China vows tit-for-tat visa curbs on US officials who ‘meddle’ in Tibet

Beijing hits back after Washington announces sanctions on Chinese officials suspected of role in alleged ‘forced assimilation’ of Tibetan children
The retaliatory measures will target American personnel involved in accusations and those with history of interfering in autonomous region’s affairs

US-China relations

Zhao Ziwen

Published: 8:50pm, 31 Aug 2023

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China will impose tit-for-tat sanctions on US personnel in retaliation for Washington’s recent visa curbs on Chinese officials over Beijing’s alleged “forced assimilation” policy in Tibet, China’s foreign ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin confirmed on Thursday that China would impose “reciprocal visa restrictions” on US personnel involved in the “forced assimilation” accusation and those who had “meddled in Tibet-related issues for a long time”.

Beijing’s salvo came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions against Chinese officials last week for their suspected involvement in what Washington called the “forced assimilation” of more than 1 million Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools.

Blinken said in a statement that Beijing’s policy sought to “eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans”, but did not name the individuals or organisations who would face the sanction.

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Wang said “the US ignores the facts, fabricates Tibet-related lies and imposes illegal sanctions on Chinese officials”, adding that Washington’s new sanctions “seriously interfere with China’s internal affairs”.

“We once again urge the US to respect the facts, stop spreading Tibet-related lies, and stop using the Tibet-related issue to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” he added.

In February, three United Nations special rapporteurs on minority issues, education and cultural rights published a report raising concerns about Tibet’s residential school system, describing it as “a mandatory large-scale programme intended to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture”.

The report said children of Tibetan ethnicity were forced to complete a “compulsory education” curriculum in Mandarin, with no access to traditional or culturally relevant learning.

Meanwhile, many of the region’s rural schools have closed, forcing children living in many Tibetan communities to move away from their families to attend county-level boarding schools where instruction is almost exclusively in Mandarin, according to the report.

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Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, said in March that boarding schools had been established across China to provide schooling for children living in remote areas who would not have access to education otherwise.

“Boarding schools in Tibet are the same as those in other provinces … and they provide students cultural classes in the Tibetan language and lessons such as Tibetan dances,” Mao said. “The students enjoy traditional Tibetan food and can wear their traditional costumes in school, too.”

Tibet was annexed by the People’s Liberation Army in 1950, a year after the Communist Party won the Chinese civil war. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and remains the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet.

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Beijing blamed him for unrest in Tibet in the late 1980s and again in 2008, calling the Nobel Peace Prize laureate a “separatist” seeking independence for Tibet – a claim the Dalai Lama denies.

In recent weeks, some Chinese academics have called for Beijing to refer to the autonomous region as Xizang – the Chinese name for Tibet – when communicating in English to help “reconstruct” the region’s image.

Instruction in standard Chinese – both spoken and written – has become an important policy in the country’s ethnic minority regions to curb separatism.

Inner Mongolia in northern China announced in 2020 that three core subjects – literature, ethics and history – must be taught in Mandarin instead of the Mongolian language, triggering a series of protests.