Washington, DC: The Chinese Liaison Officer, the Office of Tibet, Washington DC, Tsultrim Gyatso organized the first Clubhouse room on the Tibetan issue in the Chinese language on March 26 with help from moderators from China news, a club in Clubhouse that focuses on the movements of the different oppressed groups in China.
Supporters from Uygur, Hongkong, Mongol, Taiwan, and mostly Chinese from both abroad and mainland China joined and showed their deep interest in knowing more about Tibet. The room started around 1:00 PM US Eastern Time on the topic “Where is Tibet in the Clubhouse?” and concluded at 11:00 PM. The audience size maintained around 500 for all 10 hours and at its peak reached around 800.
The Chinese Liaison Officer, Tsultrim Gyatso introduced the status of Tibet under the current brutal repressive crackdown policies in Tibet and the censorship of information from Tibet to the outside world, causing difficulty in receiving updates from Tibet. He also introduced the Middle Way policy, the policy guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and treaded by CTA to seek open dialogue with China to resolve the Tibetan issue peacefully. He clarified that under this policy, His Holiness and the CTA seeks genuine autonomy rather than Tibetan independence, within the framework of the Chinese constitution.
Tsultrim Gyatso urged both Chinese living abroad and in mainland China to interact with Tibetans and find the factual status of Tibet.
All of them agreed that His Holiness represents the hope of the entire Tibetan movement. Chinese from mainland China in the audience echoed and expressed their apology to Tibetans for what they have been through.
Mr Chen Guangcheng, Mr Ai Weiwei also joined in for support and spoke in the clubroom. Mr Chen, the well-known human rights defender shared a warm account of his meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama where His Holiness had taken in Mr Chen’s hand and affectionately brought it to his face in a gesture of warmth. He also shared about other occasions where he met Tibetans in America and how he was deeply touched by their compassionate attitude. Mr Chen said there is a lot that the Chinese can learn in terms of compassion and spirituality from the Tibetan community. Mr Ai Weiwei asserted that the repressive policy in Tibet hasn’t changed but worsened in recent times. He also expressed his guilt from his position as a native Chinese, when hearing of the sad stories of Tibetans escaping through the treacherous Himalayan mountains. There were also representatives from Taiwan, supporters from Uygur, Mongolian and Chinese who delivered their solidarity through this platform.
In the 10-hour long club room on the Tibet issue, many Chinese from mainland China shared their experiences of witnessing how restrictive Tibet has become and the existing poverty inside Tibet.
The Chinese Liaison Officer echoed these facts and answered all the questions raised on different topics of Tibet. Tsultrim urged the audience to interact with Tibetans to learn about the history of Tibet and participate in future Sino-Tibet dialogue events on all platforms. He also urged Tibetans fluent in Chinese to participate in these discussions facilitated by the new tech platforms and share their experiential accounts with the Chinese. Among the audience, a couple of Tibetan youth joined in and shared their experience of fleeing Tibet at a young age, making their escape through the rugged terrains of Himalaya in addition to the pain of leaving behind their family and homeland to follow His Holiness the Dalai Lama into exile.
- filed by Office of Tibet, Washington DC