[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 44 (Monday, March 10, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           TIBET UPRISING DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 10, 2025

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today marks a sad and brutal 
anniversary: the violent crushing in 1959 by the Communist Chinese 
People's Liberation Army of a patriotic movement that resulted in the 
deaths of tens of thousands of Tibetans and the fleeing into exile of 
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
  The world saw the true nature of the Communist regime and was 
horrified.
  In the ensuing decades since then, I am afraid there has been a 
dulling of the moral clarity we once possessed. Today, businesses, 
universities and politicians seek to partner with the People's Republic 
of China, lulled by the thought of lucre or enhanced prestige.
  The nature of the Chinese Communist regime has not changed, however, 
nor has its goals. In 1959 the evil intent toward the great people of 
Tibet was manifested for all to see. Today, however, the genocidal 
repression is more subtle.
  We see a slow-motion erasure of Tibetan culture, of children being 
taken from their parents and placed into colonial boarding schools 
where they are cut off from their language and culture. We see Tibetan 
women being forcibly sterilized, their children aborted.
  Genocide does not require gas chambers or killing fields; per the 
Genocide Convention of 1948, its attributes include the ``imposing [of] 
measures intended to prevent births within the group,'' and ``forcibly 
transferring children of the group to another group.''
  This is what is happening. Today.
  So strongly do I feel about this, that when I was named chair of the 
Congressional-Executive Commission on China last Congress, the very 
first hearing I convened was on ``Preserving Tibet: Combating Cultural 
Erasure, Forced Assimilation and Transnational Repression.''
  Yet the CCP continues to wage a campaign of repression targeting the 
right of Tibetans to educate their children. As noted, they are placed 
in colonial boarding schools, while across the Tibetan plateau the CCP 
shutters independent schools, many associated with monastic 
institutions. Young monks in particular are being forced to leave their 
religious training and enroll in state-run schools.
  Schools that have been shut down in the last year include one 
attached to Kirti Monastery in Sichuan, and the Ragya Gangjong Sherig 
Norbulmg school in Qinghai. These school closures cut off a vital way 
for Tibetans to transmit their religious, linguistic, and cultural 
heritage, and should be viewed as a key part of the larger Sinicization 
project in Tibet.
  There is an information blockade on Tibet, particularly the Tibet 
Autonomous Region. Thus, we could not obtain information about the 
January 2025 earthquake in Dingrim, and were left in the dark about how 
widespread damage was, how many people died or were injured, and what 
is the status of relief work.
  Indeed, just this past first week of March, Chinese officials 
indicated that the number of affected people was more than twice what 
was previously reported.
  Authorities have reportedly detained dozens of Tibetans for spreading 
``false information'' about the earthquake. Meanwhile a Tibetan 
Buddhist monastery librarian was sentenced to 3 years in prison for 
``inciting separatism'' because he was in contact with people outside 
Tibet and shared books that had been published abroad.
  PRC officials are continuing the recent change in official 
terminology regarding Tibet, now referring in English to anything 
related to the Tibet Autonomous Region as ``Xizang,'' the Mandarin word 
for Tibet. Organizations around the world that interact with the PRC 
government, for example museums, are pressured to accept this change.
  Atshog (Atsok) Monastery in Qinghai was demolished last summer, and 
by fall the site was submerged under a new dam's filling reservoir, 
destroying stupa and murals that couldn't be relocated, and forcing the 
resettlement of the monastery's resident monks.
  Of course, as geographic location is an important religious factor 
for Tibetan Buddhism, with local deities are often identified with 
geographic features like mountains or rivers, simply moving a monastery 
can never make up for what is lost.
  Thus, if we are going to preserve Tibet, we in Congress need to 
continue to hear their voice. We cannot only pay attention on 
anniversaries such as March 10, but rather we must resolve to raise the 
cause of Tibet on a day-to-day basis.
  The first step, however, is not forgetting. That is why we are here 
today.
  Let's continue to work together to preserve Tibet and one day, we 
hope, we will see a free and independent Tibet.

                          ____________________