China's propaganda: "Heavenly Tibet" pavilion at Shanghai Expo

 

The Tibet Pavilion (1) at Shanghai Expo, whose opening ceremony is this Friday 30 April, is a crude attempt by the Chinese administration to gloss over the reality of human rights violations and marginalisation that are facts of life for Tibetans in Tibet.

 

Free Tibet calls upon visitors, particularly world leaders, to avoid visiting the “Heavenly Tibet” pavilion with its claims of “New Tibet, Better Life”. To visit this parody is to tacitly endorse China’s policies in Tibet of arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, patriotic re-education and the occupation of Tibet.

 

 

Dalai Lama: Tibetans experiencing “Hell on Earth”

 

The reality of life in Tibet, which China is so desperate to brush under the carpet with its Tibet imagery at the World Expo, is in fact anything but “heavenly”.

 

More than 1,000 Tibetans detained in the aftermath of the 2008 protests remain officially unaccounted for by the Chinese authorities. Chinese courts in Tibet continue to impose harsh and disproportionate sentences on Tibetans attempting to communicate the dire situation inside Tibet to the outside world: one Tibetan, Wangdu, was sentenced to life imprisonment on espionage charges after simply sending an email to an overseas contact. International news organisations recently reported an overt military presence on the streets of Lhasa and other Tibetan towns, enforcing tight restrictions on the movements of Tibetans between and within towns(2). These measures, together with the spate of disproportionate sentencings, have instilled a climate of deep fear among Tibetans.

 

Speaking on 10 March 2010, the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising, the Dalai emphasised that, far from being “heavenly” as claimed by China, life inside Tibet is, in fact, “hell on earth”(3).

 

Free Tibet calls on international leaders to avoid the Tibet Pavilion

 

Free Tibet is calling on world political and business leaders invited to Shanghai Expo to shun the Tibet Pavilion. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, alongside other world leaders, will be at Friday’s opening ceremony.

 

Free Tibet’s Director, Stephanie Brigden, said:

 

“Any visit to the Tibet Pavilion by a foreign visitor to Shanghai Expo constitutes a tacit endorsement of China’s policies in Tibet of arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, patriotic re-education and the occupation of Tibet. Pleading ignorance of what is happening in Tibet is simply not an excuse. TV pictures of Chinese brutality in Tibet just two years ago shot around the world, laying bare China’s conceit that all is well in Tibet.”

 

 

Ends

For further information:

 

Matt Whitticase, External Communications

t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456 and email: matt@freetibet.org

 

Stephanie Brigden, Director

t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 and email: stephanie@freetibet.org

 

 

Notes to Editor:

 

(1)   The official website for the Tibet Pavilion is available at: http://en.expo2010.cn/c/en_dq_tpl_265.htm

(2)   Reports from The Times, AP and AFP on China’s ongoing security crackdown in Tibet are available at: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=10033305 and: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7056345.ece and: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hFCnhVt-j73LGL3iFkG7b4I3eDHw

(3)   The Dalai Lama’s comments were reported in an online BBC article which is available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7933207.stm