a genocide.
    Ms. Tethong has testified before this Commission in the 
past. She has received a number of awards, including the James 
Lawson Award for nonviolent achievement from the International 
Center on Nonviolent Conflict in 2011, and accepted the 
Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy on 
behalf of the Tibet Action Institute in 2018.
    Tenzin Dorjee is a senior researcher and strategist at the 
Tibet Action Institute and is a doctoral candidate at Columbia 
University's Department of Political Science, focusing on the 
efficacy of nonviolent resistance strategies and the influence 
of religion. He has held leadership and programmatic roles at a 
number of organizations, including the National Endowment for 
Democracy and Students for a Free Tibet. Tendor, as he's known 
to many of us, is the author of The Tibetan Nonviolent 
Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis. His writings 
have appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, the 
Journal of Democracy, National Interest, Tibetan Review, and 
the Oxford Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. He also 
testified before our Commission just a couple of years ago.
    So I would like to now ask if we could hear from Penpa 
Tsering for such time as he may consume. [Applause.]

              STATEMENT OF PENPA TSERING, SIKYONG,
                 CENTRAL TIBETAN ADMINISTRATION

    Sikyong Penpa Tsering. Thank you. Thank you very much, 
Chairman Smith, Chairman Merkley, members, other distinguished 
guests. Thank you very much for inviting me for this hearing. 
And I'm very much encouraged by the presence of Special 
Coordinator for Tibet Under Secretary Uzra Zeya, who has been 
very diligently and wholeheartedly fulfilling her 
responsibilities as special coordinator for Tibet.
    And I'm also very happy to be present here alongside a 
person who continues to play a very significant role in keeping 
the hopes of the Tibetan people alive, and someone whom I hold 
very dear, Mr. Richard Gere, chairman of the International 
Campaign for Tibet. You have also invited two prominent 
Tibetans, Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin Dorjee of the Tibet Action 
Institute. As you mentioned before, both are very competent in 
their leadership and they're now known for their research on 
challenges confronting Tibetans inside Tibet, including the 
colonial-style boarding schools. With them speaking in detail 
on some of the specific issues, I request that the chairs 
consider my written submission as part of the testimony, which 
covers almost all the events over the last year.
    And as the democratically elected leader of the Tibetan 
people, the Central Tibetan Administration, of which I am the 
Sikyong, is fully committed to following the Middle Way Policy, 
the way forward shown by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 
adopted by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile. This policy is 
aimed at finding a nonviolent, mutually beneficial, negotiated, 
and lasting solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict that can set an 
example to this violence-ridden world. Resolution to the Sino-
Tibet conflict can have profound geopolitical implications for 
a more peaceful and secure region and world.
    The absence of traction on dialogue since 2010 sounds 
ominous, but we remain positive about finding a peaceful 
solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict that avoids extreme 
polarities. The sincerity of the People's Republic of China's 
leadership manifests in the policies and programs being 
implemented in Tibet as we speak. In the last few years, 
evidence has been emerging from Tibet in the form of reports by 
the U.N., the independent institutes, and scholarly research. 
The Chinese government's one nation, one language, one culture, 
and one religion policy is aimed at forced assimilation and the 
erasure of Tibetan national identity and other minority 
nationalities.
    Unsurprisingly, the international watchdog Freedom House 
lists Tibet as one of the least free countries in the world, 
alongside Syria and South Sudan. We often get asked why we 
don't hear about Tibet anymore--the PRC's Orwellian gridlock 
system, the use of all means of artificial intelligence, as the 
chairs mentioned, to surveil people, to control the flow of 
information, and the lockdown of Tibet to the outside world; 
even those in leadership roles in education, religion, culture, 
and environment are being arbitrarily arrested or they just 
disappear.
    One's actions are linked to the welfare of one's near and 
dear ones. One hundred fifty-seven Tibetans are known to have 
self-
immolated since 2009, hoping against hope that the PRC 
government would pay some attention to their plight, and hoping 
against hope that the international community would come to 
their rescue, but to no avail. The Chinese government focuses 
too much on development and fails to understand the real 
aspirations of the Tibetan people. Tibetan language, religion, 
and culture are the bedrock of Tibetan identity. Compassion and 
nonviolence, which form the foundation of our culture, will 
undoubtedly promote peace and harmony in the world.
    However, Tibetan identity is facing unprecedented threat of 
eradication. The atheist Chinese government is trying to fully 
control the process and authority of recognizing the 
reincarnation of trulkus, or living Buddhas, as they are known, 
that is unique to Tibetan Buddhism, along with interference in 
the study of Buddhist philosophy and control over their 
movement. To speed up assimilation, large-scale forced 
relocation of Tibetans from their traditional homeland to 
Chinese territories--and within Tibet--and the mass transfer of 
Tibetan youth to China, all these Tibetans are being moved to 
areas that are not of their traditional culture.
    As part of the fifty-year Western Development Program, 
started at the beginning of this millennium, unscrupulous use 
of natural resources and reckless construction of dams, 
railways, and road networks, airports, and other infrastructure 
in Tibet threaten irreversible damage to Tibet's fragile 
environment. Tibet is known as Asia's Water Tower and the Third 
Pole because of the amount of glaciers and permafrost that 
feeds all the major rivers of Asia. Therefore, it concerns not 
only Tibet and the Tibetan people but has serious implications 
for the food, economic, and water security of a population of 
about 2 billion people downstream. If the PRC is not made to 
reverse or change its current policies, Tibet and Tibetans will 
definitely die a slow death.
    Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission, I would like to 
express appreciation for your organizing this very important 
hearing. These hearings are a boost to the indomitable spirit 
of the Tibetans inside Tibet and source of inspiration for the 
Tibetans in exile to continue with our just struggle. I wish to 
reiterate our gratitude to the U.S. Congress for making 
necessary changes to the Tibet Policy Act. The continuous 
support from Congress, the government, and the people of the 
United States will enable the resolution of the Sino-Tibet 
conflict through the Middle Way Policy, which will bring peace 
to Tibet and beyond. I fervently hope that the Promoting a 
Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, introduced in both 
houses of the U.S. Congress, will be made into law. Thank you 
very much for this opportunity again. [Applause.]
    Chair Smith. I want to thank the Sikyong for his very 
powerful testimony. And the reason we've called this hearing is 
to begin to act as a pivot. Yes, there's focus on Hong Kong. 
There's focus on Taiwan. There's focus on what's happening to 
the Uyghurs and the genocide against the Muslims living there. 
But we cannot take our eyes off the ongoing genocide being 
committed against the Tibetan people. And the Promoting a 
Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, authored by my good 
friend to my left and by the ranking member, the former 
chairman of the Commission, who couldn't make it here today--he 
had other important things to be at--that becomes the pivot. 
That we reengage. So this testimony and this hearing and, 
again, that legislation, is critical to engaging as never 
before on Tibet.
    So I want to yield such time as he may consume to Richard 
Gere.

                   STATEMENT OF RICHARD GERE,
                INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET

    Mr. Gere. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'm very moved by 
what I'm hearing here today. I'm always incredibly moved at 
these hearings because it's--Congressman Nunn, we haven't met 
before, but I'm astonished by the power and the profundity and 
intelligence of your discussion with us today and your 
experience. So thank you for being part of this. Thank you, 
Chairman Smith, as always. Senator Merkley, thank you so much 
for your continued support for these important things. 
Representative Steel, who spoke, thank you very much. And Under 
Secretary Uzra Zeya, thank you so much for speaking here today.
    I'm here--my motivation is clear--for the Tibetan people, 
the Tibetan brothers and sisters that I've known for 45 years. 
It was 45 years ago that I wandered into a refugee camp in 
Nepal and was astonished by these extraordinary people. And the 
little that I've been able to help them in the meantime I think 
has only to a very small degree repaid what they have given me 
over the last 45 years. So I'd like to acknowledge our Tibetan 
brothers and sisters in the room right now. Thank you so much. 
[Applause.]
    And this Tibetan community has been extraordinarily 
successful; I've seen them all over the world. Obviously in 
India, Nepal, Bhutan, other places in Asia, but also in Europe 
and in the U.S. And this wonderful, vibrant Tibetan community 
in the U.S., many of them citizens, is an extraordinary 
addition to the American dream and experiment. And I think as 
we've seen, the contribution they've given us is something 
unique. The commitment to nonviolence, the commitment to wisdom 
and compassion, is something that we sorely need.
    Chairman Smith, I'd just like to acknowledge, ``First 
Knight,'' a movie that I made which you referenced, when I had 
very long black hair. [Laughter.] And I'm going to go back and 
look at that again myself to remember who I was. [Laughter.]
    For decades, as we know, the Chinese Communist Party's 
ethnic policies have been largely predicated on containment, 
denial, destruction, and assimilation. Repression has been most 
severe in Tibet, and in East Turkestan with our Uyghur friends 
it should be noted as well, where the CCP policies have 
included the separation of families, the prohibition of 
language, the destruction of religious sites and institutions, 
the collection of DNA, and a pervasive surveillance system to 
which the denial of information of movement is implemented. I 
think we well know now that the surveillance budget in China 
exceeds their military budget.
    I obviously do not have to explain this threat to the 
Tibetan people's very existence to this Commission, who likely 
know decades of atrocities behind the CCP's ethnic policies 
better than I do and have spoken so eloquently about them 
today. Thank you. But briefly, in service of Beijing's 
longstanding agenda to sinicize Tibet and ``manage'' individual 
nationalities, the Chinese Communist Party's policies have been 
characterized by cruelty, collective violence, and extreme 
persecution.
    The saddest truth is that the CCP's process of assimilation 
and erasure is all too often concealed by Beijing's intricate 
and powerful propaganda machine. Within China's digital prison, 
just like all authoritarian regimes, the Chinese government 
targets the very core attributes that define the continuity of 
a people, specifically the family unit, religious expression, 
cultural tradition, language, and environment--land. Literally, 
this was a land grab, a land steal by the Chinese side.
    Identifiable mechanisms, like arbitrary detention, forcible 
transfer, rape, torture, and disappearance are all tools that 
have been well documented throughout the course of Beijing's 
assimilation practices. Xi Jinping's recent appointment of Pan 
Yue to the Central Committee is likely an indication of this 
aggressive assimilationism that will not only continue but 
surely intensify. And if the Beijing chairman's recent visit to 
Moscow is any indicator of a new era, every one of China's 55 
ethnic groups--including Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians--are 
right to be extremely afraid.
    It does not have to be this way. As you know, the Dalai 
Lama has offered countless ways over many, many decades, since 
the 1950s, a pathway to resolution built on a dialogue process 
meant to identify a peaceful and stable resolution in Tibet 
which grants Tibetans meaningful autonomy within the framework 
of the Chinese constitution. And just as a sidebar, when the 
talks broke down between the Chinese and the Tibetans--I think 
it was about 13 years ago--it was because the Tibetan side 
brought to the discussion the Chinese constitution, and their 
suggestions for compromise were based on the Chinese 
constitution itself. The Chinese walked out and refused to 
resume discussion. So it's clear where they were coming from.
    It's obvious why a mutual agreement is crucial to Tibet's 
survival and the avoiding of the eradication of the Tibetan 
people, though it might be much less clear to Beijing how this 
benefits them. There are three key elements of benefit to them. 
First, it lends Beijing the legitimacy that it so desperately 
seeks in Tibet, and which it's never had. Second, it enables 
Beijing to reset the relationship with India. And third, if 
successfully implemented, a reciprocal agreement in Tibet 
removes or perhaps lessens the international stigma associated 
with Beijing's abysmal human rights record. Ranging from acts 
of genocide, like those determined by the International 
Committee of Jurists in 1960 to present-day criticism of 
Beijing's longstanding brutality in Tibet and East Turkestan, 
which has only intensified after the 2008 Tibetan uprising, 
which has been followed by years of self-immolation sacrifices 
from the Tibetan people in protest of the Chinese government's 
violent rule.
    I would like to ask the Commission to remember Tsewang 
Norbu, a very popular Tibetan singer, who self-immolated last 
year in Lhasa. Demonstrating a peaceful agreement in Tibet, 
which includes the rights of the child, the right to mother 
tongue, freedom of movement and religious practice, would be a 
powerful step up for Beijing, sending the entire world the 
right signal that the Chinese government is genuinely capable 
of addressing discord through dialogue, with reason and a 
peaceable human value, rather than the demonstration of brute 
force and denial.
    Two steps must be taken to help this happen. First, we must 
be clear about the history of the People's Republic of China in 
Tibet that brought us to this point. Second, the United States, 
allies, and the international community must speak with a 
unified voice. For me, this is the most important thing. The 
U.S. Congress and the U.S. people have done extraordinary 
things. But we can only do so much alone. We have to engage our 
European likeminded partners in a unified voice against this 
Chinese oppression.
    For the record, the Chinese Communist Party invaded Tibet 
without any provocation whatsoever, and actually at the 
suggestion of Stalin at the time, in 1949-1950. The CCP 
consolidated control over the Tibetan minority nationality, 
which obviously was not a minority of Tibetans. It was all 
Tibetans. The Chinese had been thrown out of Tibet at that 
point. The CCP violated human rights standards and contravened 
its own policy promises to respect Tibetan institutions, 
Tibet's religion, and the Tibetan peoples' right to self-
determination.
    Open uprising in 1959--March 10th, 1959--and the Dalai 
Lama's harrowing escape to India, where he and many additional 
Tibetans sought refuge, and thanks to the generosity of India 
remain harbored, where the Tibetan community has become a 
vibrant and beloved thread in India's pluralistic democracy. 
During the next two decades, the denial and destruction of 
Tibetan culture, religion, and language, arbitrary detention 
and torture is estimated by the Tibetan government-in-exile to 
have resulted in the deaths of 1.2 million Tibetans, one-fifth 
of the country's population.
    Many more Tibetans languished in prisons and labor camps. 
Many of them I knew personally. In fact, there was an extra-
ordinary Lama, Ribur Rinpoche, who lived with me for the last 
several years of his life, who had spent 20 years in solitary 
confinement. Many more Tibetans languished in these prisons. 
The stories go on and on. Historic buildings were destroyed, 
monastic temples, 6,000 monasteries destroyed. Literally 
thousands of ancient Buddhist texts, critical to the legacy of 
Tibetan Buddhism and the broader Buddhist community, were 
burned, looted, or lost in the zealotry of the Cultural 
Revolution.
    Tibetans were collectivized, leading to unprecedented 
famine--which was really unheard of before--in the PRC. (This 
also happened to Chinese people themselves, it should be 
noted.) The PRC sought to thoroughly erase identity or any 
resistance. Other than specific methodologies--first honed in 
Tibet, now refined and in well-documented practice against the 
Uyghurs in East Turkestan--not much has changed. But the 
pattern, however, gives reason for grave concern that it 
increasingly expands to match the definition of crimes against 
humanity. Crimes against humanity.
    Despite being bound by the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights--which they are signatories to--the ICCPR, the Child 
Rights Convention, and others, Beijing has never demonstrated 
the standards defined within them in any concrete terms, which 
makes a mockery of its very vocal claim that China is committed 
to human rights and the rule of law. Beijing's assault on 
Tibetan Buddhism has evolved since its invasion of Tibet and in 
recent years, exponentially so under Chairman Xi's rule. CCP 
policy has transitioned from total destruction of Tibetan 
religious institutions, gatherings, and practices to one of 
control, including eliminating core attributes of Tibetan 
Buddhism while co-opting Tibetan Buddhists' right to determine 
their own leaders.
    Tibetans who peacefully oppose this are often detained, 
routinely tortured, permanently injured, or even killed for the 
peaceful practice of their religion. Reinforcing that point, 
the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights 
expressed concern about ``reports of systematic and massive 
destruction of religious sites such as mosques, monasteries, 
shrines, and cemeteries, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur 
Autonomous Region and in the so-called Tibet Autonomous 
Region.''
    However, we must draw a line when the Chinese state will 
require that Tibetan Buddhist monks receive Communist state 
approval before reincarnating--a demand that's so grossly 
antithetical to Tibetan Buddhist precepts that it cannot be 
justified by flimsy or falsified historical claims of a 
Communist government professing to be atheist. It's clearly 
ridiculous. The most visible demonstration of Beijing's 
aggressive assertion of authority over selecting the next, 
15th, Dalai Lama must be opposed.
    And we must note as a cautionary tale the first aggression 
by Beijing during the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama, 
literally kidnapping the child that had been identified by the 
Panchen Lama when he was six years old, and then propping up a 
state-sponsored impostor into the Tibetan reincarnation's empty 
seat. I remember this moment quite well. I think I was in 
Dharamshala when this happened. And there was a photograph of 
this boy, the last photograph that was taken, that's been 
circulating ever since. The child has not been seen. We don't 
know if he's alive. His parents, his whole entire family was 
also kidnapped. They have not been seen since.
    As we've learned from the Tibet Action Institute's recent 
and very valuable research, up to one million Tibetan children 
are currently and systematically being alienated from Tibetan 
language and culture in compulsory boarding schools. The 
Chinese government's educational policies separate children 
from their families, forcibly transferring the children into 
schools far from their parents. Children are taught in 
Mandarin, as the CCP is keenly aware that mother tongue is a 
primary mode of cultural transmission, one of the most 
fundamental components of the continuity of a people's identity 
from one generation to the next, affecting everything from 
access to the arts, literature, song, and religious texts.
    They also know that it's one of the last impasses for their 
control of Tibet and of the Tibetan people. Uprooting native 
language is particularly egregious in the case of Tibetan 
culture, considering the role that memorization and recitation 
play in the rigorous monastic education system of Tibet. And if 
the CCP's program to sever the transmission of Tibetan language 
and culture to Tibetan youth proves successful, it will 
significantly advance the PRC's agenda to contain and 
assimilate the entire people.
    In its concluding observations on the recent third periodic 
report on China, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and 
Cultural rights expressed concern about reports ``of the large-
scale campaign to eradicate Tibetan culture and language, as 
well as the general undermining of the linguistic identity of 
ethnic minorities by the assimilation policy of the state 
party, including the coercive residential boarding school 
system imposed on Tibetan children.'' Lhadon's going to be 
speaking much more about this. I'm sure you'll hear more 
details about that.
    As we argue the risks to freedom associated with apps like 
TikTok, the CCP's vicious aim at the future of Tibetan children 
should send the world a distress signal of the systematic and 
often secret ruthlessness under which Beijing operates.
    I hope the Commission will also note the forcible 
population transfer of nomads in Tibet. Having thrived for 
millennia herding and cultivating the vast and incredibly 
valuable and sensitive Tibetan Plateau and being acclimated to 
Tibet's unique climate, nomads are proven stewards of the land. 
Really, no one knows that better than the Tibetans, and 
especially these nomads. The Chinese have no experience there.
    Their culture is deeply tied to the environment's demands 
through a profound belief system that honors landscapes and all 
living beings. However, the Chinese government is 
systematically expelling nomads from ancestral lands through 
forced migration, and transfers them into concentrated 
sedentary dwellings. Dispossessed of their way of life and 
ability to make a living, the result is tantamount to the 
ghettoization of Tibet.
    According to Chinese state media, at least 1.8 million 
nomads have been transferred into these sedentary houses under 
government policies. This estimate is likely extremely 
conservative. In 2013, Human Rights Watch reported that over 
two million Tibetans--two thirds of the entire population of 
the TAR--had been ``rehoused,'' with hundreds of thousands of 
nomadic herders forced into ``New Socialist Villages.'' 
Tibetans are not compensated or guaranteed income or employment 
when resettled. To the contrary, they're often coerced or 
forced into work programs that a U.N. special rapporteur 
reported may ``amount to contemporary forms of slavery 
including excessive surveillance, abusive living and working 
conditions, restriction of movement through internment, 
threats, physical and/or sexual violence, and other inhuman or 
degrading treatment. Some instances may amount to enslavement 
as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent 
analysis.''
    CCP surveillance in Tibet is pervasive at all levels of 
society. Beijing's matrix of technology, which is heavily 
invested in and finely tuned, monitors the movements, phone 
calls, and internet habits of every citizen. The most minor 
offenses can lead to imprisonment, torture, and even death. 
Information control, internet blackouts, and invasive digital 
surveillance feed a massive state of control in Tibet. We've 
recently witnessed the emergence of CCP police departments in 
the shadows of democratic cities throughout the world. It's 
astonishing. We know the surveillance extends far beyond 
Tibet's borders.
    Within China, Chinese tech firms have developed software to 
detect and track Tibetans and other ``ethnic minorities'' 
within the PRC. A report published by Citizen Lab finds that 
China's policy in the Tibet Autonomous Region has gathered 
between 920,000 and 1.2 million DNA samples in the Tibet 
Autonomous Region over the past six years. These figures 
represent a quarter to a third of the total population of the 
TAR. Human Rights Watch also details Chinese authorities 
systematically collecting DNA from residents of the TAR, 
including blood from children as young as five years old 
without parental consent. Can you imagine this with your own 
children, with our own children, our grandchildren? 
Unthinkable.
    This reminds us of East German Stasi methods, which 
horrified us all. Families were encouraged to spy and report on 
each other, often through coercion or financial incentives. I 
hope the Commission will note the dangerous pattern of death 
due to torture that has been observed, including the recent 
deaths of 19-year-old monk Tenzin Nyima and 51-year-old tour 
guide Kunchok Jinpa. In both cases, as with many others, an 
investigation into these deaths in custody and the prosecution 
of those responsible for those deaths, were never undertaken by 
the Chinese authorities.
    I would also like to note for the record Jigme Gyatso, a 
monk at Labrang monastery who recorded and released a video 
detailing his torture at the hands of Chinese police. He was 
sentenced to five years in prison for that video and was 
released in extremely poor condition. And as a result of his 
``crime,'' Jigme was blacklisted from receiving private medical 
care until his death last summer.
    The appropriation of land often coincides with the 
persecution of a people. The Chinese annexation of Tibet, the 
land grab, and Beijing's plunder of Tibet's abundant natural 
resources have significant regional security implications as 
well. One of the most illustrative examples is water. China is 
water-poor. In contrast, the Tibetan Plateau is the source of 
the entire region's major rivers that at least 1.5 billion 
people rely on for food and economic development. The PRC has 
erected numerous massive damming projects and continues with 
extensive plans for water diversion. China's occupation of 
Tibet provides necessary resources to China, while allowing 
Beijing to control the tap for South and Southeast Asia. This 
is a very, very important factor. This is security for the 
entire world we're playing with here.
    Precious metals and minerals serve as another example. 
Tibet's occupation provides access to 126 different minerals, 
including copper, iron, uranium, zinc, gold, and lead. Tibet 
also has large amounts of lithium that's critical to powering 
modern technologies like cellphones and hybrid and electric 
cars. Tibet's location and scale also provide a commanding 
position for the entire Himalayan region, a fact certainly not 
lost on the Communist Party. We've witnessed deadly skirmishes 
between the Chinese and the Indians in Arunachal Pradesh, where 
the People's Liberation Army encroaches on Indian borders and 
continues to antagonize stability in the region.
    Resource exploitation and environmental appropriation of 
the plateau overlay a thick blanket of repression over Tibetans 
who call it home. Voicing or communicating concern over these 
policies puts Tibetan lives at risk of detainment, 
disappearance, and worse. And so fear permeates the plateau, 
leaving Tibetans silenced. This is how Tibetan people survive 
in occupied Tibet, in fear and silence. According to 
international law, people deserve the right to determine their 
own future. The Tibetan people's call for dialogue with the 
People's Republic of China is an urgent cry for self-
determination, to protect Tibet's unique culture, religion, and 
linguistic and environmental heritage.
    This cry has been going on now for decades. While self-
determination does not carry a single definition, the Tibetan 
people have proposed a way forward toward self-determination 
and meaningful autonomy within the framework of the Chinese 
constitution in a reciprocal proposal of compromise based on 
protecting the core interests of both Tibet and China. His 
Holiness the Dalai Lama has presented multiple documents over 
these many decades that provide a concrete framework for 
negotiation. Yet in contrast, Beijing refuses to return to the 
table.
    Thirteen years have passed since the last Sino-Tibetan 
dialogue. Although the U.S. routinely calls for the resumption 
of dialogue--in fact it's the law of the land now--the Tibet 
Policy Act of 2002 requires a resumption of dialogue--and has 
made multiple laws stating support for dialogue, the CCP 
ignores it and ignores any likeminded nations calling for that 
same dialogue. Such a strategy must be called out. China must 
return to the negotiating table at the highest level 
immediately.
    And these are the policy recommendations going forward: 
Pass H.R. 533/S. 138, which has been discussed. A very, very 
important piece of legislation. And work with the 
administration to clarify U.S. support for the Tibetan people 
and negotiations with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan 
leadership. This is essential--completely essential--to long-
term support for the Tibetans' call for self-determination.
    Number two, the implementation of the Tibetan Policy and 
Support Act and the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act. These were 
really important things that Congress passed over the last 
years in both houses. And we have to make sure that they are 
implemented--and follow through--all of us. Go to the State 
Department and say: What have you done? We need the report. By 
law, this is something you have to do. They need that 
encouragement.
    Follow the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural 
Rights in its concluding observations. They call on Chinese 
authorities to immediately abolish the colonial boarding school 
system imposed on Tibetan children, allow private Tibetan 
schools to be established, and ensure that Tibetan is the 
language of instruction in Tibet. Also, utilize the U.S. vote 
in the U.N. and optimize like-minded countries to press Central 
Committee members to halt the expulsion of nomadic herders, 
rural residents, and small-scale farmers from ancestral lands. 
Also publish a comprehensive report on the CCP's propaganda 
efforts in China and in international forums to manipulate 
global perceptions of Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, and His Holiness 
the Dalai Lama.
    The Chinese version of history is a complete fantasy. And 
the decades of that fantasy are not going to change the reality 
of the truth. It's very important for us, as free-speaking 
peoples, to tell the truth about the history. And the history 
is clear for anyone to see. Monitor the CCP's digital 
transnational oppression, international police presence, and 
evaluate the rights violations both in China and in other 
countries. And, finally, implement concrete restrictions for 
technology transfer and U.S. company support for forced or 
coerced DNA and medical data collection.
    I really want to thank the Commission and everyone here for 
listening to this very long testimony. [Laughter, applause.] 
Everyone here knows this already, but maybe someone else 
listening to this hearing or reading it will hear it for the 
first time. It's an overview that I think my partners to my 
left are going into in more detail. So thank you all very much.
    Chair Smith. Thank you so much. Mr. Gere, thank you for 
that tremendous testimony. [Applause.] It is comprehensive, 
informative, motivating, and it gives us so much to act upon. 
And the historical perspective as well is just extraordinary. 
Thank you so very much.
    Ms. Tethong.

                  STATEMENT OF LHADON TETHONG,
                DIRECTOR, TIBET ACTION INSTITUTE

    Ms. Tethong. Chair Smith, Co-chair Merkley, and other 
distinguished members of the Commission, thank you for your 
steadfast and groundbreaking leadership on the Tibetan issue. 
Thank you for this honor to be able to speak here today.
    I just want to start by making it clear that I am speaking 
of Tibet as Tibetans know it, the entire Tibetan Plateau--
900,000 square miles, made up of three historical provinces of 
U-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo, and with a total Tibetan population of 
what is today around 7 million Tibetans. China misleadingly 
claims that there are only 3.2 million Tibetans in Tibet 
because they count only the Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous 
Region. That is central and western Tibet, mostly. They've 
taken all of eastern Tibet, and they've carved up and sub-
fragmented Tibetans and the lands they live on into four 
Chinese provinces and 12 autonomous prefectures and counties. 
And in this way they distort and confuse people about what the 
true picture inside of Tibet is.
    For 70 years, generation after generation of Chinese 
leaders have tried to break the faith and loyalty of the 
fiercely independent Tibetan people to His Holiness the 14th 
Dalai Lama, to Buddhism, and to a distinct Tibetan identity 
that existed for well over a thousand years before the People's 
Republic of China was even founded. But after using countless 
strategies, resources, and unimaginable violence, Xi Jinping 
now believes the best way for China to conquer Tibet is to kill 
the Tibetan in the child. He's doing this by taking nearly all 
Tibetan children away from their families and from the people 
who will surely transmit this identity to them. Not just their 
parents, but their spiritual leaders and their teachers. And 
he's handing them over to agents of the Chinese state to raise 
them to speak a new language, practice a new culture and 
religion--that of the Chinese Communist Party.
    A little over a year ago, Tibet Action released a report 
showing that at least 800,000 Tibetan children are now living 
in a massive network of boarding primary, middle and secondary 
schools across all of historical Tibet. This shockingly high 
number means that at least three out of every four Tibetan 
children in all of historical Tibet, from ages six to eighteen, 
are now separated from their families and living in a state-run 
colonial boarding school system where the medium of instruction 
and the entire curriculum is focused on fostering loyalty to 
China. Tibetan is taught as a single language class, if at all, 
and Tibetan culture is most often reduced to nothing more than 
dance, song, and tokenized wearing of traditional Tibetan 
clothing. The practice of Tibetan Buddhism is, of course, 
strictly prohibited.
    China doesn't hide the fact that these schools exist. 
There's plenty of online propaganda claiming the students in 
the boarding schools are happy and receiving a modern 
education. This propaganda nearly always features, very 
prominently, that single Tibetan language class. But what it 
hides, and what is not included in our report, is the existence 
of boarding preschools. Though we were hearing reports from 
Tibet that parents were being forced to send children as young 
as four and five away, we could not find any details on where 
they were being sent or what schooling they were receiving. It 
was only on the eve of actually releasing our report that we 
met an expert eyewitness who'd recently fled Tibet and who 
confirmed the existence of the mandatory boarding preschools 
for children living in rural areas of Tibet.
    Dr. Gyal Lo, a Tibetan academic who holds a Ph.D. from the 
University of Toronto and has over thirty years of experience 
in the field of education in Tibet and China estimates that an 
additional 100,000 to 150,000 Tibetan children, at least, ages 
four to six years old, now live in these boarding schools. He's 
visited more than 50 himself. He's seen that the children are 
required to live there Monday to Friday, where they're immersed 
in a completely Chinese learning environment, including 
participating in war reenactments where they're dressed in PLA 
uniforms or Red Army suits. One Tibetan teacher describes the 
situation in her area like this: ``Usually there are very few 
Tibetan teachers; the majority are Chinese. So teachers only 
speak in Mandarin and conduct all school curriculum in 
Mandarin, including nursery rhymes and bedtime stories.'' When 
the children join primary school, hardly any of them can speak 
Tibetan.
    Dr. Gyal Lo witnessed the impact of these preschools in his 
own family when, after just three months of being in one, 
children in his family who'd grown up in an entirely Tibetan-
speaking household preferred to speak in Chinese. He saw them 
growing emotionally distant from their parents and grandparents 
and acting like, as he says, guests or strangers in their own 
home. Imagine your loved ones at this age and try to imagine 
the heartbreak that this is causing for these families. I have 
a six-year-old, and three-year-old twins, so I am right now 
fully immersed in this period of childhood development. Kids at 
this stage need the care of their parents and their families to 
help them eat, bathe, get dressed, and maybe even more 
importantly, to scare away the monsters at night, to comfort 
them when they're sick or hurt, and to reassure them that 
everything is going to be okay.
    Tibetan parents don't want to send their kids away, and 
most wouldn't if they had a choice. Some parents refuse, and 
many more want to, but China's repression makes the price of 
resistance extremely high. In order to avoid sending kids away, 
some families split up, sending one parent to live with the 
child in an urban area where they can attend a day school and 
other parents report sleeping in cars near the boarding 
preschools just so that they can be close to the kids at all 
times. And, of course, the children are suffering too. Research 
by scholars in China and Tibet clearly shows that the removal 
of Tibetan children from their homes, as well as the highly 
regimented and isolating boarding school life, is traumatizing 
Tibetan children. Firsthand accounts of Tibetans who attended 
boarding schools in Tibet show that pervasive racism and 
discrimination will inevitably lead them to develop feelings of 
shame and ethnic inferiority.
    These impacts in Tibet sound hauntingly similar to the 
residential boarding school systems used to eliminate 
Indigenous identities in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and 
beyond. This is because Chinese leaders are pursuing the same 
strategy for the same reasons in Tibet, East Turkistan, and 
Southern Mongolia, to quell resistance and to consolidate 
China's rule over foreign lands and peoples. And while Chinese 
officials argue that the schools in Tibet are fundamentally 
different from boarding schools of the colonial era--in part 
because students get to attend schools with modern facilities--
they miss the point entirely that what matters is what Tibetans 
want for their children. And Dr. Gyal Lo likes to simplify this 
issue in another way, by saying, ``It is not about how good the 
school facilities are, but what is happening inside. The 
fundamental question is: Who is teaching what to whom?''
    And in Tibet, the answer is clear. The Chinese state is 
removing Tibetan children from their homes by force or coercion 
and placing them in schools where they have to speak Chinese, 
conform to Chinese culture and tradition, while stripping them 
of their own identity, including their religion and their 
mother tongue. If this is not colonial education, I don't know 
what is. And when viewed together with the all-out attack on 
Buddhism and the nomadic way of life, we can see China intends 
to destroy everything that makes Tibetans Tibetan. And calling 
it ``ethnic unity'' or ``ethnic fusion'' or assimilation or 
sinicization doesn't make it different, or any less colonial, 
than what was done by Canada, the U.S., and Australia to the 
First Nations, Indigenous, and Aboriginal people.
    And what it is is crystal clear to Tibetans. Just as it's 
clear to Uyghurs and Southern Mongolians--China's committing 
genocide in Tibet. And at a time when our nations are finally 
reckoning with these atrocities, that Xi Jinping is pursuing a 
strategy targeting children for the elimination of language and 
culture--a colonial strategy now reviled and condemned around 
the world--should be, along with the Uyghur genocide, a massive 
red flag for the international community of the true nature and 
intention of the Chinese Communist Party. But this doesn't have 
to be the end of the story. Tibetans inside Tibet have not 
stopped fighting. We hear the stories of their resistance every 
single day. And our Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hong Kong, and 
Chinese activist brothers and sisters are fighting, too. Now is 
the critical time for the world to step up and help.
    I'll end there and address my recommendations in the Q&A.
    Chair Smith. Thank you. [Applause.]
    Thank you for those very powerful insights and the warnings 
as to what Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party is doing 
to the children. I look forward to posing some questions to 
delve even further into that. Thank you so very much.
    I'd like to now recognize Mr. Dorjee.

 STATEMENT OF TENZIN DORJEE, SENIOR RESEARCHER AND STRATEGIST, 
                     TIBET ACTION INSTITUTE

    Mr. Dorjee. Thank you so much, Chairman Smith. Thank you, 
Co-chair Merkley, and I want to thank all the CECC staff for 
organizing this important hearing on Tibet. It's a great honor 
to speak here next to my colleagues, and especially speaking 
alongside the democratically elected prime minister of Tibet in 
exile, Sikyong Penpa Tsering. It's also very inspiring to be 
here in this room today with some of the most active members of 
the Tibetan movement, who are right here in this room, 
especially one of the most inspiring heroes of the Tibetan 
movement, former political prisoner Ngawang Sangdrol. I just 
saw her sitting over there. [Applause.] Ngawang Sangdrol 
started fighting for Tibet when she was 12 or 13 years old and 
went to Chinese prison for simply participating in a nonviolent 
protest. Today she's still out here fighting for the same 
cause.
    Oppression produces exile. All oppressed nations have a 
blessing called diaspora, where stateless exiles are able to 
enjoy freedom of expression, religion, assembly, and 
association that they are denied back home. Once upon a time, 
Tibetans in the diaspora also enjoyed these freedoms. But in 
the last decade, many of these freedoms have succumbed to the 
long arm of the Chinese government. From Nepal and India to 
Sweden and Switzerland, and now even in Canada and the United 
States, formal and informal agents of the Chinese government 
are using some of the oldest tactics of manipulation and some 
of the newest technologies of repression to bully, threaten, 
harass, and intimidate Tibetans into silence.
    To fully grasp why and how China's apparatus of 
transnational repression targets Tibetans, we must understand 
its origins. China has historically viewed the Tibetan diaspora 
as a leading threat to its global reputation. In the nineties, 
the international Tibet movement was quite successful at 
exposing China's human rights violations and generating bad PR 
for the regime. This was undermining Beijing's foreign policy 
objectives. It was during this period that the Chinese 
government launched a new campaign to clean up its global 
image. But instead of improving its human rights record on the 
ground, Beijing decided to go after the Tibet movement abroad.
    China proceeded to develop a sophisticated set of tools, 
tactics, and strategies to silence not only Tibetans but also 
pro-Tibet voices on the international scene. This multiyear 
project to dislodge Tibet from the global agenda and erase it 
from public consciousness targets students, activists, artists, 
academics, former political prisoners, and many elite 
institutions. Some of my own friends and colleagues in Canada 
and the United States have gone through traumatizing 
experiences as a result of being targeted either directly by 
Beijing or by online mobs of Chinese nationalists, who are 
often acting at the behest of the Chinese consulate.
    One strategy that Beijing employs with devastating 
effectiveness is the relationship mapping that links 
individuals in the diaspora to their families in Tibet. This 
mapping of family connections allows Chinese authorities to use 
the fate of relatives back home in Tibet as a pawn to blackmail 
exiled Tibetans into silence. Two years ago, I interviewed a 
Tibetan American in New York who had visited Tibet to see her 
aging parents. She told me how toward the end of her trip, her 
minders from the United Front explicitly told her that her 
political behavior going forward would determine not only her 
future chances of getting a visa, but also the safety and well-
being of her family in Tibet. Her parents are basically the 
hostage, and her silence in exile is the ransom. It's a ransom 
she must pay every day by refraining from actions, online or 
offline, that may be perceived as critical of China.
    Agents of the United Front or the Chinese consulate 
unfailingly communicate this exact message to every Tibetan 
American who visits Tibet or applies for a visa. Most of the 
time they don't get the visa. This transnational family mapping 
is designed to manufacture a sense of guilt--call it advance 
guilt--in the conscience of the exile, making the exile feel 
that her political participation will endanger her family in 
Tibet. The ultimate goal of this coercion by proxy is the 
political deactivation of the exile.
    Another common Chinese strategy is the weaponization of 
funding to depoliticize institutions and demobilize 
communities. This mechanism is visible in the case of 
Baimadajie, the self-identified Tibetan NYPD officer who was 
spying for the Chinese government. Exploiting the power of his 
NYPD uniform, he was trying to manipulate the leaders of the 
New York Tibetan community. This is what he was saying to them. 
He was saying to the Tibetan leaders, ``You guys are paying a 
monthly mortgage of nearly $50,000 for your community center. I 
have some very wealthy Chinese friends who can help subsidize 
your mortgage. But you should stop flying the Tibetan flag at 
your events, and you should ban any discussion of political 
issues at this venue.''
    By dangling the promise of funding before the community 
leaders, Baimadajie was trying to depoliticize and co-opt one 
of the most important Tibetan-owned spaces in the diaspora. 
Beyond targeting Tibetan communities, Beijing has used its 
tight control over access and funding to shape political 
discourse on university campuses, in cultural institutions, 
academic forums, and even to influence the research agenda of 
budding scholars and aspiring Sinologists. Beijing's apologists 
out here happily exploit the openness of our democratic systems 
to defend--ironically--defend the world's largest dictatorship.
    Nevertheless, I believe there are ways to fight this. The 
U.S., and the West in general, has conceded so much ground to 
China in the last three decades and moved the equilibrium so 
far in Beijing's favor. It is time to reset the diplomatic 
baseline and it's time to go back to first principles of the 
historical truth of Tibetan independence and legal right of the 
Tibetan people to self-determination. It is time to liberate 
ourselves from the delusion that sweeping human rights under 
the rug, or throwing Tibetans and Uyghurs to the wolves, would 
somehow make China more likely to cooperate on issues of common 
interest and geopolitical importance.
    The best way to counter China's transnational repression is 
to proactively support the Tibetan, Uyghur, and Hong Kong 
people's transnational, decolonial advocacy for human rights 
and self-determination, and strengthen the Chinese people's 
longstanding struggle for democracy and freedom. Thank you. 
[Applause.]
    Chair Smith. Thank you very, very much, all of you, for 
that tremendous testimony. This has to be a pivot. I think your 
point--you know, we have unfortunately bought into a narrative 
from Xi Jinping and Hu Jintao, and all the others that preceded 
them, that somehow if you go along, you get along, you do more 
trade and things, and matriculate from dictatorship to 
democracy. Nothing like that has happened. So it's time to 
pivot. And certainly Tibet policy is a place that is just 
crying out for a reappraisal and for a new initiative on the 
part of the U.S. Government, which is why S. 138 and H.R. 533 
are so important in that endeavor.
    A couple of questions, then I'll yield to the Co-chair for 
his questions. On the boarding schools, you know, my first 
human rights trip--I've been to China many times on human 
rights trips. I never got into Lhasa. Frank Wolf, my colleague, 
did. I didn't. Couldn't get in. But my first trip was actually 
to Moscow and Leningrad in 1982, on behalf of Soviet Jews. And 
I'll never forget being in what is now St. Petersburg, going to 
a museum on atheism. And I began to learn that the communist 
ideology either destroys or co-opts all faiths, and all 
exercises of conscience. You know, right now Xi Jinping is 
using his sinicization campaign to completely co-opt all faiths 
and all belief systems, or destroy them.
    We went to this museum on atheism. And while we were there, 
they were mocking Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in Kazan 
Cathedral, which had been turned into a museum on atheism. 
While we were there, all these young pioneers, children that 
were 11, 8, 10, were going by with guides pointing to all of 
the faith symbols and mocking them--because we got a 
translation from our people that were taking us through it from 
the embassy--mocking them like I couldn't believe. And all the 
children were laughing. Look at this, look at that, how crazy, 
blah, blah, blah, as they were teaching a militant atheism in 
the schools.
    I'm wondering if you can shed some light on what the 
consequence of these boarding schools is on the hearts and 
minds of these children. How long have those schools been in 
effect? You know, as a tool of repression by the Chinese 
Communist Party? Do they mock the Dalai Lama there? We know 
that on the internet if you put the Dalai Lama into a search 
engine--and I did it, at a Beijing internet cafe--and didn't 
get anything but negatives. Unbelievably harsh negatives. And 
Google was all a part of it. I was on a Google website or 
search engine in Beijing. And that's the garbage that I got 
from the censors from the Chinese Communist Party.
    And I'm wondering, once they get a child with a very 
impressionable, malleable mind, what is the impact when they're 
trashing and mocking the Dalai Lama and Buddhism? Do we know 
how it's affecting the children? Are they turning against--I 
mean, how do they resist? And do they have contact with their 
parents while they're at the boarding school? What is the modus 
operandi there? Do they come home for summer vacation? I use 
that in an American context, but do they get time off to see 
their parents?
    Secondly, on the population transfer issue, which, Mr. 
Gere, you pointed out, I read one of the Dalai Lama's books, 
and I remember he had a whole section about population transfer 
as it was happening. And it's only gotten worse as, obviously, 
indigenous Tibetans are increasingly displaced. They also have 
used the forced abortion, coercive population control program 
very effectively as a tool of genocide. We know that. And I'm 
wondering if you might want to speak to the transfer issue.
    And finally, the whole issue of--and you mentioned it, Mr. 
Dorjee, about the dislodging from the international agenda. You 
know, there are too many people who just care about the trade 
so much and about getting along with the Chinese diplomats who 
are very smooth, except when they are not, in international 
fora. I've seen that at the U.N. I've seen that at the Human 
Rights Council in Geneva. And they're bullies if they don't get 
their way. I went to a press conference that was being held by 
the Chinese delegation at the U.N. Human Rights Council, and I 
asked questions, and they closed down the press conference when 
I got into several human rights issues. And they were all 
miffed. Before that, they were all talking in superlatives 
about how great the Chinese human rights record is, which it is 
not, of course.
    So, again, these pieces of legislation, and the 
prioritization of this by our secretary of state, our 
ambassador to the United Nations and others--we need to do more 
to get Tibet further on the agenda. Yes, we have terrible 
issues with the Uyghurs. We have Hong Kong, Taiwan, all the 
other terrible, terrible issues. But it can't be at the expense 
of Tibet. It's got to be reasserted front and center. Maybe you 
could give us some insight as to how.
    Ms. Tethong. Thank you for those questions. Briefly, 
restricted access--Tibet is so restricted, so severely 
restricted, it is nearly impossible to know the exact situation 
and conditions not just in the schools, but what it is like 
when the kids go home, because the climate of fear is so 
incredible. There's really not many people who will talk, or 
will give us the kind of rich information and eyewitness 
accounts we used to get when thousands of Tibetans escaped from 
Tibet every year into India and Nepal. That number, Human 
Rights Watch had it at about 3,000 average a year until 2008. 
Now maybe a dozen make it.
    Mr. Gere. Or less.
    Ms. Tethong. Even less?
    Mr. Gere. Yeah. Oh, yes.
    Ms. Tethong. I mean, it's unbelievable. So we've lost, 
unfortunately, those rich accounts of what the policy impacts 
of the Chinese government are inside Tibet. What we do know, 
though, is that the boarding preschools have only been around 
since, say, 2016, so those little ones, we really don't know 
the details of how they're affected by the political 
indoctrination. We can only assume the worst. The older 
students in this current sort of system of boarding schools, 
it's been about a decade or so that they've been being built 
and really expanded. And we've heard stories, reports of 
Tibetan students protesting the removal of the Tibetan language 
in those schools, other things like that that let us know that, 
of course, these kids are still Tibetan, and their allegiance 
to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to Buddhism will be so 
deeply ingrained in them that it's unlikely they're 
participating at that level now. But if this goes on for 
generations, what does our future look like?
    And then as far as how often kids can go home, again, not 
very often. The preschools seem to allow kids to go home on the 
weekends. But certainly for the boarding schools that are 
hundreds and hundreds of miles away, the kids can go home 
supposedly every few months. Some it's even longer. And many 
parents can't afford to go get them. So kids will go not home 
but to a nearby connection or family member, or even have to 
stay in the school rather than see their families.
    Chair Smith. Could I just ask you, if a parent challenges 
the child, do they report on them, and then they're disciplined 
or arrested when the child goes back to the school, or the 
boarding school and says, Mom and Dad said this--what happens 
then?
    Ms. Tethong. Oh, yeah, I would assume. You mean, if the 
parents say anything to the child that the child then reports 
later? Yeah, absolutely. And that's been the way of Chinese 
authorities in Tibet for decades.
    Mr. Dorjee. If I may add something to what Lhadon was 
mentioning. The relationship between the children and their 
parents is already becoming very, very weak and in the process 
of being cut right now, children being unable or struggling to 
converse with their parents. It's very much happening. We have 
heard several accounts and testimonials of this happening right 
now.
    One thing that has already happened to so many families is 
the relationship between children and their grandparents, 
because many Tibetan parents speak Tibetan as their first 
language, but they are able to speak some rudimentary Chinese 
as a second language in some places. Whereas, when it comes to 
the older generation of Tibetans who are above 50 or 60, the 
grandparents' generation, they don't speak any Chinese because 
there was not a single Chinese in Tibet before 1949, during the 
invasion years.
    And that generation of Tibetans does not speak any Chinese 
at all. And they still don't, which means many of these 
children who are in the boarding preschools, they are coming 
back home when they are able to come during their short breaks 
in between, and they're not able to say anything, have any kind 
of communication--forget about conversing with their 
grandparents. They're not able to have any communication with 
their grandparents. So the grandparents have already lost the 
children.
    One thing I want to highlight here is the role sometimes--
because our societies are so structurally different that we 
forget the role that grandparents can play in the development 
of children, their psychology, their worldview, their cultural 
character. And in Tibetan society, like many traditional 
societies, grandparents play an extremely foundational role in 
the development of the children's worldview, psychology, and 
their fundamental identity. And that's part of the reason why 
this is particularly dangerous, what's already happening.
    I want to add one thing about the second question, China 
being a bully in so many different scenarios and different 
arenas. As we all know, nobody likes a bully. But there's 
nothing worse than a bully who also plays the victim. And the 
Chinese government has been extremely good at that. They play 
the victim everywhere. But what they are actually doing--their 
real character is that of a bully. And they do this inside 
Tibet, in East Turkestan. They do it to their own Chinese 
people who are asking for democracy. And they also do this 
abroad.
    And one way in which all of these issues--whether it's the 
Uyghur genocide, whether it's the dismantling of democracy in 
Hong Kong, or whether it's the colonial boarding schools in 
Tibet--one way that will help us actually be more effective in 
fighting each of these issues is actually seeing them as a 
collective whole. Because what the Chinese government is trying 
to do is isolate each of these issues and get the world to see 
them as separate issues, so that our list keeps increasing, 
because China's crimes are increasing, right? There are so 
many.
    So we get overwhelmed just by the length of the list. 
Whereas I think if we are able to see all of these issues as 
part of the same root problem of the Chinese Communist Party, 
which has no legitimacy to rule over a quarter of the world's 
population, that framework will actually help us visualize a 
roadmap much more easily to dealing with that.
    [Side conversation.]
    Mr. Gere. I was just asking if we had any clear numbers of 
the number of Chinese who have come into Tibetan territory. So 
we don't have them. But I would assume at this point--I mean, a 
lot of the work that we did at ICT was to stop the population 
transfer. And population transfer, in the Geneva Convention, is 
considered genocide. I think we can make the assumption that 
there are more Chinese than Tibetans in Tibetan regions at this 
point. So let's say that there are 7 or 8 million Chinese that 
are now residents and controlling the Tibetan Plateau.
    As you were saying, we get overwhelmed by how vast this 
Chinese machine is. And, you know, we have to rethink in the 
West every couple of years what our policies are. And there's 
an interim period where there's discussion and there's a 
relaxation of movement. There's no relaxation in China. These 
policies were set many, many decades ago. And this hundred-year 
program for the Chinese to take over the world, they're fifty 
years ahead at this point because they're on point of doing 
exactly what they set out to do. The mechanisms that they have 
in place are everywhere now. They're in our universities. 
They're in our schools. They're in our police departments. 
They're in the deep structures of our intelligence community. 
They're everywhere.
    And we have to look at this. But as the gentleman said, we 
can't get overwhelmed by how big it is. We have to be able to 
parse it piece by piece and look at it. And the things that 
mean the most to us are our children, frankly. And to look at 
that the deepest, I think. And this question of continuity of 
culture, from grandmother, grandfather to child, is deeply 
important for us. Can we imagine our own kids being devoid of 
that kind of cultural continuity and transfer of thoughts and 
emotions, and a sense of who we are in the universe? The 
Tibetan culture was an experiment of extraordinary visionary 
possibilities. When Buddhism came to Tibet in the 7th to 8th 
century, they were the tough guys in the community.
    Tibet at one point controlled all of Asia. They controlled 
the Mongolians, the Chinese. It wasn't even the Han Chinese at 
that point. The Han Chinese were a very small, insignificant 
kingdom that long ago. But Tibet was transformed by Buddhism. 
They took it seriously. And the institutions were not 
institutions of generating money or power in a worldly sense, 
but creating bodhisattvas, perfect human beings who actually 
generated love and compassion and wisdom. And the institutions 
of the convents, the nuns, the monasteries were supported by 
the people. And that's where they gladly sent their kids to be 
educated and to foster these incredible ideals, which are--I 
grew up in a Christian household--compassion, love, care for 
our neighbors. These were important things to us that we had to 
learn from our parents and our culture.
    The Tibetans learned it in the extreme, that this was a 
life and death struggle between the right path and the wrong 
path. And the path they chose was love and compassion at all 
levels of society. The Chinese disrupted that completely in 
1949, with this invasion. And it was a very unfortunate but 
necessary thing for the Dalai Lama to leave. When I first 
became interested in the Tibetans, I knew very little about the 
political situation. I was going to go to Tibet.
    A friend of mine, John Avedon, had just written a book 
about the history of Tibet and also the diaspora. He said, why 
are you going to Tibet? And I said, well, I want to see Tibet. 
And he said, well, you'll see Chinese there, and you'll see 
people who are so cowed and fearful. You won't really have an 
experience there. Go to Dharamshala, see His Holiness there. So 
I did. And that was really the beginning of my involvement. But 
it was so stunning to me to see Tibetans living in exile, but 
within their own communities, with this continuity of culture, 
they were unique.
    And I see it in the community that's sitting here with us 
today. These people are unique. They're unique on the planet. 
They're unique in our present society. They have so much to 
offer us, not just Americans, but the entire planet, of how we 
can proceed. This breaking of that continuity of love, and 
compassion, and wisdom is probably the saddest thing that we've 
seen. I don't care about the money. I don't even care about the 
natural resources. I care about this continuity of love and 
compassion. And that's what we've seen broken.
    Chair Smith. You know, I read John Avedon's op-eds in years 
past, decades ago, one of them called ``The Rape of Tibet.'' 
And he talked about how forced abortion was used with absolute 
impunity against the Tibetan women, just to get rid of 
Tibetans. I mean, it was outrageous. So----
    Mr. Gere. Well, to be fair, they use it against their own 
people.
    Chair Smith. Of course they do.
    Mr. Gere. So this discussion was not against the Chinese 
people, but against a system which is destroying them as well 
as us.
    Chair Smith. Thank you so much.
    Chairman Merkley.
    Co-chair Merkley. I so much appreciate the testimony that 
each of you has brought and the experiences that all of you who 
are attending are bringing to bear in this effort. There's a 
vote underway in the Senate, so I have a question for each of 
you but probably if I'm going to make the vote, which I need 
to, I'll ask that you maybe take two minutes to respond to each 
question. I want to start with Ms. Tethong.
    Noting that in November, on behalf of this executive 
commission, then-chair McGovern and I sent a letter to the 
U.N., seeking a U.N. investigation on the separation of Tibetan 
children from their families to these colonial boarding 
schools. On March 6th, there was a report that the U.N. 
Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights did a study. 
It did not come from the High Commissioner on Human Rights but 
from the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. 
And it very much called for an end to the forced relocations 
and the state-run boarding schools, and had quite a lot of 
data.
    So one section of the U.N. has pursued an investigation. 
The question now is, how can we push the U.N. to the next step? 
What's the most important next step that this Congressional-
Executive Commission should push for?
    Ms. Tethong. Thank you for the question and thank you also 
for your efforts in moving this issue, changing this issue, 
especially at the U.N. I think if the members of the 
Commission, Members of Congress could request that the 
administration really lead a coalition of likeminded countries 
in opposing colonial boarding schools at the United Nations, at 
the Human Rights Council, and other international fora, I think 
that would play a huge part.
    This would make such a contribution to, first, getting this 
issue out there, because it's been hiding--or the Chinese 
government has been hiding it so effectively. And second, for 
pushing other countries--giving other countries the support 
they need to get on board. And I think there are a lot of 
likeminded nations who have these histories of the residential 
boarding schools and these kinds of policies, that really have 
an obligation to lead, together with the U.S., like Canada, 
like Australia, and others.
    Co-chair Merkley. Yes. Thank you. And certainly this is an 
agenda that we can continue to push forward. I look forward to 
working with you, Mr. Chairman, in that regard. And, Mr. Gere, 
you talked in your testimony, kind of following on that, how we 
need a unified voice with our European partners. How can we 
best amplify these horrific circumstances? As I was saying to 
Chairman Smith during the testimony, if you're just hearing the 
story and you weren't already familiar with it, it would sound 
like a dystopian world, you know, a few centuries from now on 
some other planet. You know, in some sci-fi novel. All of these 
horrific circumstances that are going on.
    But it's here. It's now. We do know it. We hear it again. 
And the world becomes somewhat hardened to all of the 
circumstances that are going awry. How do we build a stronger 
unified voice with our European partners?
    Mr. Gere. Well, I think there's a moment now. I mean, 
there's high skepticism of China right now. And I think we have 
to take advantage of that. The Chinese have been very 
successful in promising separate deals with different 
countries. There hasn't been a unified effort against China. 
But I think there is a moment now where there's a high degree 
of unhappiness and skepticism, and a feeling of danger and fear 
of China at this moment which is pretty universal, certainly 
with our European partners. I think this is the moment for the 
State Department, for the Commission, for us, for all of us, to 
make those connections wherever we can.
    Mr. McGovern and I have talked about this quite a bit. And 
Speaker Pelosi also. This, to me, is central to what we can do 
to actually change things. The U.S. Congress, the U.S. 
Government, and the U.S. people have been completely supportive 
of the Tibetan cause. And we continue to be very strong in what 
we're doing. These bills are very important, very powerful 
bills that are winding their way through Congress.
    The Tibet Support Act of 2002 was huge in declaring support 
for the Tibetan people and correcting many of the 
misperceptions through the propaganda of the Chinese 
government. Now's the time to talk to our equals in Europe, who 
are friends in Europe, and say: Look, this is the legislation 
that we have started with. And it's taken us decades to get 
here, but use us, what we have done, to get similar laws 
passed, similar legislation done, in the U.K., and France, and 
Italy. I was on the phone with the Italians today. We're going 
to be presenting similar legislation in Italy, because there's 
a government there today that is incredibly skeptical of what 
the Chinese are doing in the world. So this is a moment to take 
chances reaching out to our friends around the world.
    Co-chair Merkley. Thank you, Mr. Gere. And I know this 
comes from your heart and from decades of advocacy. And we need 
more American citizens to join you, as we are joining you, in 
this advocacy. It's just a tremendous effort. And let's seize 
this moment, as you have suggested.
    Mr. Dorjee, you talk about the long arm of the Chinese 
government and how they are essentially blackmailing Tibetans 
who are resident in the United States.
    Mr. Gere. Citizens!
    Co-chair Merkley. Tibetans who are citizens here in the 
United States. And this is a practice they're employing not 
just with regard to Tibet, but in kind of a broad scope of 
trying to suppress freedom of speech here, both by threats 
regarding that person but also even perhaps more effectively, 
threats against their families back home. And you gave us a 
very specific example, the name deleted to protect the 
individual. But it is extraordinarily hard to be an advocate 
when your family is being threatened. What is the single most 
effective thing we can do to counter this type of blackmail 
against Tibetan citizens and Tibetan residents, citizens of the 
United States, residents here, when their families are 
threatened back home?
    Mr. Dorjee. Thank you so much. I remember about 15 to 20 
years ago, America was a very different place, where there 
would be Chinese students studying overseas, and there were all 
sorts of students here who were participating in political 
conversations. When I was an undergrad, actually, on my campus 
I even saw Chinese students taking part in all the events, 
going to debates. They would come to Tibet events. They would 
come to other political events, without fear that somebody was 
watching over their shoulder. Things have changed a lot.
    I sometimes work as a teaching assistant at Columbia 
University, and what I see on campus, and many campuses these 
days, is very different. I've spoken to a lot of Chinese 
students, let alone Tibetan students, and Uyghur students, and 
Hong Kong students. Even Chinese students who actually have 
less reason to fear the Chinese government--even they are 
terrified of taking part in any kind of activity that might be 
deemed remotely critical or even borderline critical of the 
Chinese government. And I think maybe we can find a way to make 
the universities a little bit more responsible to their 
students.
    It's the job of the universities to protect their students, 
the free speech of the students, the First Amendment rights of 
the students, to take part in events they'd like to go to, to 
participate in protests, to take part in dialogue, to actually 
even meet with Tibetan students without fear. Many Chinese 
students are actually afraid to meet with people like me, or 
us, because they don't know who's watching. Because the 
consulates have actually extended some of their arms and 
tentacles into the university campuses. And I would really 
appreciate it if Congress and the administration could look 
into that particular problem, which is happening across many 
university campuses. Both private universities and public 
universities.
    And as an immediate measure, establishing some kind of 
hotline where people can report tips whenever they see these 
incidents. My friend and colleague who was in Canada actually 
was subjected to endless harassment and endless hate speech, 
intimidation; she even received death threats from hundreds of 
people. And the number of comments that she received, digital 
harassment, she was really, really traumatized by that 
experience. And when I was speaking to her just yesterday, she 
told me her hope is that in the future other people don't have 
to go through that kind of experience.
    Co-chair Merkley. I'm so glad you mentioned the hotline. 
I've been pushing the administration to set up just such a 
hotline and the reaction so far has been modest. The first 
response I got was, the FBI wants to just use their standard 
tipline. And I said, what person being threatened by folks 
overseas would call up a tipline that has to do with anything 
in the world, any crime in the world, not knowing how the 
information will be used, whether the person at the other end 
speaks Tibetan, or speaks Chinese, or understands how carefully 
this information has to be controlled, not to amplify the 
threat.
    And if we don't have a way for people to systematically 
report, then it's just the tip of the iceberg. We're getting, 
like, maybe a ten-thousandth of what's actually happening in 
terms of the information we're securing. And I think for us to 
take on transnational repression, we have to get a huge 
understanding that there needs to be a transnational repression 
hotline that is carefully, carefully staffed with multiple 
language abilities, multiple protections, with such confidence 
that people know that it's not going to be hacked, that they're 
not going to amplify the problems by reaching out, that the 
diaspora communities can circulate that information.
    And I think that would help us really see the full picture 
and be able to mobilize a much more aggressive response. And so 
I floated that idea last year. And this is the first time I've 
heard someone bring it back up before the Commission. And I'm 
continuing to seek feedback on it and partnership on it, 
because you can no longer be free here in the United States of 
America if your family's being threatened abroad.
    Mr. Dorjee. Thank you so much.
    Co-chair Merkley. Thank you. [Applause.]
    Chair Smith. Chairman Merkley, thank you very much. And 
thank you for that initiative. I think it's a tremendous one. 
And hopefully it'll go from modest to all in because who wants 
to call the FBI when you have no idea, as somebody who is part 
of the diaspora, who you're talking to? You know, law 
enforcement to them, back home, means secret police and people 
who are surveilling ad nauseum.
    You know, I've actually chaired hearings on Confucius 
Centers. I had one hearing with NYU, which has a campus in 
Shanghai, bought and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party. 
Actually, I invited myself and went over there and spoke on 
human rights. But, you know, it's shocking how complicit higher 
education, just like the business community, is with the 
Chinese Communist Party.
    Mr. Gere. Sure. It's all about money.
    Chair Smith. It's all about money.
    Mr. Gere. All about money.
    Chair Smith. But thank you for your testimony. This hearing 
and, again, these bills--which I do believe will be passed and 
signed into law--need to be the pivot. And your voices and your 
incredible knowledge and depth of compassion is the motivator. 
You have helped us to see even more clearly what has to be 
done. And we need to pivot today. So I thank you so much. 
[Applause]
    Mr. Gere. Thank you, Chairman. [Cheers, applause.]
    Chair Smith. Without objection, all members will have five 
legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and make 
submissions. The hearing's adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 12:00 p.m., the hearing was concluded.]

=======================================================================


                            A P P E N D I X

=======================================================================


                          Prepared Statements


              Prepared Statement of Sikyong Penpa Tsering

    Chairman Smith, Chairman Merkley, members of the committee and 
distinguished guests, thank you for inviting me to this hearing 
alongside a person who continues to play a very significant role in 
keeping the hopes of the Tibetan people alive and someone I hold dear, 
Richard Gere, Chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet. You 
have also invited two prominent Tibetans, Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin 
Dorjee of the Tibet Action Institute, both competent in leadership and 
now known for their research on challenges confronting Tibetans inside 
Tibet, including the colonial-style boarding schools. While they speak 
in detail on some of the specific issues, I request the chairs consider 
my written submission as part of the testimony and I assure our 
Administration's complete cooperation on any additional information 
that the committee may need.
    As the democratically elected leader of the Tibetan people, the 
Central Tibetan Administration, of which I am the Sikyong, is fully 
committed to following the Middle Way Policy: the way forward shown by 
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and adopted by the Tibetan Parliament in 
Exile. This policy is aimed at finding a non-violent, mutually 
beneficial, negotiated and lasting solution to the Sino-Tibet conflict 
that can set an example for this violence-ridden world. Resolution of 
the Sino-Tibet conflict can have profound geopolitical implications for 
a more peaceful and secure region and the world.
    The absence of traction on dialogue since 2010 sounds ominous, but 
we remain positive about finding a peaceful solution that avoids 
extreme polarities. The sincerity of the People's Republic of China's 
(PRC) leadership manifests in the policies and programs being 
implemented in Tibet as we speak. In the last few years, evidence 
emerging out from Tibet in the form of reports by the U.N., independent 
institutes and scholarly research, the Chinese government's one nation, 
one language, one culture and one religion policy is aimed at forced 
assimilation and the erasure of the national identity of the Tibetans 
and other minority nationalities. Unsurprisingly, the international 
watchdog Freedom House lists Tibet right at the bottom with Syria and 
South Sudan in their least free country index.
    We often get asked as to why we don't hear about Tibet anymore--the 
PRC's Orwellian gridlock system, the use of all means of artificial 
intelligence to surveil people, control of the flow of information, and 
the lockdown of Tibet to the outside world--even those in leadership 
roles in education, religion, culture, and environment are being 
arbitrarily arrested or just disappear. One's actions are linked to the 
welfare of one's near and dear ones. 157 Tibetans were known to have 
self-immolated since 2009, hoping against hope that the PRC government 
would pay some attention to their plight and hoping against hope that 
the international community would come to their rescue, but to no 
avail. The Chinese government focuses too much on development and fails 
to understand the real aspirations of the Tibetan people.
    Tibetan language, religion, and culture are the bedrock of Tibetan 
identity. Compassion and non-violence, which form the foundation of our 
culture, will undoubtedly promote peace and harmony in the world. 
However, these are facing unprecedented threat of eradication. The 
atheist Chinese government is trying to fully control the process and 
authority of recognizing the reincarnation of Trulkus, that is unique 
to Tibetan Buddhism, besides interference in the study of Buddhist 
philosophy and control on their movement.
    To speed up assimilation, large-scale forced relocation of Tibetans 
from their traditional homeland to Chinese territories and within 
Tibet, the mass transfer of Tibetan youths to China for labor and the 
incentivized migration of Han Chinese into Tibet are being carried out. 
Moreover, Tibetan children across Tibet are not only being coerced into 
colonial boarding schools but transferred to areas across China on a 
massive scale.
    As part of the fifty-year China's Western Development Program 
started at the beginning of this millennium, unscrupulous use of 
natural resources and the reckless construction of dams, railway and 
road networks, airports and other infrastructure in Tibet threatens 
irreversible damage to Tibet's fragile environment. Tibet is known as 
Asia's Water Tower and the Third Pole because of the amount of glaciers 
and permafrost that feeds all the major rivers of Asia. Therefore, it 
concerns not only Tibet and the Tibetan people but has serious 
implications for the food, economic, and water security of a population 
of about 2 billion people living in the downstream countries that 
depend on rivers originating in the Tibetan plateau.
    If the PRC is not made to reverse or change its current policies, 
Tibet and Tibetans will definitely die a slow death.
    Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I would like to express 
my appreciation to you for organizing this very important hearing. 
These hearings are a boost to the indomitable spirit of the Tibetans 
inside Tibet and a source of inspiration for the Tibetans in exile to 
continue with our just struggle.
    I wish to reiterate our gratitude to the U.S. Congress for making 
necessary changes to the Tibet Policy Act.
    The continuous support from the Congress, government and people of 
the U.S. will enable the resolution of the Sino-Tibet Conflict through 
the Middle-Way Policy, which will bring peace to Tibet and beyond. I 
fervently hope that the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China 
Conflict Act introduced in both Houses of the U.S. Congress will be 
made into law.
    Thank you very much for the opportunity again.

                   Prepared Statement of Richard Gere

                                 ______
                                 

              Human Rights in Tibet: Survival of a People

                              introduction
    For decades, the Chinese Communist Party's ethnic policies have 
been largely predicated on containment, denial, destruction, and 
assimilation. Repression has been most severe in Tibet--and in East 
Turkestan it should be noted as well--where CCP policies have included 
the separation of families, the prohibition of language, the 
destruction of religious sites and institutions, the collection of DNA, 
and a pervasive surveillance system through which the denial of 
information or movement is implemented.
    I obviously do not have to explain the threat to the Tibetan 
people's very existence to this Committee who likely knows of decades 
of atrocities behind the CCP's ``ethnic policies'' better than I do.
    But briefly, in service to Beijing's longstanding agenda to 
sinicize Tibet and ``manage'' individual nationalities, the Chinese 
Communist Party's policies have been characterized by cruelty, 
collective violence, and persecution.
    The saddest truth is that the CCP's process of assimilation and 
erasure is all too often concealed by Beijing's intricate and powerful 
propaganda machine. Within China's digital prison, just like all 
authoritarian regimes, the Chinese government targets the very core 
attributes that define the continuity of a people; specifically, the 
family unit, religious expression, cultural tradition, language, and 
environment.
    Identifiable mechanisms, like arbitrary detention, forcible 
transfer, rape, torture, and disappearance are all tools that have been 
well documented throughout the course of Beijing's assimilation 
practices.
    Xi Jinping's recent appointment of Pan Yue to the Central Committee 
is likely an indication that this aggressive assimilationism will not 
only continue but perhaps intensify. And if the Beijing Chairman's 
recent visit to Moscow is any indicator of a ``new era,'' every one of 
China's 55 ethnic groups--like Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Mongolians--are 
right to be afraid.
    It does not have to be this way. As you know, the Dalai Lama has 
offered a pathway to resolution built on a dialogue process meant to 
identify a peaceful, stable resolution in Tibet which grants Tibetans 
meaningful autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution.
    It is obvious why a mutual agreement is crucial to Tibet's survival 
and to avoiding the eradication of the Tibetan people, though it might 
be less clear to Beijing how this benefits China.
    There are three key elements of benefit. First, it lends Beijing 
the legitimacy it so desperately seeks in Tibet. Second, it enables 
Beijing to reset its relationship with India and third, if successfully 
implemented, a reciprocal agreement in Tibet removes--or lessens--the 
international stigma associated with Beijing's human rights record, 
ranging from acts of genocide, like those determined by the 
International Committee of Jurists in 1960, to present-day criticism of 
Beijing's longstanding brutality in Tibet which has only intensified 
since the 2008 Tibetan Uprising, which has been followed by years of 
self-immolation sacrifices by Tibetans in protest of the Chinese 
government's violent rule. I would ask the Commission to remember 
Tsewang Norbu, a very popular Tibetan singer who self-immolated last 
year in Lhasa. Demonstrating a peaceful agreement in Tibet--which 
includes the rights of the child, the right to mother tongue, the 
freedom of movement and religious practice--is a powerful step up for 
Beijing, sending the entire world the right signal that the Chinese 
government is genuinely capable of addressing discord through dialogue, 
with reason and peaceable human values, rather than by the 
demonstration of force and denial.
    Two steps must be taken to help this happen. First, we must be 
clear about the history that brought us to this point of the People's 
Republic of China in Tibet. Second, the United States, allies, and the 
international community must speak with a unified voice on the need for 
Beijing and its Chairman to return to the negotiating table.
    For the record, the Chinese Communist Party invaded Tibet without 
provocation of any kind in 1949-50. As the CCP consolidated control 
over the Tibetan ``minority nationality,'' which obviously was not a 
``minority'' in Tibet at the time, the CCP violated human rights 
standards and contravened its own policy promises to respect Tibetan 
institutions, Tibet's religion, and the Tibetan people's right to self-
determination. Open resistance to the Communists' violent policies grew 
quickly, which led to the National Uprising in 1959 and the Dalai 
Lama's harrowing escape to India, where he and many additional Tibetans 
sought refuge, and thanks to the generosity of India, remain harbored, 
where the Tibetan community has become a vibrant, beloved thread in 
India's pluralistic democracy.
    During the next two decades, the denial and destruction of Tibetan 
culture, religion, and language, and arbitrary detention and torture, 
is estimated by the Tibetan government in exile to have resulted in the 
deaths of 1.2 million Tibetans--one-fifth of the country's 
population.\1\ Many more Tibetans languished in prisons and labor 
camps. More than 6,000 monasteries, temples, and culturally historic 
buildings were destroyed, their contents pillaged. Literally thousands 
of ancient Buddhist texts, critical to the legacy of Tibetan Buddhism 
and the broader Buddhist community, were burned, looted, or lost in the 
zealotry of the Cultural Revolution. Tibetans were collectivized, 
leading to unprecedented famine as the CCP sought to so thoroughly 
erase identity before any resistance mounted.\2\
    Other than specific methodologies first honed in Tibet, now refined 
and in well-documented practice in East Turkestan, not much has 
changed; the pattern, however, gives reason for grave concern in that 
it increasingly expands to match the definition of crimes against 
humanity, as the brazenness of meeting with a comrade recently indicted 
by the ICC for war crimes, under the diplomatic posture of defining a 
new world order, might attest.
                         religious persecution
    Despite being bound by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, 
the ICCPR, the Child Rights Convention and other agreements, Beijing 
has never demonstrated the standards defined within them in any 
concrete terms, which makes a mockery of its very vocal claim that 
China is committed to human rights and the rule of law.
    Beijing's assault on Tibetan Buddhism has evolved since its 
invasion of Tibet and in recent years, exponentially so under Chairman 
Xi's rule. CCP policy has transitioned from total destruction of 
Tibetan religious institutions, gatherings, and practices to one of 
insidious control, including eliminating core attributes of Tibetan 
Buddhism while co-opting Tibetan Buddhists' right to determine their 
leaders.
    Tibetans who peacefully oppose this are often detained, routinely 
tortured, permanently injured, or even killed for the peaceful practice 
of their religion. Reinforcing this point, the U.N. Committee on 
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights expressed concern about ``reports 
of systematic and massive destruction of religious sites such as 
mosques, monasteries, shrines, and cemeteries, particularly in the 
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and in the so-called Tibet Autonomous 
Region.'' \3\
    However, we must draw a line when the Chinese state requires that 
Tibetan Buddhist monks receive Communist state approval before 
reincarnating--a demand that is so grossly antithetical to Tibetan 
Buddhist precepts that it cannot be justified by flimsy or falsified 
claims of a Communist government professing atheism.
    The most visible demonstration of Beijing's aggressive assertion of 
authority over selecting the next--the 15th--Dalai Lama must be opposed 
and we must note as a cautionary tale the first aggression by Beijing 
during the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama--literally kidnapping the 
child that had been identified as the Panchen Lama when he was six 
years old, propping up a state-sponsored Lama into the Tibetan 
reincarnation's empty seat. This is the youngest political prisoner 
ever and thirty years later no one knows where the real Panchen Lama 
is, or whether he is even still alive.
                        destruction of language
    As we've learned from the Tibet Action Institute's recent and 
critical research, which we are lucky to have, up to one million 
Tibetan children are currently and systematically being alienated from 
Tibetan language and culture in compulsory boarding schools.\4\ The 
Chinese government's educational policies separate children from their 
families--forcibly transferring the children into schools far from 
their parents. Children are taught in Mandarin as the CCP is keenly 
aware that mother tongue is a primary mode of cultural transmission, 
one of the most fundamental components of the continuity of a people's 
identity from one generation to the next, affecting everything from 
access to arts, literature, song, and religious texts. They also know 
it is one of the last impasses for their control of Tibet and the 
Tibetan people.
    Uprooting native language is particularly egregious in the case of 
Tibetan culture considering the role memorization and recitation play 
in a rigorous monastic education system. If the CCP's program to sever 
the transmission of Tibetan language and culture to Tibetan youth 
proves successful, it will significantly advance the PRC's agenda to 
contain and assimilate a people.
    In its Concluding Observations on the recent third periodic report 
of China, the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights 
expressed concerns over ``reports of the large-scale campaign to 
eradicate Tibetan culture and language, as well as the general 
undermining of the linguistic identity of ethnic minorities by the 
assimilation policy of the State party, known as Sinicization, 
including the coercive residential (boarding) school system imposed on 
Tibetan children.'' \5\
    As we argue the risks and ``freedom'' associated with apps like 
TikTok, the CCP's vicious aim at the future of Tibetan children should 
send the world a distress signal of the systematic and often secret 
ruthlessness under which Beijing operates.
                      forcible population transfer
    I hope the Committee will also note the forcible population 
transfer of nomads in Tibet. Having thrived for millennia herding and 
cultivating the vast and incredibly valuable Tibetan Plateau and 
acclimated to Tibet's unique climate, nomads are proven stewards of the 
land. Their culture is deeply tied to the environment's demands through 
a profound belief system that honors landscapes and all living beings. 
According to Chinese government media sources, at least 1.8 million 
nomads have been transferred into sedentary houses under Chinese 
government policies. This estimate is likely conservative. In 2013, 
Human Rights Watch \6\ reported that over two million Tibetans (two-
thirds of the entire population of the TAR) had been ``rehoused,'' with 
hundreds of thousands of nomadic herders forced into ``New Socialist 
Villages.'' \7\
    Tibetans are not compensated or guaranteed income or employment 
when resettled. To the contrary, they are often then coerced, or 
forced, into work programs that a U.N. Special Rapporteur reported may 
`` . . . amount to contemporary forms of slavery including excessive 
surveillance, abusive living and working conditions, restriction of 
movement through internment, threats, physical and/or sexual violence 
and other inhuman or degrading treatment, some instances may amount to 
enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent 
analysis.'' \8\
    It is no secret that the Dalai Lama was the first Nobel Peace Prize 
winner recognized for environmental efforts in addition to his advocacy 
for a peaceful resolution in Tibet, another demonstration of why he 
must be included in dialogue. In contrast to the Dalai Lama's 
longstanding wisdom on effective environmental policies, the Chinese 
government systematically expels nomads from ancestral lands through 
forced migration, transferring them into concentrated, sedentary 
dwellings.
    Dispossessed of their way of life and ability to make a living, the 
result is tantamount to the ghettoization of Tibet.
                         institutionalized fear
    The CCP has converted Tibet into a surveillance state combining 
more brutal oppressive techniques with a panopticon of technology that 
monitors the movements, phone calls, and internet habits of every 
citizen. Constant monitoring and information control, internet 
blackouts, and intrusive electronic surveillance are now pervasive at 
all levels of society. Reminiscent of East German Stasi methods, 
families are encouraged to spy and report on each other, often through 
coercion or financial incentives.\9\ The most minor ``offense'' can 
lead to extreme retaliation, including imprisonment and torture.
    A dangerous pattern of death due to torture has been observed, 
including the recent deaths of 19-year-old monk Tenzin Nyima and 51-
year-old tour guide Kunchok Jinpa. We emphasize that in both cases, as 
with many others, an investigation into deaths in custody and 
prosecution of those responsible for them was never undertaken by the 
Chinese authorities.
    Another example is the recent case of Jigme Gyatso, a monk at 
Labrang monastery who courageously recorded and released a video 
detailing his torture at the hands of Chinese police in 2008. He was 
sentenced to five years in prison for that video and was released in 
extremely poor health, leading to steady deterioration and his eventual 
death last summer. Jigme was blacklisted from receiving private medical 
care as a result of the ``crime'' he had committed by speaking out 
about the abuse he had suffered.\10\
    Chinese companies have developed software that automatically 
detects and tracks Tibetans and other ethnic minorities within the PRC 
on camera. A report published by Citizen Lab found that China's police 
may have gathered between about 920,000 and 1.2 million DNA samples in 
the Tibet Autonomous Region over the past six years.\11\ Those figures 
represent one-quarter to one-third of the total population of the TAR, 
which spans most of western Tibet. Human Rights Watch also released a 
report stating that Chinese authorities are systematically collecting 
DNA from residents of the TAR, including by taking blood from children 
as young as five without their parents' consent.\12\
    China's surveillance no longer halts at the Tibetan border. The 
CCP's techno-authoritarianism and fear tactics extend to Tibetan 
communities abroad. This oppression is being perpetrated behind a 
digital iron curtain to hide reality on the ground. We also must take 
seriously the pervasiveness of the surveillance in and outside of Tibet 
and the harm it's doing psychologically to the younger generation, who 
find themselves not only surveilled on platforms such as TikTok, but 
also harassed for who they are. The development of these systems of 
repression, reaching all the way around the world, reflects the lengths 
the CCP will go to to dismantle the Tibetan civilization.
                           policy of plunder
    We must also note that the Chinese annexation of Tibet has serious 
regional security implications and gives Beijing access to Tibet's 
abundant natural resources.
    Tibet's location and scale provide a commanding position over the 
entire Himalayan region, a fact certainly not lost on the Communist 
Party. The CCP's occupation allowed not only an immediate enhanced 
regional sphere of influence but also set it on a trajectory toward the 
hegemonic control it continues to strive for.
    Tibet also boasts a host of natural resources the Chinese lack. One 
of the most illustrative examples is water. China is water poor. In 
contrast, the Tibetan Plateau is the source of the region's major 
rivers, the healthy flow of which at least 1.5 billion people rely on 
for food and economic development.\13\ The PRC has erected numerous and 
massive damming projects, and proposes to continue, along with water 
diversion projects. Once again, we see dual purposes at play. China's 
occupation of Tibet provides needed resources to China, while also 
facilitating infrastructure development that allows it to literally 
control the tap for South and Southeast Asia. This must not be ignored 
since water control grants China literal and diplomatic might as well 
as infrastructure that in and of itself represents yet another 
potential military build-up along contested borders.\14\
    Precious metals and minerals serve as another example. Tibet's 
occupation ``provides access to 126 different minerals,'' including 
copper, iron, uranium, zinc, gold, and lead. Increasingly relevant, 
Tibet also has large amounts of lithium, critical to powering modern 
technologies like cell phones, and hybrid and electric cars, and 
more.\15\
    The appropriation of property often coincides with the persecution 
of a people. The resource exploitation occurring on the Tibetan Plateau 
overlays the oppression of the Tibetan people who call it home, and 
takes place over their objections--clearly stated despite the serious 
risks associated with protests or demonstrations inside the PRC.
                      path forward: the middle way
    At the heart of the Tibet-China conflict lies the fundamental human 
right of self determination. According to international law and ethical 
standards a people deserves the right to determine their own future.
    Self-determination does not carry with it any single definition nor 
does the Dalai Lama's proposed Middle Way. The Middle Way is based on 
this foundation of meaningful autonomy even as it represents a proposal 
of compromise based on protecting the core interests of both Tibet and 
China.
    Under the Middle Way, Tibetans call for dialogue to identify a 
solution that is compatible with the People's Republic of China's 
constitution while allowing Tibetans the self-determination needed to 
protect their unique cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage.
    There are many aspects to the Middle Way approach that His Holiness 
the Dalai Lama has presented in multiple documents that provide a 
concrete framework for negotiation.\16\ The key fact, however, is that 
at no time has His Holiness or the Tibetan government in exile, the 
Central Tibetan Administration, explicitly or implicitly signaled that 
the ongoing occupation is resolved.
    In contrast, China refuses to return to the table. To date, 
thirteen years have passed since the last round of Sino-Tibetan 
dialogue. Although the United States regularly calls for the resumption 
of dialogue and has multiple laws on the books stating support for 
negotiations with His Holiness or his designated representatives as the 
path forward, the Chinese Communist Party continues to snub its nose at 
the U.S. and like-minded nations.
    China's refusal is transparent. It is simply a waiting game. 
Beijing has sent numerous signals that it intends to designate its own 
``Dalai Lama'' when the current Dalai Lama passes away. Such a strategy 
must be thoroughly neutralized in advance.
    Accomplishing this will entail two main components. Long term, 
China must be enticed back to the negotiating table. Ideally, this 
would mean joining in dialogue with the current Dalai Lama who is well 
positioned to broker an agreement that will remain stable. However, 
immediate steps also must be taken to ensure that China, the world, and 
the Tibetan people know that the United States' support for the Tibetan 
people and resolution through dialogue will never waver, regardless of 
with whom or when a true settlement is achieved.
                         policy recommendations
      Congress should pass and President Biden should sign the 
Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act (H.R. 533/S. 
138) which clarifies that America will back the Tibetan people until 
negotiations are settled, whether it is with the 14th Dalai Lama or a 
future Tibetan leader. This is essential to providing the Tibetan 
people the long-term support needed in their quest for dignity and 
self-determination. The legislation also empowers the Special 
Coordinator for Tibet to directly counter China's relentless propaganda 
machine aimed at Tibet.

      Fully and forcefully implement the Tibetan Policy and 
Support Act and the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act. The former is a key 
statute establishing multiple Tibet policies, the latter confronts the 
inequity of United States citizens (including journalists, tourists, 
and Tibetan Americans) not being able to enter Tibet, and the ability 
of Chinese citizens to enter the United States.

      Following the example of the U.N. Committee on Economic, 
Social and Cultural Rights in its Concluding Observations, call on 
Chinese authorities to immediately abolish the boarding school system 
imposed on Tibetan children, allow private Tibetan schools to be 
established, and ensure that Mandarin is not the only language allowed 
as the language of instruction in Tibet.

      Utilize the United States' voice and vote at the United 
Nations to press Chinese authorities to take all necessary measures to 
immediately halt expulsion of all nomadic herders, including Tibetan 
ones, from their ancestral lands. This also should include other rural 
residents such as small-scale farmers.

      Undertake and present publicly a comprehensive report on 
the Chinese Communist Party's efforts to manipulate global perceptions 
of Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This should include the 
countering of China's propaganda machine, digital transnational 
oppression, and international investment schemes, and the evaluation of 
human rights violations.

      Set in place concrete restrictions for technology 
transfer or other U.S company support for forced/coerced DNA or other 
medical data collection.

[Endnotes appear on the following page.]
--------------------------

\1\ See https://tibetoffice.org/invasion-after
\2\ Ibid.
\3\ Concluding observations on the third periodic report of China, 
including Hong Kong SAR, China, and Macao SAR, China, p. 13. https://
tbinternet.ohchr.org/--layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/
Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2FC.12%2FCHN%2FCO%2F3⟪=en
\4\ ``Separated from their Families: China's Vast System of Colonial 
Boarding Schools'' inside Tibet, Tibet Action Institute, December 2021 
https://s7712.pcdn.co/wpcontent/uploads/2022/12/
2021_TAI_ColonialBoardingSchoolReport_Digital.pdf; and OHCHR, 6 
February 2023,``China: UN experts alarmed by separation of 1 million 
Tibetan children from families and forced assimilation at residential 
schools.''
\5\ OHCHR, 6 February 2023, ``China: UN experts alarmed by separation 
of 1 million Tibetan children from families and forced assimilation at 
residential schools.''
\6\ Human Rights Watch, 27 June 2013, `` `They Say We Should Be 
Grateful':  Mass Rehousing and Relocation Programs in Tibetan Areas of 
China,'' https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/06/27/they-say-we-should-be-
grateful/mass-rehousing-and-relocation-programs-tibetan.
\7\ https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/29/beijings-green-fist
\8\ UN Human Rights Council, A/HRC/51/26, ``Report of the Special 
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and 
consequences,'' Tomoya Obokata, p. 8.
\9\ https://www.maxhertzberg.co.uk/background/politics/stasi-tactics/
#::text=Tactics%20included%20questioning%2C%20repeated%20stop, 
of%20the%20police%20interest%20etc.
\10\ https://savetibet.org/prominent-former-tibetan-political-prisoner-
dies/
\11\ Citizen Lab, 31 September 2022, ``Mass DNA Collection in the Tibet 
Autonomous Region from 2016-2022,'' https://citizenlab.ca/2022/09/mass-
dna-collection-in-the-tibet-autonomous-region/.
\12\ Human Rights Watch, 5 September 2022, ``China: New Evidence of 
Mass DNA Collection in Tibet,'' https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/05/
china-new-evidence-mass-dna-collection-tibet.
\13\ https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442249134/Water-Peace-and-War-
Confronting-the-Global-Water-Crisis-Updated-Edition
\14\ Chellaney, Brahma, Water: Asia's New Battle Ground; Georgetown 
University Press, 2011, see chapter 3
\15\ Ibid. p. 116-117
\16\ https://tibet.net/important-issues/sino-tibetan-dialogue/note-on-
the-memorandum-on genuine-autonomy-for-the-tibetan-people/

                  Prepared Statement of Lhadon Tethong

    Chair Smith, Co-chair Merkley, and other Distinguished Members of 
the Commission: Thank you for your steadfast and groundbreaking 
leadership on the issue of Tibet.
    Today, I will speak of Tibet as Tibetans know it: the entire 
Tibetan plateau--an area of approximately 900,000 square miles--made up 
of the three traditional provinces of U-Tsang, Kham, and Amdo, and with 
a total Tibetan population of what is today around seven million 
people.
    China misleadingly claims there are just 3.2 million Tibetans in 
Tibet because Chinese leaders are counting only those Tibetans in the 
``Tibet Autonomous Region'' or the T.A.R.--that is, mostly central and 
western Tibet. They've taken almost all of eastern Tibet, and have 
carved up and sub-fragmented Tibetans and the lands they live on into 
four Chinese provinces, ten autonomous prefectures and two autonomous 
counties. In this way they distort and confuse people as to what the 
true picture inside Tibet is.
    For 70 years, generation after generation of Chinese leaders have 
tried to break the faith and loyalty of the fiercely independent 
Tibetan people to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, to Buddhism, and to 
a distinct Tibetan identity that existed for well over a thousand years 
before the People's Republic of China was even founded.
    But after using countless strategies, resources, and unimaginable 
violence, Xi Jinping now believes the best way for China to conquer 
Tibet is to ``kill the Tibetan in the child.'' He is doing this by 
taking nearly all Tibetan children away from the people who will surely 
transmit identity to them--their parents and families and spiritual 
leaders and teachers--and handing them over to agents of the Chinese 
state to raise them to speak a new language, and practice a new culture 
and religion--that of the Chinese Communist Party.
    A little over a year ago, Tibet Action Institute released a report 
showing that at least 800,000 Tibetan children are living in a massive 
network of primary, middle, and secondary boarding schools across all 
of historical Tibet. This shockingly high number means that at least 
three out of every four Tibetan children aged six to eighteen is now 
separated from their family and living in a state-run colonial boarding 
school where the medium of instruction and the entire curriculum is 
focused on fostering loyalty to China.
    Tibetan is taught as a single language class, and Tibetan culture 
is most often reduced to nothing more than song and dance and the 
tokenized wearing of traditional Tibetan clothing. The practice of 
Tibetan Buddhism is strictly forbidden.
    China doesn't hide the fact that these schools exist. There is 
plenty of online propaganda claiming the students in boarding schools 
are happy and receiving a modern education. This propaganda nearly 
always features--very prominently--that single Tibetan language class. 
But what it hides, and what was not included in our report, is the 
existence of boarding preschools in rural areas.
    And though we were hearing reports from Tibet that parents were 
being forced to send children as young as four and five years old away, 
we could not find any details on where they were being sent or what 
schooling they were receiving. It was only on the eve of releasing our 
report that we met an expert eyewitness who'd recently fled from Tibet 
and who confirmed the existence of mandatory boarding preschools for 
children in rural areas.
    Dr. Gyal Lo, a Tibetan academic who holds a Ph.D from the 
University of Toronto and has over thirty years of experience in the 
field of education in China and Tibet, estimates that an additional 
100,000 to 150,000 Tibetan children now live in boarding schools. He's 
visited more than 50 such preschools where children are required to 
live from Monday to Friday, and where they are immersed in a completely 
Chinese learning environment, including participating in war 
reenactments dressed in PLA uniforms or Red Army suits.
    One Tibetan teacher described the situation in her area like this: 
``Usually there are very few Tibetan teachers; the majority are 
Chinese. So teachers only speak in Mandarin and conduct all school 
curriculum in Mandarin, including nursery rhymes and bedtime stories. 
When [the children] join primary school . . . hardly any of them can 
speak Tibetan.''
    Dr. Gyal Lo witnessed the impact of these preschools in his own 
family when, after just three months, children who'd grown up in an 
entirely Tibetan speaking household preferred to speak in Chinese. He 
also saw them growing emotionally distant from their parents and 
grandparents and acting like guests or strangers in their own home.
    Try to imagine your children or loved ones at this age and the 
heartbreak this is causing for these families. I have a six-year-old, 
and three-year-old twins, and so I am fully immersed in this period of 
childhood development right now. Kids at this stage need the care of 
their parents and family to help them eat, bathe, and get dressed and--
perhaps more importantly--to scare away the monsters at night, to 
comfort them when they are hurt or sick, and to reassure them that 
everything is going to be okay.
    Tibetan parents don't want to send their kids away. And most 
wouldn't if they had a choice.
    Some parents refuse, and many more want to, but China's repression 
makes the price of resistance extremely high. Those who do face 
financial penalties and the loss of essential government support 
systems such as health care, education, and the national identity cards 
required for every activity. In order to avoid sending their kids away, 
some families split up--sending one parent to live with the child in an 
urban area where they can attend a day school. Other parents sleep in 
cars near the boarding preschools in order to be close to their 
children at all times. And, of course, the children are suffering too.
    Research by scholars in China and Tibet, as well as reports by 
other outside sources, clearly shows that the removal of children from 
their homes, as well as the highly regimented and isolated boarding 
school life, is psychologically traumatizing Tibetan children. And 
firsthand accounts of Tibetans who attended boarding schools in Tibet 
show that pervasive racism and discrimination will inevitably lead them 
to develop feelings of shame and ethnic inferiority.
    These impacts of the colonial boarding school system in Tibet sound 
hauntingly similar to those of the residential boarding school systems 
used to eliminate Indigenous identities in Canada, the U.S. and 
Australia. This is because Xi Jinping and Chinese leaders are pursuing 
the same strategy, for the same reasons, in Tibet, in East Turkistan 
and Southern Mongolia. They are trying to quell resistance and 
consolidate China's rule over foreign lands and peoples.
    And while Chinese officials argue the schools in Tibet are 
``fundamentally different from boarding schools of the colonial era''--
in part because the students get to attend schools with modern 
facilities--they miss the point entirely that what matters most is what 
Tibetans want for their children. Even if the schools are gleaming new 
and the children wear Tibetan chubas, have one Tibetan class a day and 
are occasionally fed Tibetan food, Tibetan parents don't want their 
children to have their identity and mother tongue stripped away from 
them and replaced with that of a Chinese nationalist.
    Dr. Gyal Lo likes to simplify this issue by saying: ''It is not 
about how good the school facilities are, but what is happening inside. 
The fundamental question is: who is teaching what to whom?''
    In Tibet, the answer is clear: The Chinese state is removing 
Tibetan children from their homes by force or coercion and placing them 
in schools where they have to speak Chinese and conform to Chinese 
culture and tradition while stripping them of their own identity, 
including their religion and their mother tongue.
    If this is not colonial education, I don't know what is.
    And when viewed together with the all-out attack on Tibetan 
Buddhism and the nomadic way of life, we can see that Xi Jinping and 
the Chinese Communist Party intend to destroy everything that makes 
Tibetans Tibetan. Calling it ``Ethnic Unity'' or ``Ethnic Fusion'' or 
assimilation or sinicization doesn't make it different, or any less 
colonial, than what was done by the governments of Canada, the U.S., 
and Australia to the First Nations, Indigenous and Aboriginal peoples.
    And what it is is crystal clear to Tibetans. Just as it is clear to 
Uyghurs, and to Southern Mongolians. China is committing genocide in 
Tibet. And at a time when our nations are finally reckoning with these 
atrocities, that Xi Jinping is pursuing a strategy targeting children 
for the elimination of language and culture--a colonial strategy that 
is now reviled and condemned around the world--should be, along with 
the Uyghur genocide, a massive red flag for the international community 
of the true nature and intention of the Chinese Communist Party.
    But this doesn't have to be the end of the story. Tibetans inside 
Tibet have not stopped fighting. We hear about their acts of resistance 
every single day. And our Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hong Kong, and 
Chinese activist brothers and sisters are fighting too. Now is the 
critical time for the world to step up and help.
    To that end, Tibet Action Institute respectfully urges:

      All members of Congress and senior Administration 
officials to publicly condemn China's colonial boarding school system 
in Tibet and call on the government of China to immediately halt the 
implementation of this system, and especially boarding preschools;

      The members of this Commission, together with other 
members of Congress, to request that the Administration lead 
democracies in exposing and publicly opposing the colonial boarding 
school system in Tibet at the U.N. Human Rights Council and in other 
multilateral fora;

      The Administration to sanction Chinese leaders and 
officials responsible for the colonial boarding school system, and 
especially the intellectual architects responsible for developing and 
implementing this system;

      Congress and the Administration to secure programmatic 
support for Tibetan organizations working to preserve and advance 
Tibetan language and culture, especially the establishment of Tibetan 
language programs and schools for Tibetans living in the United States;

      The members of this Commission to create a task force 
based on the understanding that China's campaign of ethnic elimination 
in Tibet, East Turkistan, and Southern Mongolia, as well as its 
repression in Hong Kong and threats against Taiwan, are interlinked and 
part of the same problem of Chinese colonialism, and therefore require 
a unified framework to generate policy responses adequate to compel 
current and future generations of Chinese leaders to change course. 
Recognizing that this problem constitutes a crisis requiring an 
international response, this task force would explore and recommend to 
the Administration all available diplomatic, economic, and political 
responses, including the option of forming an International Contact 
Group; and

      The members of this Commission to press China to allow 
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures, and 
other independent human rights experts immediate, meaningful, and 
unfettered access to Tibet, including access to colonial boarding 
schools, and especially boarding preschools.

                  Prepared Statement of Tenzin Dorjee

                                 ______
                                 

   China's Transnational Repression Against Tibetans in the Diaspora

    Thank you Chair Smith, Co-chair Merkley, and distinguished members 
of the Commission. It is an honor to testify today on China's 
transnational repression against Tibetans in the diaspora.
    Oppression produces exile. All oppressed nations have a blessing 
called diaspora, where stateless exiles are able to enjoy freedom of 
expression, religion, assembly, and association that they are denied 
back home. Once upon a time, Tibetans in the diaspora enjoyed these 
freedoms too.
    But in the last decade, many of these freedoms have succumbed to 
the long arm of the Chinese government. From Nepal and India to Sweden 
and Switzerland, and now in Canada and the United States, formal and 
informal agents of the Chinese government are using some of the oldest 
tactics of manipulation and some of the newest technologies of 
repression to bully, threaten, harass, and intimidate Tibetans into 
silence.
    To fully grasp why and how China's apparatus of transnational 
repression targets Tibetans, we must understand its origins. China has 
historically viewed the Tibetan diaspora as a leading threat to its 
global reputation. In the nineties, the international Tibet movement 
was quite successful at exposing China's human rights violations and 
generating bad PR for the regime. This was undermining Beijing's 
foreign policy objectives.
    It was during this period that the Chinese government launched a 
new campaign to clean up its global image. But instead of improving its 
human rights record at home, Beijing decided to go after the Tibet 
movement abroad.
    China proceeded to develop a sophisticated set of tools, tactics, 
and strategies to silence not only Tibetans but all pro-Tibet voices. 
This multi-year project to dislodge Tibet from the global agenda and 
erase it from public consciousness targets students, activists, 
artists, academics, former political prisoners, and elite institutions. 
Some of my friends and colleagues in Canada and the United States have 
gone through traumatizing experiences as a result of being targeted 
either directly by Beijing or by online mobs of Chinese nationalists, 
who are often acting at the behest of the Chinese consulates.
    One strategy that Beijing employs with devastating effectiveness is 
the relationship mapping that links individuals in the diaspora to 
their families in Tibet. This mapping of family connections allows 
Chinese authorities to use the fate of relatives back home as a pawn to 
blackmail exiled Tibetans into silence.
    Two years ago, I interviewed a Tibetan American in New York who had 
visited Tibet to see her aging parents. She told me how toward the end 
of her trip, her minders from the United Front explicitly told her that 
her political behavior going forward would determine not only her 
future chances of getting a visa, but also the safety and well-being of 
her family members in Tibet.
    Her parents are basically the hostage, and her silence in exile is 
the ransom--a ransom she must pay every day by refraining from actions, 
online or offline, that may be perceived as critical of China. Agents 
of the United Front or the Chinese consulate unfailingly communicate 
this message to every Tibetan American who visits Tibet or applies for 
a visa.
    Most of the time, though, Tibetan Americans are denied a visa 
simply because of their racial identity. Tibetan Americans applying for 
a China visa are generally put through a tortuous process of ethnic 
discrimination, individual humiliation, and eventual rejection--but not 
before their data is harvested by the consulate. They are made to 
provide the names, locations, occupations, and other biographical 
details of their relatives in Tibet. Each piece of information 
surrendered to the consulate is a data point that Beijing uses to map 
the Tibetan diaspora.
    This transnational family mapping is designed to manufacture a 
sense of guilt in the conscience of the exile, making her feel that her 
political participation will endanger her family in Tibet. The ultimate 
goal of this ``coercion by proxy'' is the political deactivation of the 
exile.
    Another common Chinese strategy is the weaponization of funding to 
depoliticize institutions and demobilize communities. This mechanism is 
visible in the case of Baimadajie, the self-identified Tibetan NYPD 
officer who was spying for the Chinese government. Exploiting the power 
of his NYPD uniform, he was trying to manipulate the leaders of the New 
York Tibetan community.
    He was saying to them: ``You guys are paying a monthly mortgage of 
nearly 50,000 dollars for your community center. I have some very 
wealthy Chinese friends who can help subsidize your mortgage. But you 
should stop flying the Tibetan flag at your events, and you should ban 
any discussion of political issues at this venue.''
    By dangling the promise of funding before the community leaders, 
Baimadajie was trying to depoliticize and co-opt one of the most 
important Tibetan-owned spaces in the diaspora.
    Beyond targeting Tibetan communities, Beijing has used its control 
over access and funding to shape political discourse on university 
campuses, cultural institutions, academic forums, and even influence 
the research agenda of budding scholars and aspiring Sinologists. 
Beijing's apologists happily exploit the openness of our democratic 
systems to defend the world's largest dictatorship.
    Nevertheless, I believe there are ways to fight this. The U.S., and 
the West in general, has conceded so much ground to China in the last 
three decades and moved the equilibrium so far in Beijing's favor. It 
is time to reset the diplomatic baseline and go back to first 
principles of historical truth and legal rights. It is time to liberate 
ourselves from the delusion that sweeping human rights under the rug 
and throwing Tibetans and Uyghurs to the wolves would somehow make 
China more likely to cooperate on issues of common interest and 
geopolitical importance.
    The best way to counter China's transnational repression is to 
proactively support the Tibetan, Uyghur, and Hong Kong people's 
transnational, decolonial advocacy for human rights and self-
determination, and strengthen the Chinese people's longstanding 
struggle for democracy and freedom.

Recommendations

    1. I request that Congress and the Administration set up a 
hotline--if possible, even an office dedicated to this issue--where 
people can report incidents of transnational repression by Beijing, and 
make relevant information and resources available in Tibetan, Uyghur, 
and other languages so that affected communities will find it easy to 
report incidents, seek protection, and pursue justice. These measures 
would not only help protect vulnerable communities but also deter CCP 
agents from engaging in some of their more blatant forms of harassment 
and intimidation.
    2. I request that Congress look into the role and responsibility of 
universities in the United States to protect the freedom of students 
who are targeted or at risk of being targeted by Beijing's apparatus of 
transnational repression. So far, public as well as private 
universities have done a drastically inadequate job of protecting their 
Chinese, Uyghur, Hong Kong, or Tibetan students from harassment, 
intimidation, or espionage activities instigated by the Chinese 
consulates or other PRC agencies.
    3. I request that Congress start mentally and discursively linking 
the issues of Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang as part of an overarching 
colonial problem that has persisted into the 21st century. The CCP 
lacks the legitimacy--historical or democratic--to rule these peoples 
and we should not let that foundational fact get lost in the complex 
discussions of the regime's current crimes against humanity. If 
Congress can lead with bold language to describe the colonial 
relationship that is at the root of China's genocidal policies and 
crimes against humanity in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong and 
consistently deny Beijing the legitimacy to rule these peoples, others 
including the Administration will follow suit when the Overton window 
for emancipation widens.
                                 ______
                                 

               Prepared Statement of Representative Smith

    Good morning, and welcome to the first hearing of the 
Congressional-Executive Commission on China to be held during this 
118th Congress.
    Today's hearing is an extremely important one, one which I hope 
will get wide attention and circulation, for it deals with the attempt 
of the Chinese Communist Party to erase an entire people, the people of 
Tibet.
    Cultural erasure happens when a people's language and religious and 
cultural heritage are stripped from them, when children are taken from 
their parents and placed in institutions--what we call ``colonial 
boarding schools''--where they cannot speak their language or practice 
their religion, but instead are taught in an alien tongue and 
effectively indoctrinated, while the ties that bind them to their 
families and culture are washed away.
    Roughly 80 percent of all Tibetan children within the Tibet 
Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China are housed in such 
institutions.
    And that's not all. According to the 2022 State Department Human 
Rights Report, the CCP's abuses in Tibet include effectively placing 
Tibetan Buddhism under central government control and subjecting 
Tibetan women to ``coerced abortion or forced sterilization.''
    What is also shocking is how intrusive the CCP's totalitarian reach 
is. Biometric data--DNA and iris scans--of over a million Tibetans has 
been harvested and stored by the CCP. Blood samples were drawn even 
from children in kindergarten.
    And you know what is even more shocking? The role of an American 
company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, in this genetic data collection and 
genetic surveillance program. In December of last year, Senator Merkley 
and I, along with Ranking Members Rubio and McGovern, wrote a letter to 
Mark Casper, the President and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific--and it 
is important that we note his name, MARK CASPER, as there needs to be 
accountability by corporate actors--asking him why DNA kits and DNA 
sequencer replacement parts were still being sold directly by his 
company to police in the Tibet Autonomous Region for use and abuse in 
collecting biometric data.
    We know this and more importantly, he knows this--because there 
have been multiple reports by Toronto-based Citizen Lab, Human Rights 
Watch, and indeed this very Commission, of Thermo Fisher products being 
implicated in ongoing human rights abuses throughout the People's 
Republic of China, through the use of DNA obtained from Tibetans, 
Uyghurs, and other ethnic and religious minorities.
    Indeed, the most nefarious misuse of DNA collection has been to 
find matches for organ recipients from unwilling, healthy, innocent 
victims.
    While we have yet to see reports of this being done to Tibetans in 
Tibet, there is now a mountain of evidence that this is what is being 
done in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region against Uyghurs and other 
Central Asians such as Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.
    Indeed, we know from Chinese open source reporting that the ``Dead 
Donor Rule,'' which governs transplants deemed ethical by the medical 
transplant industry, is routinely being violated in the PRC. We also 
know that 28 years of age is deemed the ideal age for organ ripeness by 
transplant surgeons in China, and there is effectively a culling of 
Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, and others to illicitly and 
barbarically obtain their organs.
    I would be remiss if I were not to note, however, that just 
yesterday evening, Congress took a major step forward in combating this 
horrific practice when the House of Representatives passed by a vote of 
413-2 a bill I authored, along with lead Democratic cosponsor Bill 
Keating of Massachusetts, H.R. 1154, the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting 
Act of 2023.
    We should also note that the long arm of CCP repression against 
Tibetans reaches into this very country, where Tibetans, along with 
Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, not to mention Han Chinese 
dissidents living abroad, are targeted for harassment and pressure.
    Finally, I want to note that Tibet is important because what has 
happened in Tibet, beginning in the 1950s, is a template for so many of 
the crimes against humanity that we see play out within the 
conventionally recognized borders of the People's Republic of China 
today and that prick our consciences, including what is happening in 
the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
    Indeed, both Tibet and Xinjiang are autonomous only in name, for 
both suffer a repression so staggering that one might consider it as 
amounting to genocide.
    For genocide is not only what we associate with the Holocaust, the 
gas chambers and the mass killings of men, women and children. No. For 
according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the 
Crime of Genocide, acts of genocide, intended to destroy ``in whole or 
in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,'' also 
include ``causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the 
group; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the 
group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another 
group.''
    That is what is happening in Tibet, just as it is in the Xinjiang 
Uyghur Autonomous Region. These crimes, I believe, are crimes that can 
amount to genocide.
    But to end on a more positive note, we hope to hear today from a 
distinguished panel of experts who not only will help document these 
abuses, but also point us toward a way forward--to the preservation of 
Tibet, its language, its culture, its religion, and its people.
    Thank you. And with that, I now yield to my esteemed colleague and 
Co-chair of this Commission, Senator Merkley.
                                 ______
                                 

                 Prepared Statement of Senator Merkley

    Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate that you 
have convened this hearing and I look forward to continuing to work 
with you on our shared agenda for this Congress.
    This hearing will touch on several aspects of that agenda. We'll 
hear about the unrelenting efforts by the Chinese government to erase 
the cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity in China. We'll hear 
about the long arm of transnational repression and how authorities 
reach beyond China's borders to harass and intimidate, including here 
in the United States. We'll hear about how companies headquartered here 
can be complicit in the use of their technologies to abet the machinery 
of the surveillance state. And we'll hear about the indomitable human 
spirit of those yearning to live their lives in dignity despite these 
assaults on their families and their way of life.
    This hearing explores these issues through the lens of how they 
affect Tibetans. It builds on several hearings we held last Congress to 
give voice to the aspirations of the Tibetan people, in which we 
examined Tibet's environment, political prisoners, language rights, and 
obstacles to resolving conflict through dialogue.
    The Chair and I have been joined in shining a spotlight on these 
issues by one of Tibetans' great champions, this Commission's former 
chair Jim McGovern. Due to another hearing, Congressman McGovern cannot 
be here today but will be submitting a statement for the record. I hope 
that the bipartisan legislation he has led in the House with 
Congressman McCaul and I lead in the Senate with Senator Young, the 
Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, will advance 
this Congress. And thank you so much, Chairman, for drawing attention 
to it and I really hope we can see it expedited. Dialogue to resolve 
this conflict remains frozen, as it has been for 13 years, due to 
Chinese authorities' refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama or his 
representatives. Our legislation aims to bolster existing U.S. policy 
seeking meaningful and direct dialogue without preconditions to lead to 
a negotiated agreement on Tibet.
    The Tibetan people, like people everywhere, deserve a say in how 
they are governed. The right to self-determination is foundational to 
the concept of universal human rights, enshrined in the U.N. Charter, 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Yet the Chinese government's 
policies preclude Tibetans from exercising that most basic right. I 
look forward to hearing from our witnesses on what those fighting for 
the rights of Tibetans can do about this.
    And I invite our witnesses to share their perspectives on how we 
can better protect Tibet's linguistic, religious, and cultural 
heritage. Much has been done in this area over the decades through the 
works of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration. Yet as 
today's testimony will reinforce, Chinese authorities' frontal assault 
on Tibetan language and culture now brings elevated challenges, such as 
the Chinese attempt to erase Tibetans' Tibetan-ness. The vast majority 
of Tibetan children are now placed in colonial boarding schools, as the 
chairman has referred to; 80 percent of the children six to eighteen 
being placed in these schools; children now even in preschool being put 
into these schools. This story gets worse with each passing month.
    The people of Tibet face urgent challenges and I hope today's 
hearing will help us understand better how we can support them.

             Prepared Statement of Representative McGovern

    Good morning. I join Chair Smith and Co-Chair Merkley in welcoming 
those attending today's Congressional-Executive Commission on China 
hearing on Tibet, whose people are dear to my heart. As someone who has 
long advocated for the human rights of all Tibetans, I regret that I am 
unable to attend in person due to a scheduling conflict.
    The grave, well-documented violations of the human rights of 
Tibetans that are the subject of this hearing have been going on for a 
long time. They are insidious because the long-term goal is to 
undermine the very existence of the Tibetan people.
    On paper, the constitution and laws of the People's Republic of 
China (PRC) affirm the rights of ethnic minorities to ``use and 
develop'' their languages. But in practice, Chinese authorities are 
taking every opportunity to promote Mandarin at the expense of Tibetan 
(and other minority languages) in educational settings.
    If Mandarin is essentially the only available language of 
instruction, any formal right to safeguard a mother tongue is moot. If 
criticizing the PRC's language policies is criminalized and language 
rights advocates are imprisoned, then clearly the right to ``use and 
develop'' minority languages is not respected.
    If thousands of children, including children of preschool age, are 
coerced into attending boarding schools where the instructional 
language is mostly Mandarin, while also being prevented from studying 
Tibetan language, history, and culture in other settings, then 
Tibetans' supposed right to ``use and develop'' their language does not 
exist, regardless of what Chinese authorities say.
    Those same authorities constantly interfere with the practice of 
Tibetan Buddhism. The policy of ``sinicization'' of religion--shaping 
religious identity and practice to adhere to ideological and cultural 
standards set by the PRC--is at work when Chinese officials claim legal 
authority to control the Dalai Lama's reincarnation. Or when they 
continue to hide the real Panchen Lama from the world. Or when they 
demolish historic Buddhist institutes and forcibly evict entire 
monastic communities, as happened at Larung Gar and Yachen Gar in 2016.
    There are credible reports that PRC authorities are implementing 
pervasive surveillance programs in Tibetan areas of China--programs 
that involve the collection of DNA and the scanning of irises on a 
massive level. Some of the ``data collection'' efforts have been 
focused on temples, monasteries, and schools, including primary 
schools--the very institutions at the heart of Tibetan communities that 
are essential for preserving and renewing Tibetan culture.
    Today's witnesses will provide the painful details of these PRC 
policies and their devastating consequences. Taken together, these 
policies are designed to leave Tibetans no choice but to assimilate 
into the majority Han Chinese culture and eventually disappear. This is 
cultural erasure. Tibetans in China cannot change these policies 
because they lack any effective say in how they are governed.
    What can we do about this?
    My answer to that question is H.R. 533, the Promoting a Resolution 
to the Tibet-China Conflict Act that I introduced in January with House 
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul.
    This bipartisan bill provides that it is U.S. policy to recognize 
that the Tibetan people have the right to self-determination under 
international law. But that right is precluded by current PRC 
policies--including all the policies that will be discussed today that 
aim to undermine the pillars of Tibetan existence--their language, 
religion and culture.
    By reminding the world of the basic truth that Tibetans have a 
legal right to self- determination as a people, the bill strengthens 
the longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy of promoting dialogue between 
representatives of the Tibetan people and the PRC. The goal of 
dialogue, suspended since 2010, is to ensure genuine, meaningful 
autonomy for the Tibetan people. Achieving that goal would necessarily 
end the unjust and destructive PRC policies that we are examining 
today. Genuine autonomy would end cultural erasure.
    The Tibetan people are resilient, and they have been patient. But 
no one should expect that they will be patient forever. The U.S. must 
state loudly and clearly that the Tibetan people have a right to their 
language, their culture, and to determine how they are governed--they 
have a right to self-determination and that right must be at the center 
of United States policy.

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

                          (INTENTIONALLY BLANK)


                          Witness Biographies

    Penpa Tsering, Sikyong, Central Tibetan Administration

    Sikyong Penpa Tsering was sworn in as the Sikyong of the Central 
Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan people at an official ceremony 
graced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 27, 2021.
    Born on June 3, 1963, Sikyong Penpa Tsering grew up in Lugsam 
Samdupling Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe in South India. After 
completing his higher secondary education from Central Tibetan School, 
Sikyong pursued his Bachelor's degree in Economics from Madras 
Christian College (MCC) in Chennai from 1985 to 1988.
    While pursuing his college studies, a series of major 
demonstrations erupted in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, against the 
unjust policies of the Chinese government. During this critical period, 
Sikyong Penpa Tsering joined Tibetan Freedom Movement to initiate a 
solidarity campaign with the sufferings of the Tibetan people inside 
Tibet. This office also helped connect Tibetans living in the Indian 
state of Tamil Nadu.
    Over the years after completing his college education, Sikyong 
Penpa Tsering served in various capacities and offered his wholehearted 
service to the Tibetan cause and people through nongovernmental 
organizations and by actively participating in various Tibetan 
political activities.
    In 1996, Sikyong Penpa Tsering was elected as a Member of the 
Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile from Domey Constituency. As a member of the 
Tibetan Parliament, he served as a representative of the entire Tibetan 
people and worked earnestly to resolve the issue of Tibet based on the 
mutually beneficial Middle Way Approach advocated by His Holiness the 
Dalai Lama. Employing his knowledge of economics, Sikyong Penpa Tsering 
also served on the Parliament's Budget Estimate Committee many times.
    In 2001, he was re-elected as a Member of the Tibetan Parliament 
during which he took on the role of the Executive Director of Tibetan 
Parliamentary and Policy Research Center (TPPRC), a research agency 
based in New Delhi. His efforts as the Executive Director of TPPRC and 
his constant outreach efforts directed towards Indian political leaders 
led to the successful revival of the All Party Indian Parliamentary 
Forum for Tibet (APIPFT).
    In 2008, after his re-election to a third term as a member of the 
Tibetan Parliament, Sikyong Penpa Tsering was elected as the honorable 
Speaker of the 14th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. In 2011, he was 
elected to a fourth term as a member of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-
Exile and was duly elected as the Speaker through a majority vote.
    In his two decades of service as a Tibetan parliamentarian, Sikyong 
Penpa Tsering oversaw various initiatives and activities to enhance the 
Tibetan freedom movement. From fostering a grassroots foundation of 
democratic principles among the Tibetan people to empowerment of 
Tibetan youth through workshops and seminars, he worked diligently as a 
representative of the Tibetan people with an earnest effort to 
strengthen the Tibetan movement's diplomatic relations and advocacy on 
both the national and international stage.
    From August 2016 to November 2017, Sikyong Penpa Tsering assumed 
the role and responsibility of Representative of His Holiness the Dalai 
Lama at the Office of Tibet based in Washington, D.C. His concentrated 
efforts to strengthen support for Tibet in the U.S. Government endeared 
many to the Tibetan cause. During his stint as the Representative, he 
also oversaw and participated in several forums and discussions on the 
issue of Tibet that included overseas Chinese intellectuals and 
democracy activists based in North America.
    Richard Gere, Chairman of the Board of Directors, International 
Campaign for Tibet

    Humanitarian, actor, and Golden Globe winner Richard Gere is known 
for his roles in such films as Chicago, Days of Heaven, An Officer and 
a Gentleman, The Cotton Club, American Gigolo, Pretty Woman, Primal 
Fear, Arbitrage, Time Out of Mind, and Norman.
    For more than thirty years Gere has also worked to draw attention 
and practical resolutions to humanitarian crises rooted in injustice, 
inequality, and intolerance. He has served as a long-time rights 
advocate whose humanitarian efforts have taken him to Tibet, India, 
Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Kosovo, Central America, and the Middle East.
    Gere has used his popularity to amplify the voice of the nonviolent 
struggle for Tibet. He was co-founder and Chairman of Tibet House U.S. 
in 1987. In 1991, he founded the Gere Foundation, a private foundation 
focused on advocacy, education, human rights, and cultural 
preservation.
    Mr. Gere joined the International Campaign for Tibet's Board of 
Directors where he has served as Chairman since 1995 and he has 
addressed the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the 
Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the U.S. House of Representatives, 
the European Parliament, and the United Nations Human Rights Commission 
in Geneva. He has sponsored numerous U.S. visits, teachings, and 
publications by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
    Since the early 1980s, Gere also campaigned for awareness and 
education in HIV-AIDS affected communities. He helped build the first 
female dormitory in India for HIV-positive women, their children, and 
HIV-positive orphans. He launched the Heroes Project in partnership 
with Parmesh Godrej, Kaiser Family Foundation and the Avahan AIDS 
Initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to mobilize 
government, societal leaders, and the media industry to fight HIV/AIDS 
in India.
    Most recently Gere has worked with advocacy groups like CRISIS UK 
and RAIS Fundacion to draw attention to the homeless crisis. He has 
testified in the Spanish Senate on the value of housing first and the 
urgent need for integrated solutions around the issue.
    Gere has received honors from Amnesty International, amfAR, the 
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Hadassah International, The 
Tibet Fund, and the Harvard AIDS Institute. He is the recipient of the 
German Sustainability Award for Advocacy, CARE's Humanitarian Award for 
Global Change, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, the Marian 
Anderson Award, and Freedom House's Raising Awareness Award.

    Lhadon Tethong, Co-founder and Director of Tibet Action Institute

    As director of Tibet Action Institute, Lhadon Tethong leads a team 
of technologists and rights advocates developing open-source 
technologies, strategies, and training programs for Tibetans and others 
living under extreme repression. Formerly the executive director of 
Students for a Free Tibet International, Lhadon led the campaign 
against the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She received the James Lawson Award 
for Nonviolent Achievement from the International Center on Nonviolent 
Conflict in 2011 and accepted the Democracy Award from the National 
Endowment for Democracy on behalf of Tibet Action Institute in 2018.

    Tenzin Dorjee, Senior Researcher and Strategist at Tibet Action 
Institute

    Tenzin Dorjee is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University's 
Department of Political Science. He is the author of The Tibetan 
Nonviolent Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis. His writings 
have appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Journal of 
Democracy, National Interest, Tibetan Review, and the Oxford 
Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion.

                                 [all]