DHARAMSHALA: Experts on China from around the world will participate in 3-day conference on Leadership Transition in China: Implications for the Chinese, Tibetans and Others. The conference is being organised by the Tibet Policy Institute from 28-30 December in Dharamsala.

“I welcome the China experts to Dharamsala,” said Sikyong, Dr. Lobsang Sangay. “I am confident that all the young staff of the Central Tibetan Administration attending the 3-day conference on the leadership transition in China will receive new insights and perspectives from these China scholars.”

The Sikyong and Kalon Dicki Chhoyang of the Department of Information & International Relations will address the opening session of the conference.

The China experts who will speak at the conference include scholars like Prof. Chong-Pin Lin, former deputy defense minister of Taiwan and a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies in Tamkang University in Taiwan. It also includes Michael van Walt van Praag who is visiting professor at Modern International Relations and International Law at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (USA). Michael Van Walt is the author of the Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law, which is considered the most definitive work on the international status of Tibet. The scholars also include Dr. Gordon G. Chang, the author of the celebrated book, The Coming Collapse of China. Dr. Gordon G. Chang currently teaches at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Western Illinois University.

Other noted speakers include Prof. Madhu Bhalla of Department of East Asian Studies, Delhi University, Dr. Abanti Bhattacharya, Department of East Asian Studies of University of Delhi, former special envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Kasur Lodi Gyari, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Representative in Taiwan Mr Dawa Tsering, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Secretary Mr Tsegyam.

Besides these scholars, there are also independent scholars and writers like Zhu Rui who though born in China and worked in Tibet now lives in Canada and writes extensively of the issue of Tibet in various Chinese language journals and websites.