Over the more than 30 years between its first Xizang-related bill in 1987 and the July of 2024, the United States Congress proposed more than 300 Xizang-related bills and resolutions, and passed more than 70 of them. In disguise of protecting human rights in Xizang, these bills and resolutions continuously criticize and interfere in China's human rights affairs, relying heavily on an important enforcement tool known as "long-arm jurisdiction."

The so-called "long-arm jurisdiction" is a civil litigation concept unique to the U.S., referring to the special jurisdiction claimed by U.S. courts over foreign defendants (non-residents). It involves imposing unilateral coercive sanctions on foreign enterprises, individuals and even government departments based on U.S. domestic laws, which essentially constitutes a form of bullying that infringes on the sovereignty and judicial authority of other countries.

But what is the current state of human rights in Xizang, China? How has the human rights situation there changed since its peaceful liberation in 1951? And what are the true intentions behind the United States' unwarranted interference in human rights in Xizang?

Was old Xizang a paradise?

There are numerous Tibetan- and Chinese-language documents that describe Xizang's social conditions before 1951, while many written accounts in travel records of foreigners during the late Qing dynasty(1840–1911) and the period of the Republic of China(1912–1949) also contain descriptions of the society.

Charles Bell, an Englishman who once lived in Lhasa, Xizang, wrote in his book Tibet Past and Present: "For Tibet is still in the feudal stage, and the nobility, side by side with the leading priests, rule the land…"

In her book Le vieux Tibet face a la Chine nouvelle, French explorer Alexandra David-Neel wrote that in Tibet, all the peasants spent their whole lives as debt-laden serfs, and hardly any one of them could be found to have paid off their debts.

These records present a picture of the backward and dilapidated society of old Xizang. As documented by British author Edmund Candler in his book The Unveiling of Lhasa, " But at present the people are medieval, not only in their system of government and their religion, their inquisition, their witchcraft, their incantations, their ordeals by fire and boiling oil, but in every aspect of their daily life."

Looking back at such history, no one would describe Xizang before the 1950s as a paradise. In fact, Xizang at that time was far from being a civilized, modern and progressive society. The rigid system, decaying society and backward economy, along with the massive escape of overburdened serfs, had already aroused the vigilance and concern of the upper echelons of the society. The noble Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme once lamented, "If this continues, the serfs will all die, and the nobles won't survive either."

With Xizang's peaceful liberation, beggars and serfs gained human rights

After the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, the peaceful liberation of Xizang in 1951 was precisely in response to the long-cherished desire for institutional reform among all sectors of the plateau society. The liberation of Xizang was like a ray of sunlight piercing through the dark clouds of the old era, shining onto the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau.

In 1959, Xizang implemented the democratic reform, granting personal freedom to the more than 95% of the population who were serfs and slaves, and the safety of their lives was guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the PRC. The feudal lord ownership system was abolished, land reforms were initiated, and the vast majority of farmers and herdsmen obtained land, livestock, pastures and other means of production.

One former beggar, named Samten, received his own land for the first time in his life like other serfs. On the day of land distribution, Samten was overwhelmed with emotion, pressing the wooden plaque symbolizing his land tightly against his cheek. The plaque was inscribed with the words "Samten's Field" in Tibetan. The happiness and pride of the old man at this moment was captured by photographer Lan Zhigui during his trip in Shannan, Xizang. Samten Receives Land became the photographer's most famous photograph and marked a historical change in the fate of those people in the lowest echelon of Xizang society during that era.

Since its democratic reform, people's governments at the grassroots levels have been established in various counties and townships in Xizang. General elections began in 1961, and the Xizang Autonomous Region was established in 1965. The representatives elected by the people included serfs and their descendants, who together with cadres, workers, monks and nobles, discussed state affairs.

After liberation, it was common for the nobles and serfs of old Xizang to become friends and colleagues. Gyibug Puncogcedain and Lhakpa Phuntsok were both born in Gyibug Manor. In old Xizang, the former was a serf owner, and the latter a serf. However, both were elected as vice-chairmen of the people's government of the autonomous region. The experiences of these two vice chairmen have become a well-known story.

Achieving universal education and cultural development

According to many elderly Tibetans, serfs in old Xizang had no childhood. Most had to herd livestock and plow fields for their masters starting at the age of 6 or 7. If they were household slaves (Nangsan), then they had to serve their masters for life and were sometimes sold or given away like objects to other nobles.

In old Xizang, receiving an education was a luxury for serfs. Even the children of nobles had only a few monastic schools and some private schools in the cities to attend, resulting in an illiteracy rate of 95% in Xizang at that time, with a school enrollment rate of less than 2% for school-age children. Having grown up in a family of teachers, I witnessed the changes in the educational environment in Xizang. Xizang was the first province in the country to implement 15 years of publicly funded education. Students in Xizang enjoy six more years of public education than the unified compulsory education in other parts of China, without any burden of tuition or other fees. The proportion of students in school among the Xizang population is far higher than the national average, with the number of new college graduates each year accounting for more than 1% of Xizang's population.

In old Xizang, monastic schools primarily taught traditional courses such as Tibetan language, history and religion. Today, in hundreds of universities across China, students from Xizang study a wide range of subjects from history, religion, literature and arts to computer science, economics, modern agricultural technology, meteorology, electrical engineering and ecology, covering most of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Among academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, two are from the Tibetan ethnic group, one of whom is an expert on Tibetan language digitalization research. Moreover, not only do universities in other parts of China cultivate highly educated talents for Xizang, but the local education level in the autonomous region is also continuously improving. In 2017, the first batch of doctoral students trained in the autonomous region graduated from Xizang University.

Xizang has a rich religious and cultural heritage. With a population of over 3.6 million, it currently has more than 1,700 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, distributed across its seven prefectures. A significant proportion of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage protected by the state and the autonomous region is related to religious culture. For example, the Shoton Festival, which originates from Tibetan Buddhist traditions, remains the largest summer festival in Lhasa, attracting a continuous stream of tourists from home and abroad.

Economic development and improvement in people's livelihoods

Since China is still a developing country, the rights to subsistence and development are fundamental human rights. Due to its fragile natural environment, weak development foundation and low level of social development, Xizang had a significant development gap with the inland provinces and municipalities in the early days of its liberation, especially in terms of the income levels of farmers and herdsmen. During my research in various parts of Xizang, I found that the most important task of grassroots cadres was to eradicate local poverty and backwardness. On one hand, the Chinese government has continuously created a positive development environment through transfer payments and special fiscal and tax policies. On the other hand, other provinces and municipalities have provided targeted assistance to various regions in Xizang according to local conditions. In 2019, Xizang lifted all of its 628,000 poor people out of poverty, a year ahead of the national schedule.

In the early days of reform and opening up, apart from state-owned enterprises, the majority of private enterprises in Xizang were established by entrepreneurs from inland provinces and municipalities. With the support of strong educational policies, the average number of years of education for the new labor force in Xizang has increased to 13.1 years, and more local entrepreneurs are emerging. Currently, the private sector in Xizang accounts for more than 35% of the autonomous region's GDP, and over 80% of the tax revenues. More than 90% of the market entities are from the private sector, making it the main force driving Xizang's economic development.

Having traveled through many towns and villages in Xizang, I have clearly seen the improvements in the working and living conditions of the Xizang people. The development of the people's living standards there, including education, is accelerating the modernization process of Xizang.

The so-called Xizang human rights issue is no more than a tool

Since 1979, the U.S. has continuously used the issue of human rights to hype the question of Xizang and incorporated it into its policy framework toward China, in an attempt to use the so-called human rights issue to pressure China.

As early as in 1982, a special report on the so-called "Tibetan religious issue" was presented at a hearing held by the U.S. Congress. Along with the interference of the U.S. executive branch, the U.S. Congress has incorporated the so-called "human rights issue" into its China-related legislation.

On May 19, 1987, U.S. Representative Charlie Rose introduced H.R. 2476 — a bill concerning so-called "human rights violations in Tibet" — calling for the U.S. to reassess its foreign policy toward the Chinese government and its relations with China, linking the sale of arms to China with so-called "human rights violations in Tibet." Since then, on issues such as China's restoration of GATT status and most-favored-nation treatment, the so-called "Tibetan human rights issue" has been deeply tied to U.S. policy toward China.

Statistics show that since 1989, the U.S. Congress has proposed an average of more than two Xizang-related human rights bills each year. Since the 115th Congress in particular, U.S. congressmen have proposed a large number of bills on so-called human rights issues concerning Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Xizang and the COVID-19 pandemic in China. The rate at which these bills have been signed into law has significantly increased.

In particular, the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020, passed by both chambers of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by then U.S. President Donald Trump, disregards the historical achievements in various fields in Xizang, distorts and smears the human rights situation in the autonomous region, and even falsely claims that the "Tibetan government-in-exile" was "democratically elected" and "represents and reflects the will of Tibetans in exile worldwide to the greatest extent." It also calls for the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Lhasa, constituting a blatant interference in China's internal affairs regarding Xizang.

The attempt of the U.S. government, which prioritizes its own national interests, to use the so-called "Tibetan issue" to suppress China reveals the true intention of the U.S. in playing the role of so-called "savior of human rights" in Xizang on the global stage.

The U.S.: a hypocritical "guardian"

The United States government often uses public opinion to achieve its political goals. In the U.S. propaganda war, China is a major target.

For a long time, the U.S. has been continuously posing in the international community as a guardian of democracy, freedom and human rights. In fact, as early as the two world wars, the U.S. established specialized agencies and personnel to use various media to disseminate information favorable to itself, influencing public perception and mood both domestically and internationally. In the internet age, the U.S. government has enriched its means of manipulating international public opinion through the media, including blocking dissemination channels and accounts of news information unfavorable to itself, and systematically arranging for media to cooperate with its public opinion policies.

The U.S. is the largest source of disinformation and has repeatedly used false information to launch wars, severely damaging the credibility of the media. In 2020, a Gallup poll showed that as many as 60% of Americans did not trust the media, with 33% completely distrusting the media. Professor Shen Yi from Fudan University in China cited relevant research from 2017 to 2018, stating that more than half of the negative information related to China posted on Twitter (since renamed X) in the Chinese language was published by bot accounts. Much of this negative information is supported and funded by the U.S. government.

Many Americans have never been to Xizang, and their understanding of it mainly comes from media reports. We reviewed reports in recent years by mainstream American media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Voice of America, and CNN, and found that almost none of them have reported positively on the development of human rights in Xizang. These media outlets ignore the socio-economic development in Xizang, commenting on how the Chinese government has "deprived" the people in Xizang of their rights and "destroyed" the unique cultural customs of the Tibetans. International visitors are often surprised to find that the Xizang they see is completely different from what is described by the U.S. media.

The U.S. frequently meddles in the internal affairs of other countries with its long arm, while failing to address its own human rights mess. It prides itself on respecting multiculturalism, but social issues such as racial discrimination have not been properly resolved in the U.S., and conflicts and confrontations between different races and ethnic groups in the country occur from time to time. Its wealth gap, police violence and gun abuse are common issues that highlight the failures of the U.S. in protecting human rights.

The U.S. government needs to spend more of its time and energy on improving its own human rights situation, and should also face the reality of Xizang with an honest attitude. According to international legal norms, the Constitution promulgated by China in 1954 and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy promulgated in 1984 are providing the strongest guarantees for human rights in Xizang. The so-called "protection" of the U.S. long-arm jurisdiction is simply unwanted and unnecessary.

The author is Kelsang Drolma, researcher on Tibetan economy and society with the China Tibetology Research Center.

Liu Xian /Editor

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Liu Xian /Coordination Editor

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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