Dharamshala: With nations around the world still paying the price for China’s system that propelled the spread of coronavirus around the globe, the unapologetic Chinese government executes an expansionist agenda to overturn the international rule of law and forcefully bend countries to its will.
Inside China, the regime has stepped up a crackdown to silence the growing unrest over its coverup of the pandemic. CCP’s vulnerabilities have never been more exposed. The withering attacks at the Indian borders since April, ironically on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Sino-India diplomatic relations, bare China’s deceitful, devious and long term agenda to annex the “five fingers” as it occupied the “right hand palm”, Tibet in 1959.
In what could be viewed as unprecedented media coverage on Tibet, CTA’s President Dr Lobsang Sangay gave some 30 back-to-back media interviews in less a month’s time, highlighting the issue of Tibet as core to the resolution of ongoing India’s border tensions with China.
Appearing live in the national Indian English and Hindi news channels’ prime time, Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay vigorously raised the strategic and historical importance of Tibet as a buffer “zone of peace” between India and China.
Sikyong’s extensive interview to Hindi news channels as well as some regional media brought Tibet home to not only the Indian urban masses but to the most remote rural audiences as well.
Highlights of Sikyong’s 30 Back-to-Back Media Interviews:
“China is trying to change the narrative by helping other countries, but we should not hide the fact, that China was silent, suppressed the information and left the world unprepared. If they intervened early, 95 percent of the world pandemic would have been prevented. China’s trust deficit has exploded and the leadership of the WHO is now being questioned. We should be objective and once the crisis is over, we will conclude that the democratic systems handled the situation better than the authoritarian ones”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on FORUM 2000, 28 April 2020.
“Rather than dwelling on petty differences created by a narrow concept such as us and them, it is more crucial that we come together as one human community and realise that we are all interdependent on each other because coronavirus has no respect for social, racial, economic barriers of humans”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Ira Trivedi live interview, 11 May 2020.
“The Indo-Tibet border has been in existence for thousands of years of recorded history. Since it has become the India-China border, all these tensions have come up. Hence, the core issue is Tibet. When Tibet was independent, the Indian Army did not require a defence budget of 60 billion dollars, it was not necessary at all. So, once Tibet is demilitarised and declared a zone of peace, two largest populated countries in the world, India and China, will have permanent peace”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on India Today with Geeta Mohan, 2 June 2020.
“CTA’s stand is very clear. Ladakh is a part of India as are Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Whenever His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I visit these places, we do as a guest of India. Moreover, His Holiness has been advocating for India’s culture and secularism for the last 60 years”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Aaj Tak with Rohit Sardana, 2 June 2020.
“The border conflict facing India is the result of the occupation of Tibet and to ensure permanent peace between China and India-the world’s two largest populated nations. Its the incremental approach, its the leadership cooptation, and slowly and steadily China makes all the intrusion. Soon you realise that your country is gone”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on NewsX with Rishabh Gulati, 2 June 2020.
“China says Tibet is part of China, Taiwan is part of China, Arunachal is part of China, Ladakh is part of China, but coronavirus is not part of China. They are staking claim to everything but coronavirus. This is what the Chinese Communist Party is capable of”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on India News, 3 June 2020.
“Neighbouring countries should be wary of China’s playbook of deception that was symbolised in China’s occupation of Tibet in 1959”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Himachal Dastak with Rajesh Sharma, 4 June 2020.
“The only preventive measure is quarantine places and social distancing. We also provide immune-boosting Tibetan medicine and proper sanitization of Tibetan settlements. We have locked down all the settlements, schools, and monasteries. This is how we have managed to be safe so far”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Rajya Sabha TV with Akhilesh Suman, 9 June 2020.
“Pragmatically the most viable solution and the most peaceful is through Middle Way Approach and dialogue as envisioned by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since the early 1970s, the CTA has pursued dialogue with the Chinese government based on the Middle Way Approach and global support that is received for the Tibetan cause has further re-affirmed CTA’s commitment to MWA. Hence Tibet issue is very much alive and we will continue to pursue peaceful resolution of Tibet through dialogue based on MWA with China”: President Dr Lobsang on TV9 Bharatvarsh’s Abhishek Upadhyay, 9 June 2020.
“The Chinese government always say Tibet is one of the core issues you know, for instance, Xi-Jinping has been on the record to say security and stability of China are dependent on security and stability of Tibet. That’s how important it is for the Chinese government. Similarly, the Indian government should also say ‘for the security of India, Tibet needs to be free”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on India Today with Rahul Kanwal, 9 June 2020.
“The Chinese government has been commenting on the internal matters of India at the UNSC and UN forums. They don’t tend to support India’s case. That is important for the Indian people to know, and the Indian government should respond accordingly”: President Dr Lobsang Sanagy on The Print with Nayanima Basu, 10 June 2020.
“De-escalation is good as we saw in Dokhlam also. As long as it is backed up with real action then you should trust them. As we always say, trust but you must verify. From our sixty years of experience, it is quite difficult to trust the Chinese regime. They say something and do exactly the opposite”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Republic TV with Arnab Goswami.
“When Tibet was occupied, Mao Zedong and then Chinese leaders have said that Tibet is a palm and Ladakh, Sikkim, Nepal, Bhutan, and Arunachal are five fingers. So once they occupied the palm and now they are coming after the five fingers. So the adventurism and the incursions in Ladakh and Sikkim is nothing surprising as we have been saying all these years after the occupation of Tibet ‘what has happened to us could happen to all the neighbouring countries including India”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Northeast Live with Wasbir Hussain, 16 June 2020.
“CTA expresses its deep concern and in fact, any kind of violence should be condemned. The unfortunate incident of 3 jawans being killed is uncalled for because as it is, we were told that de-escalation is happening and talks were happening. This is LAC where there should not be violence. In fact, the gun should be pointed downwards, not at each other and far less, shoot at someone. So we condemn this violence and peace should resume. Historically, this was a border between Tibet and India, it was a demilitarized zone, a peaceful zone, Tibet was a zone of peace since the border of Tibet and India changed to China and India then all this tension have come up and continues to do so”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on CNN News with Maha Siddiqui, 16 June 2020.
“In the 1950s, there was a great debate in Indian parliament where Vallabhai Patel and Pt Nehru Ji and others participated in the great debate in the parliament saying we must criticize the invasion of Tibet and not accept the occupation of Tibet. Ultimately Tibet was occupied and then this year also marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and China, which means India let go Taiwan and recognized China and also published China to become the member of UN Security Council. So instead of thanking India on the 70th anniversary, this is happening. This is how the current Chinese leadership reciprocate the kindness India has shown 70 years ago“: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on NewsX with Rishabh Gulati, 16 June 2020.
“China wants to maintain its strategic dominance and that’s why they are not giving any space to India. It is all the part of a grand strategy of Chinese. To shake hands on the one hand and at the same flex the muscle with other hand”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Times Now with Padmaja Joshi, 17 June 2020.
“China wants to be a global superpower and in Asia, it is sending the message that China has become a global superpower and nobody can compete with them. Look at the South China Sea, Japan and the rest and with India in South Asia, by intruding at the border, they are sending the message that we have arrived; we are Asia’s top power, we want to be the global superpower”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on News18 India with Amish Devgan, 18 June 2020.
“The exploitation of natural resources and gross human rights abuse are continually happening inside Tibet. The incursions strategy is such that they would take over 10 km and say let us compromise and as a compromise, they would pretend to step back 2 km or 3 km at the most but in reality, the truth is they have already captured 7 km of land. That is their clever strategy”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Zee News with Aditi Tyagi, 18 June 2020.
“I think it would be good to remember the statement made by late Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who said, in fact for India, China is adversary no. 1. Because if you look at LOC and LAC. LOC is much shorter. LAC is 3488 km long border, essentially and historically border between Tibet and India. It is at least two times if not three times longer than LOC which borders with China. Hence China’s policy of encirclement is clear. Five fingers include Bhutan and Nepal. Already in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan already an all-weather friend. This is short meets long term strategy. Ladakh incident is one part of the strategy. We have been saying this for the last 60 years. Tibet was occupied and you are next. No one listened to us for 60 years and this is what’s happening“: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on NDTV with Sonia Singh, 19 June 2020.
“These tactics by Beijing will only increase as it is pursuing its expansionist policies in the region. Having occupied the palm (Tibet) now they’re are the five fingers. China is putting pressure on India’s immediate neighbours Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, so India will need to counter China”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Strat News Global, 20 June 2020.
“Look at the map of China, the ethnic Han Chinese dominated territory is only 40 percent. 60 percent of the territory belong to other ethnic groups or nationalities including Tibet which is one-fifth of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and all that. The Chinese empire has expanded because of invasion and encroachment from many years and it is still continuing today at Galwan, Dokhlam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Under international law, India has the right to defend its territory. Just as we tackled them during Dokhlam, we have to respond in the same way at Galwan”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on News 24, 22 June 2020.
“It will require a multilateral front to respond to mishandling of powers by China. The democratic countries around the world must forge an alliance to systematically counter the economic and military intimidations by China and reset its relations with Xi Jinping’s regime in Beijing on every front. The world can no longer hope that China will someday play by the rules because it clearly never did and never will. Tibetans have been saying this for the past 70 years and, if the world still continues to ignore it, China will soon dismantle the rules-based world order to impose its very own draconian system globally”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on Deccan Herald, 22 June 2020.
“People in Hong Kong advocating basic freedom, basic human right–right to freedom of speech, right to assembly, right to democracy. On national security, the law has been imposed. We are the first victims of national security law. So many security laws have been passed in Tibet, each time security law is passed, it essentially means security is more important than individual freedom, freedom of speech, unity more important than diversity. We have seen this in Tibet, people of Hong Kong should study the origin of security law in Tibet and how it is being interpreted now, explained one way and exploited. You have to issue of Tibet to understand the mindset and manipulation of the Chinese govt. Be it India, Nepal or Hong Kong. People need to pay issue. Explain Tibet is a zone of peace, demilitarized zone”: President Dr Lobsang Sangay on WION News, 22 June 2020.