On Tuesday this week, 33-year-old Tibetan language advocate and activist, Tashi Wangchuk was sentenced to five years in the Chinese prison after being arbitrarily detained for more than 2 years.
The Yushu Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Tashi Wangchuk after an interview with the New York Times came out. In the interview, Tashi talked about his graving concerns on the fate of Tibetan language and culture and his efforts to file a lawsuit against the local government for their failure to protect and preserve language and culture of the ethnic minorities in China, particularly Tibetan.
In the New York Times documentary titled A Tibetan’s Journey for Justice, Tashi said “The local government is controlling the actual Tibetan culture, such as the spoken and written language. It looks like development or help on the surface, but the actual goal is to eliminate our culture.”
Provisions in the Chinese constitution and in the Regional National Autonomy Law provides people belonging to ethnic minorities the full right to preserve their own language. Despite the efforts, the Chinese court handed him five years in prison under the charge of ‘inciting separatism’.
In Tibet, the Chinese authorities are extensively promoting Mandarin as the main medium of instruction in all government-run schools where the Tibetan language is being considered a periphery language.
“Today’s verdict is a gross injustice,” he said. “To brand peaceful activism for the Tibetan language as ‘inciting separatism’ is beyond absurd,” said Tashi’s lawyer Lin Xiaojun after the court announced its verdict.
Following the news of Tashi Wangchuk’s sentencing, The US Department of State released a statement expressing disappointment and called for the immediate and unconditional release of Tashi Wangchuk.
The Canadian government also urged China to ‘uphold its own constitution and laws and to respect its international human rights obligations’.
Human rights organisations across the globe have also expressed concerns.
Joshua Rosenzweig, East Asia Research Director at Amnesty International said “Today’s verdict against Tashi Wangchuk is a gross injustice. He is being cruelly punished for peacefully drawing attention to the systematic erosion of Tibetan culture”.
Dharamsala based rights organisation, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in its statement said, “China’s assimilationist policy has increased alienation and sense of exclusion among Tibetans. It has become a major cause of instability and protests in Tibet. The 2008 and 2009 uprisings in Tibetan and Uyghur areas, followed by 2010 Tibetan students’ protests and numerous other protests including self-immolations have called for language freedom as one of their main demands”.
Below are screenshots of reactions by netizens towards the sentencing of activist Tashi Wangchuk to five-year imprisonment in China.