Primary school students practice jumping rope in Shannan Prefecture, Xizang Autonomous Region on June 15, 2021. Photo: VCG

When affairs in Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region is touched upon, the anti-China forces in the West and the secessionist Dalai clique have infringed on both China's sovereignty and human rights. Astonishingly, they have whitewashed themselves, which are the perpetrators of human rights violations, as the so-called human rights defenders. They have also labeled the Chinese government, which is pushing for the progress of human rights, as "human rights violators" through rumor-mongering and slander. This is the biggest barrier to the development of human rights in Xizang. 

The US strategy of containing China through Xizang-related topics has severely impeded the human rights cause in Xizang. The US has utilized its powerful propaganda machine to engage in rumor-mongering campaigns and develop a hegemony of discourse that distorts the facts. Moreover, it has passed a number of Xizang-related bills against China, attempting to interfere in China's internal affairs and infringe upon China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

With regard to Xizang, the US has acted as a mouthpiece for the Dalai clique, spreading lies such as the so-called genocide against 1.2 million of Tibetans, the destruction of Xizang's culture, environmental destruction in Xizang, forced assimilation in boarding school, among many others. This makes it extremely difficult for the international community to know the truth about Xizang. The lies surrounding Xizang, however, are so pervasive that the truth is concealed, the Western public is fooled, and the atmosphere of international public opinion on Xizang is poisoned. 

It is almost beyond belief that the US government, which once carried out genocide against the American indigenous people and racial discrimination against people of color and which today continues to steal oil and food from Syria, is so frequently talking about human rights, and even uses it as a weapon to accuse the other countries.

The actions of the 14th Dalai Lama, who is supported by the anti-China forces in the US and the West, are just as shocking. The Dalai clique has never reflected on what it has done in the past, such as brutalizing the serfs, and yet, under the banner of human rights, it accused the Chinese government, which has liberated the serfs, developed the economy of Xizang, improved the living standards of the people, inherited the ethnic culture and preserved the natural environment, of violating human rights. Such moves of inverting right and wrong are more than shocking.

Actually, the peaceful liberation of Xizang, especially after the democratic reforms of 1959, liberated millions of serfs and promoted social change, bringing unprecedented vitality to the region. The Chinese government has adopted a series of targeted measures and policies that strongly support infrastructure construction in Xizang and promote both economic and social development by leaps and bounds, completely replacing the dark and backward situation with a thriving and prosperous prospect.

The Dalai clique often takes advantage of the multitudinous Tibetan Buddhists in the region to spread rumors. For example, the Chinese government and local Tibetan authorities have implemented a variety of modes of schooling, including boarding education, based on the principles of universality and fairness in education. This has achieved great success and won wide acclaim among people of all ethnic groups. This has been maliciously misrepresented and denigrated as "forced assimilation."

The Dalai clique has done nothing but destabilize and vilify the Chinese government. It has done so without the slightest wish for the development of Xizang or the well-being of the Tibetan people.

In addition to engaging in armed insurgency with the support of anti-Chinese forces in the US and the West, the separatist forces of the Dalai clique have attempted to disturb the local development in Xizang, sabotaging any international cooperation conducive to the building of Xizang, opposing any initiative to promote the progress of Xizang and discrediting any achievements of Xizang. 

When there was no railroad in Xizang, they attacked the government for not building a railroad in Xizang. But when the Qinghai-Xizang Railway was completed, they attacked the construction for destroying the ecological environment and plundering the resources of Xizang. When the government developed the level of education in Xizang, they falsely claimed that it destroys the traditional culture of Xizang. All these cases prove that their aim is to deprive the Tibetan people of the right to development, in the hope that the Tibetan people will fall out of the progress of human civilization and remain backward.  

No matter how they whitewashed their practices, they can't change the fact that the US anti-China forces are making use of the Xizang-related affairs to support the secessionists in Xizang and obstruct China's development, nor can they change the fact that the force led by the Dalai clique creates ethnic hatred and infringes on the Tibetan people's right to development. The Western colonial powers and the three major categories of feudal lords remain the greatest obstacles to the progress of human rights in Xizang today. Thus, breaking up their interference is an important guarantee for the sustained and rapid development of human rights in Xizang.

The author is director of the history institute of China Xizangology Research Center. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn