Report claims Chinese authorities spying on exiled Tibetans

LHASA: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRS) released a report, followed by an organisation based in the North Indian hill town of Dharamshala, revealing Chinese authorities' surveillance of exile Tibetans to collect personal information.

While speaking to ANI, TCHRD's spokesperson, Tenzin Dawa, remarked that the whole process of the report took about two years, and they have tried to get in touch with around one hundred Tibetan people. She further added, "The report is a collection of first-hand testimony collected from Tibetans from the diaspora who have been affected by transnational repression."

"We also have another section of secondary data that is a compilation of all existing articles or information that is publicly available in the news or media outlets," she added. "China uses the spying data to infiltrate and undermine diaspora networks, potentially through disinformation campaigns and even as a basis for blackmail," she said while speaking to ANI.

Dawa Tsering further said, "The spying aspects are just one part of the findings of our report so the report that we have just released is actually one of the first to focus on the transnational repression led by the CCP on the Tibetan diaspora communities."

"In the international communities, there have been a lot of discussions on the kind of repression that's being faced transnationally by the so-called Chinese overseas, including the Uyghurs, Hongkongers, and Taiwanese, but there has been no sort of report dedicated to the kind of repression that the Tibetans in diaspora have been facing for so long," TCHRD's spokesperson added.

As per the report, the TCHRD's spokesperson said, "TCHRD felt the need to first of all document these issues because transnational repression, is not new to the Tibetan community. The CCP has targeted the Tibetan diaspora, using family members back inside Tibet to control and sort of undermine the legitimacy or functionality of the Tibetan overseas organisations."

Commenting further on this issue, Dawa said, "The protests that took place inside Tibet in the late 1980s and then following that, there was a huge uprising in 2008 inside Tibet and it was that particular uprising that the Chinese government viewed the Tibetans who were outside of Tibet as the insighters of the protest inside Tibet. That's why they really think about the need to cut off any sort of communication or relationship between the Tibetans inside and outside Tibet.

And then sending a spy and collecting personal information of Tibetans in the diaspora because they view it as a threat." the statement added. While speaking to ANI, Dolma Tsering, deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament in exile, said, "When you do lots of wrong things, you take others in the same way... They are hiding lots of things about what's happening in Tibet and in mainland China as a whole from the world.

"Tibet is cut off from the rest of the world. Why? Because they have lots of things to hide... The violation of not only human rights in the name of conserving nature, but also national parks are coming up," she added

Additionally, the deputy speaker remarked, "The centuries-old nomads are relocated because they want to make Tibet into a slaughterhouse to raise consumption for the tourism that is inflowing into China so they're hiding all these things but what do we have in exile? We are as transparent as we can be. We just have the truth with us." "His Holiness has always welcomed the Chinese leadership to come and investigate what we are doing here. We are an open file to the world. Whatever we say to the world, what we do in the office, everything is transparent because we have a democracy, a rule of law and the people's will being taken into consideration, which is just the reverse in China. so there is nothing to spy on the exile government." the statment added

Deputy speaker further said, "Many of the time, our computers are being hacked. Whenever we do any kind of activity, the people who are in charge of those core groups will find all our emails were hacked but they will find nothing because whatever we say, you will find on our computers. We have nothing to hide. So I am challenging China to open the Tibet and we invite you here to investigate what we are doing here."