1/7/06 Press Update: Beijing Protest against China's Tibet Railway - Free Tibet Activists Reach Hong Kong

Hong Kong - Tibet activists scaled the façade of the Central Railway Station and unfurled a banner reading "China's Tibet Railway: Designed to Destroy" today at 11am Beijing time (4am BST). The protest was held on the eve of the launch of the new rail line that will link, for the first time, Beijing and Lhasa. Tibetans fear the Chinese Government will use the railway to further its colonisation of Tibet by moving in ever-larger numbers of Chinese settlers and military personnel whilst transporting out Tibet's vast natural resources. Chinese authorities detained three women activists (1) from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada after they protested on a platform at the entrance to the station; their whereabouts is currently unknown.

"China's Tibet railway has been engineered to destroy the very fabric of Tibetan identity", said Lhadon Tethong, a Tibetan and Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. China plans to use the railway to transport Chinese migrants directly into the heart of Tibet in order to overwhelm the Tibetan population and tighten its stranglehold over our people. We will continue to take action to defend Tibetan culture and today's protest is but a preview of what China can expect as we approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and former Party Secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, will officially open the railway on July 1st (2) in Golmud - a Tibetan border town and starting point for the newly extended 1,200 km line to Lhasa. Chinese authorities claim the railway will bring economic development to Tibet while Tibetans hold that the true motivation is consolidation of China's political control of the region. Tibetans fear that the railway will facilitate the entry of large numbers of Chinese settlers into Tibet, further marginalizing Tibetans socially and economically, bolster China's military strength in the region and increase environmental pressure on Tibet's fragile high-altitude ecosystem. Many Tibetans see the railway as the final phase in China's strategy to wipe out Tibetan identity and culture.

"The Chinese Government openly admits its political motivation for this project," said Matt Whitticase, Campaign Spokesperson for Free Tibet Campaign. The completion of the railway marks the realization of Mao's dream to assimilate Tibet into China. Through our global day of action we hope to expose this reality and give voice to Tibetans inside Tibet who are not free to speak out in opposition to this devastating project.

Exiled Tibetan writer and activist, Tenzin Tsundue (3), who is currently visiting the UK stated, "The coming of the commercial trains into Tibet is the first serious onslaught of globalisation China is introducing in Tibet. Whatever it takes the Tibetans will protest this. And I personally will not allow China to jeopardise our future."

Tibetans and their supporters will hold protests worldwide on July 1st to denounce the launch of the railway. The "Reject the Railway" campaign will see protests at Chinese embassies and consulates in major cities around the world, including London Ottawa, New York, Paris and Dharamsala, India. Tibetans in exile are wearing black armbands to symbolize their resistance to the railway and China's ongoing occupation of Tibet and to show their solidarity with Tibetans suffering under Chinese rule. Tibetan shopkeepers and restaurants in Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile, will close their businesses on July 1st in solidarity with the 'Reject the Railway' campaign.

CONTACT:

LONDON - Mandie McKeown 07748 158 618 or 0207 324 4605 or 0207 324 4605, 
Yael Weisz-Rind 07733 391 773 or 0207 324 4605

HONG KONG - Matt Whitticase +852 614 77073

NEW YORK - Tenzin Dorjee +1 212 358 0071

Notes to Editors

(1) The three activists being held are;

Katie Mallin, 34 from London
Omi Hodwitz, 29 from Canada
Cathy Ni Keefe, 36 from USA

(2) 1st July is an important and symbolic date in the Chinese Communist Party's calendar as it marks the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (1 July 1921) and is the anniversary day of Hong Kong's hand-over from Britain to China in 1997.

(3) Tenzin Tsundue is available for all media interviews in the UK.

BACKGROUND ON TENZIN TSUNDUE

Born to a Tibetan refugee family, Tsundue is a restless young Tibetan who, after graduating in India, braved the treacherous Himalayan mountains and crossed on foot to enter into forbidden Tibet. His purpose was to see the situation of his country under Chinese occupation for himself, to find out if he could do anything in the struggle for freedom. Tsundue was arrested by border police and spent 3 months in prison in Lhasa.

Tsundue is a writer. He has won numerous awards for his work and is currently working on his third book, a compilation of essays on the Tibetan freedom movement. 

(4) BACKGROUND ON THE GOLMUD-LHASA RAILWAY

Following the 1949 victory in the Civil War, Mao and the Chinese Communist Party had dreamed of constructing a railway into the western interiors of Xinjiang and Tibet. A railway would enable rapid movement of troops and ethnic Chinese population in and out of the region, thereby enabling the Party to dominate the region and integrate it successfully with China. The goal was partly achieved with the completion of a line from Lanzhou to Urumqi in Xinjiang (NW China). But building a line to Lhasa was far more complicated due to the scientific challenges of track having to traverse long tracts of unstable permafrost.

The Chinese Communist Party and present leadership has invested huge propaganda resources into promoting their perception of so accomplished an engineering feat. The railway's intensely political nature is evidenced by its estimated US$4.3 billion cost with a budget that has increased by 50%: by irreversibly reassimilating Tibet into China, the railway confers huge legitimacy and prestige on the Party as the institution that has reversed centuries of weakness and territorial fragmentation through such an impressive feat of engineering.

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