A Year Marking Lots of Anniversaries

Students gathering to mourn reformer Hu Yaobang's death in 1989

 This year, 2019, is full of anniversaries for China, many of them are ones the government would like to avoid. That means spiriting away dissidents on "forced trips" and cleaning streets to get rid of homeless people, and those lovely security checks in subway stations will be stepped up even more.

The Dalai Lama fled to India 60 years ago

Coming up on March 10 is the 60th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. Since this month, the government has banned foreign visitors from traveling to Tibet so that they don't even have a chance to cause trouble during this "sensitive time"; they may be allowed back in from April 1.

March 17 is also the 60th anniversary of when the Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India. Will His Holiness come out to say something about what a travesty it is to be exiled from his homeland for six decades?

This year is the 100th anniversary of the May 4 Movement

Then April 15 will be another sensitive anniversary -- 30 years since the death of ousted reformer Hu Yaobang, that sparked students to gather at Tiananmen Square, and then we all know what happened less than two months later.

However, the government will be happy to mark the May 4 Movement -- the 100th anniversary. There will probably be pomp and circumstance to celebrate this event where students led the call for anti-imperialism because at the time China could not or did not stand up to foreign powers. It led to the surge of nationalism and to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.

Sad remembrance: It is three decades since June 4, 1989

Hard to believe the June 4 anniversary is 30 years on... the candlelight vigil in Hong Kong's Victoria Park will probably be the same, but the significance is greater. The Chinese government doesn't even want to talk about what happened during the Cultural Revolution, so how can it even begin to touch the subject of 1989? The silence is deafening.

Ten years ago I was in Xian when the Urumqi riots broke out. Suddenly state media turned into overdrive, writing tons of articles of how the Han Chinese in Xinjiang were attacked, how horrible it was, and how those attackers should be punished severely. It was a very tense time. Given the current situation in Xinjiang, the Chinese government may use the anniversary as further justification for putting Uighurs into "education camps"...

Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the PRC 70 years ago

But to cap the year off will be the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1. There will definitely be a lot of fanfare (and cleaning the streets) for that celebration. The government will probably spare no expense to have a stunning fireworks display while enforcing lots of road blocks and security checks...

There won't be a dull moment in China this year!

Tibetan's Escape to the US

A recent picture of Dhondup Wangchen who landed in San Francisco

We are fascinated by the news that a Tibetan filmmaker managed to elude police surveillance in China and escape to the United States.

Dhondup Wangchen, 43, arrived in San Francisco on Christmas Day where he was reunited with his wife and children who were granted political asylum in 2012.

"After many years, this is the first time I'm enjoying the feeling of safety and freedom," Wangchen said in a statement issued by Filming for Tibet, a group set up by his cousin that campaigned for his release.

A scene from Wangchen's documentary, Leaving Fear Behind

"I would like to thank everyone who made it possible for me to hold my wife and children in my arms again. However, I also feel the pain of having left behind my country, Tibet."

He's a self-taught filmmaker from Qinghai province where he spent five months in 2007 interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule. His documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, has many Tibetans talking about their love for exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and how they thought the 2008 Beijing Olympics would do little to improve their situation.

Wangchen was detained in 2008, after his footage was smuggled out of China and shown at film festivals around the world, and shown to a group of foreign reporters ahead of the Olympics. He was later convicted for "inciting subversion" and sentenced to six years in prison.

Wangchen's wife, Lhamo Tso campaigned for his release

While he was in prison, many rights groups campaigned for his release, saying he was denied medical care after he contracted hepatitis B in jail, that he was forced to do manual labour and kept in solitary confinement for six months.

His case was apparently raised by the United States with Beijing "at the highest level", according to a Tibetan rights group called International Campaign for Tibet.

However, Wangchen's supporters did not explain how exactly he managed to escape, as he was under heavy police surveillance, with his communications monitored.

"The six years Dhondup Wangchen had to spend in jail are a stark reminder of the human costs that China's policies continue to have on the Tibetan people," said Matteo Mecacci, president of International Campaign for Tibet. "Dhondup Wangchen should never had to pay such a high personal price for exercising his freedom of expression."

Tibetans cannot openly worship the Dalai Lama

In the coming days, weeks and months it will be interesting to see what he has to say about how life is like in Tibet these days. Since the Chinese government began ruling over Tibet in 1950, there have been repressive measures in place, in particular since 2008 when riots erupted in the area.

Devotees of the Dalai Lama are forbidden from speaking about him, having his picture posted on the walls and Tibetans say their culture and language are being threatened by Han Chinese.

A shocking statistic to keep in mind is that more than 150 people have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest against the Chinese government, the latest case on Wednesday. In turn Beijing calls these self-immolators "terrorists" and blames the Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan rights groups for inciting them.

While we are pleased Wangchen is now safe, he may feel powerless to help fellow Tibetans from the outside. It's a difficult existence, but one that he and many dissidents before him have had to navigate. We hope he finds his footing and renewed purpose in his new home.

Beijing's 1st Tibetan Search Engine

New search engine Yongzin looks very similar to Google, no?

China recently launched its first search engine -- in Tibetan called Yongzin, which means "teacher" or "master". State media outlet Xinhua says Yongzin is a "unified portal for all major Tibetan-language websites in China".

The search engine has been in the making since 2013 and cost 57 million yuan (US$8.7 million) to produce. Eighty percent of the 150 developers are ethnic Tibetan, and the site is expected to benefit 2 million users.

You will be hard pressed to find images of him on Yongzin

With an entire population of over 1.2 billion, why would the Chinese government bother to set up a search engine for such a small percentage of people?

"[It will] meet the growing needs of the Tibetan-speaking population and facilitate the building of Tibetan digital archives and the expansion of databases in the Tibetan language," an official said.

Or how about trying to control the information flow Tibetans can access in their own language?

Tibet watchers outside of China seem skeptical about this latest development. "After decades of effectively suppressing the Tibetan language, China now puts emphasis on being seen to support it," observed Alistair Currie of the Free Tibet Movement.

"As with everything in Tibet, language is tainted with political connotations, and Beijing wants to control any development rather than permit it."

And there are problems trying to find images of Tibetan tea

Some media asked Tibetan-speaking users to try out the portal and found searches for the Dalai Lama didn't even show his official website. "None of the top results [on Yongzin] are particularly relevant," a researcher said.

When the search switched to images, the results showed images from a defunct website compared to Google, which had lots of pictures of the Dalai Lama.

Another search was made for "Tibetan tea", and those results showed Chinese officials drinking tea, whereas Google had images of the actual beverage.

Currie noted there were many more blogs, websites and social media from Tibet that were not accessible through the search engine.

So what's the whole point of this 57 million yuan exercise when hardly anything is accessible?

Anger Over Lancome Brews

Protesters, including pan-democratic lawmakers were against Lancome

Cosmetics giant L'Oreal is falling into the trap of doing exactly what you shouldn't do in a crisis -- hide and shut up.

Today there was a pretty vocal protest march into Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay, trying to enter the Lancome cosmetics area to shame it from cancelling a free mini concert it had organized on June 19, with Denise Ho Wan-sze as the headline act.

They complained the brand was kowtowing to China

The whole kerfuffle started when the nationalistic state media outlet Global Times accused Lancome of inviting "a Hong Kong and Tibet independence advocate to promote products", while mainland internet users threatened to boycott the brand.

Ho was a strong supporter of the 2014 Occupy protests, even willing to be arrested when police moved in to shut down the 79-day movement in Admiralty. She was also pictured meeting the Dalai Lama on her 39th birthday in May.

It was the threat of mainland customers potentially boycotting Lancome and possibly other beauty brands under L'Oreal, that it seems like Hong Kong was sacrificed to placate the mainland market, and Hong Kong people were not happy.

Knowing there would be protests today, several cosmetic brands closed their shops citing security reasons, including Lancome, Yves Saint Laurent Beaute, Helena Rubenstein, and Shu Uemura.

Denise Ho being escorted by police out of the Occupy protest

Protesters, including at least six pan-democratic lawmakers and Demosisto's Joshua Wong Chi-fung shouted, "Say no to self-censorship!" and "We are all Ho Wan-sze, say no to the mainland's hegemony!"

While Ho herself didn't make an appearance, she was interviewed by the BBC. She said she was "shocked and saddened" by Lancome's decision.

"As an international brand, it should stand firm on its core values and moral standards... It is not just about making money," Ho said.

On Monday she issued a statement, calling for Lancome to explain itself. But so far there's just been silence -- and closed shops.

Ho, in white shirt, met the Dalai Lama in May

It's hard to understand why Lancome chose Ho to be associated with the brand, knowing her political stance since at least 2014. It is naive of the brand to think Ho is only an artist -- she also has very strong political views and she's paying the price for it, with no opportunities for high-paying gigs on the mainland.

The incident also plainly shows how Lancome is desperately kowtowing to Beijing -- but again, if it wants to curry favour with the mainland market, surely it should have known that one shouldn't choose Ho to perform?

Heads will definitely roll in Lancome, but in the meantime someone has to come forward and explain the whole situation. But as this is Hong Kong, where transparency is hardly the norm, we expect more stony silence in the days to come...

Without China's Consent

The Dalai Lama and US President Barack Obama chatting in the Map Room

We are still hearing the ringing in our ears from the shrillness of China's voice condemning US President Barack Obama for meeting with the Dalai Lama yesterday.

The White House made a last-minute announcement of the meeting and added it would take place in the Map Room, on the ground floor of the president's residence as opposed to the Oval Office to tone down the formality of the event.

Nevertheless, the pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader meeting with Obama must have riled up senior Chinese officials despite their attempts to encourage the president to call off the meeting.

"The US seriously interfered in China's internal affairs by allowing the Dalai's visit to the United States and arranging the meetings with US leaders," China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

"We urge the US to take China's concerns seriously, stop tolerance and support of anti-China separatist forces, cease interfering in China's internal affairs and immediately take measures to eliminate its baneful influence to avoid further impairment to China-US relations."

Yawn. The Foreign Ministry makes the same refrain each time someone plans to meet the Dalai Lama. And such petulant behaviour makes China look like a child that wants its cake and eat it too.

Meanwhile the US National Security Council stressed on Twitter that Obama was meeting the Dalai Lama in his capacity as "an internationally respected religious and cultural leader".

As for "interfering in China's internal affairs", the White House said Obama "reiterated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People's Republic of China. The President commended the Dalai Lama's commitment to peace and nonviolence and expressed support for the Dalai Lama's 'Middle Way' approach."

The statement adds Obama encouraged China and Tibetan representatives to have more direct talks to resolve their differences. "In this context, the President reiterated the US position that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China and that the United States does not support Tibet independence. The Dalai Lama stated that he is not seeking independence for Tibet and hopes that dialogue between his representatives and the Chinese government will resume."

You heard it here folks -- the US doesn't support Tibetan independence and neither does the Dalai Lama.

So China, what's the problem? If the mainland continues to call the Dalai Lama "a wolf in monk's robes" and "a devil", then who can take China seriously?