Rights defenders, scholars unite to launch 'Global Campaign for Democratic China’

The campaign was launched during a webinar titled "Global Campaign for Democratic China: Uniting Against Chinese Communist Party's Repressive Regime" hosted by a New Delhi based think tank Law and Society Alliance.

The speakers at the event were: Former Union Minister and MLA from Arunachal Pradesh Ninong Ering; Coordinator of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China Luke de Pulford; Director of Department of Chinese Affairs at World Uighur Congress Ilshat Hassan Kokbore; Vice President of Canadian Coalition Against Communism Sheng Xue; Special Appointee for Human Right at The Tibet Bureau Thinlay Chukki; Gaddi Nishan of Ajmer Sharif Haji Syed Salman Chishty; Director of Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Centre Enghebatu Togochog; and National Co-Convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch Ashwani Mahajan.

Togochog began by highlighting the difference between the terminologies used to denote Mongolian land captured by China and said that Inner Mongolia is the alternate word for denoting Southern Mongolia, used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

It has a vast territory, covering more than 2 million sq kms. The Mongolian population is 6 million in Southern Mongolia.

Till date, at least 100 thousand Mongolians have been killed or tortured. When China began persecuting Mongolians after annexing Southern Mongolia, around half a million Mongolians were killed.

The total population of Mongolians inhabiting the area was one and a half million.

It denotes that one-third of Mongolians were affected by this campaign. In the 1980s, China started cultural assimilation and millions of Southern Mongolian peasants were tortured and pushed towards marginalisation.

Since 2000, China has been working towards economic degradation through its large-scale farming in the region and imposing a ban on locals by restricting land use.

They have enforced the entire Mongolian population from the centre to corners. Staying on grasslands is considered a crime.

Sharing his views on the ongoing protests over the imposition of Mandarin in the territory, Togochog stated, “The new euphemism of this genocide is linguistic policy. In early June this year, China decided to restrict the Mongolian language by replacing Mongolian with Mandarin in school textbooks."

"In this final blow to the Mongolian culture, the entire Southern Mongolian people have risen up. From kindergarteners to middle school students, from musicians to taxi drivers, from government officers to party members, all have risen up against the Chinese authorities' new attempts of cultural genocide. Mass arrests and enforced disappearances have become common practices," Togochog said.

"4000-5000 Southern Mongolians have either been detained or disappeared in the past month alone. Besides the direct form of persecution, the CCP has also been using indirect forms of torture,"  Togochog  said.

"Firing people from jobs, suspending herders from availing social benefits, denying access to bank loans, confiscation of properties, denial of degrees to students are some of the examples of this indirect torture," he said.

"This also enables the CCP to command control over the local population," he said.

Ilshat Kokbore began by reflecting on the patterns of the Uighur genocide in China and said that around one million to three million Uighurs have been kept under the concentration camps.

Since 2000, the CCP government began detaining and disappearing the elites and opinion-makers of the Uighur society including university professors, students, poets, writers, singers, artists, etc, he said.

“It is a holocaust in itself. After the holocaust by the Nazis, the UN promised that it shall never happen again. However, this is happening again," he said.

"They also started a war in the free world. Korean War and the Vietnamese War are great examples. They also started expansions within the border as well as outside," he said.

"India has never been China's neighbour. Since China occupied Tibet and Xinjiang, it became a neighbour of India. China has also launched some proxy wars in Southeast Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines," he said.

"This is an evil empire. Its evilness and bloodiness are not only limited to the Chinese border - it has stretched its war to the world. They are exporting this crude brutality and tyranny to all over the world. They are infiltrating the US, Europe, and India. They try to control all the resources. This ambition of dominating the world is explosive”, he added.

Haji Syed Salman Chishty argued that China has indeed indulged in a series of human rights breaches and a series of acts and defiance on international borders and disrespect to the international community.

"The subversive and oppressive policies towards its own citizens who are looking for a balanced life to live is something to be concerned about. The Uighurs and their plight are known around the world," he said.

"We don't need to re-emphasise the plight that they are going through. China has always disregarded and disrespected the concerns and implications of aggressions. Whereas, India is a land of peace," he said.

"This peace is not only for the Indians - but for the world. Which is why we have been known as ‘Vishwagurus - teachers of the world, for centuries. Whereas China has not been able to stand up to world peace. Sharing his experiences of China visit," he said,

“I have had the experience of visiting China five years back when I travelled to the central Chinese region and met the Muslim community of the Han Dynasty," he said.

"I went to several cities and had interactions with Chinese students. Throughout the conversation, there was a struggle to convey about the situation they were going through," he said.

"China has kept them suppressed for years and restricted the perception from coming out to the world through censorship on the media. It is ridiculous that in a country that claims to be a giant in digital technology, you are not able to communicate to the world even in the 21st century," he said.

Expressing his support to the activists fighting against the CCP, he expressed, “We convey from Ajmer Sharif our best regards and prayers. Our voices are always standing with Tibetans, Mongolians, Uighurs, and all the neighbours who are brutally affected by Chinese persecution."

Sheng Xue said that almost all the countries around the world have been affected by the virus erupting in China and more than one million people have died.

"Currently, the US stands number one, and India is on number two. I believe that the number must be higher. Many of us already know that this is the CCP virus. It has impacted all of our lives. The CCP virus has taken life, love, and even enjoyment from the world. It has made people angry, aggressive, and distrusting of others," Sheng Xue said.

"However, we already know that the human lifestyle won't be able to go back to normal. This was just another outbreak of the CCP virus. The real virus was the birth of the CCP a century ago," Sheng Xue  said.

The virus of CCP became more dangerous after becoming rich over the last 27 years.

Sharing her experiences on the CCP, she shared, “Due to my family background, I have closely observed the tyranny and persecution by the CCP in China."

"When I rose against the oppression, I became the enemy of this state. Those people who dissented are already in jails. I was crazy. I had to run away from China to Canada to save myself," she said.

"There is a lust for money in the CCP. Many people thought that they could make a lot of money under the Chinese regime, but ended up losing their lives. Xi Jinping is a very arrogant, cruel, and stupid leader. He has offended people more and more. So due to this, we are going to have the first big change in the seventy years - I have said this many times," she said.

The situation for the repressed people including Uighurs, Mongolians, Tibetans, and dissenters is the worst in the world.

"They are not even able to fight back against tyranny,” she said.

On the role of India in the fight against CCP, she said that India has a major role to play here.

"As a responsible and democratic country, India should take Asian countries like Taiwan and Japan to fight against the CCP together. It has already been too late and the world is paying the price," she said.

"In an article published in Daily Mail April this year, I had reiterated - we must stay united not only to beat Corona but to beat another evil - the CCP virus as well. Thinlay Chukki began by arguing, “today China is celebrating the 71st establishment of its foundation," she said.

The establishment of a country generally brings about joy to people.

However, China’s establishment has led to the persecution of 1.2 million Tibetan and the destruction of 6,000 monasteries.

They are working towards the total sinicization of Tibetans.

"The very basic idea of the CCP is - occupation. Tibet was never a part of China and interestingly, we rarely note the fact that the actual territory of PRC is only one-fifth of the territory it currently occupies," she said.

She further said, “Even half a million Tibetans are being subjected to the way Uighur Muslims are being put under concentration camps. The entire objective of these labour camps is only to ensure that the entire population of Tibetans is entirely subjugated to the CCP, leading to cultural genocide."

"The people who have been subjected to these camps are predominantly from rural areas and backward lands. The self-sustaining life of Tibetans is destroyed by the confiscation of lands and forced settlement of Tibetans and thereby making them dependent on social welfare schemes on the CCP," she said.

Thus, clearing a way for the CCP to control them, she said.

"When I say how history is repeating itself. Look at what is happening in Hong Kong now. I am talking from the Tibetan perspective," she said.

The Joint Declaration of the British government with the CCP has been breached by the CCP, she said.

The world was surprised by the way Tibetans were cheated.

The Seventeen Point Agreement was signed at the gunpoint and later on, China itself breached the agreement, forcing the Dalai Lama to flee and seek refuge in India.

"Chinese liberation army has launched a crackdown all along with China occupied territories and its borders. History is repeating itself,” she said.

Legislator Ninong Ering began by applauding the initiative of ‘Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China’ (IPAC), and said that such an association highlights that the world has now realised that coming together of all the democracies is indeed needed to tackle China.

"It gives me immense pleasure to see parliamentarians from vibrant democracies of the world at a common platform for challenging the biggest threat that the world is facing in contemporary times," he said.

“I believe that such an initiative shall indeed be welcomed in India and supported by the Indian society,” he said while extending his support to such an initiative.

Highlighting similarities between India and China and their historical connection, he pointed, “I am trying to highlight that both the countries are strongly connected in social, historical, and cultural terms. However, they also face a common challenge - which is the CCP. The Communist Party of China is an antithesis to the ideas of Indian pluralistic democracy.”

Urging all the trade unions to come together to tackle China, he said, “I urge all the trade unions of the world to come together to constitute an alliance for fighting China - similar to the IPAC. China works under the garb of the ‘People’s movement’, arguing to fight for labourers and farmers. I would like to utilise the platform for urging all the trade unions and farmer organisations to form similar alliances by bringing together associations from all over the world."

"The idea is to turn this movement into a people’s movement by involving people from all over the world. This model of IPAC shall be replicated in every field of the world. Let us not forget that till CCP is in power, the world is under threat!” On preserving Buddhism from CCP onslaught, he argued, “the movement of democracy in China should also be focussed at saving and preserving Buddhism. China plans that the next Dalai Lama shall be a Beijing-appointed successor," he said.

"The Dalai Lama has said that his reincarnation could happen outside Tibet, away from the control of the Chinese authorities. Wherever there are Buddhists, there are Buddhist monks and gurus. Should the next Dalai Lama be discovered in Dharamshala, Tawang, or in Namsai, India shall be in a more commanding situation to intensify the freedom movement in Tibet. Let us be optimistic about this,” he said.

He concluded by stating, “I talk to many politicians and representatives and share a strong friendship with a number of leaders across parties. From this platform, I would like to reiterate this fact that despite differences on domestic policy issues, Indian leadership and the political community is on a common line on its China policy."

"India has hundreds of political parties and all of them stand together on India’s China policy and support the establishment of democracy in China. Representing the voices of all of them, I express the support of India to this Global Campaign for Democratic China. We are always ready to extend our support to all of you and help in whichever way we can - within India and elsewhere in the world," Ashwani Mahajan explained,

“China had a trade surplus with 130 countries which has increased its foreign reserves and changed its power balance in the world. The economic clout China has brought is preventing democratic countries from speaking against it. It was for the first time under President Trump in the US that they challenged Chinese hegemony and stared tariff on Chinese products. The dumping by Chinese has been facilitated by policies of respective governments,"  Ashwani Mahajan said.

"If we see countries like the US and EU nations, nobody even bothered that their industries are going down due to China. Even we have seen that during the UPA government in India, there has been a 3000% increase in Chinese imports," Mahajan said.

"No efforts were made to contain this. This led to a severe trade deficit with China. We also understand that China is not only playing foul in legal trade, but they also do the same in illegal trade," Mahajan said.

“There is a lot of aggression going against China. Though we are 2.5% of Chinese imports, we should also not forget that we are 11.5% of the surplus of Chinese trade. The US accounts for around 83.5% of the trade surplus. Out of 430 billion, 95% of trade surplus comes from both the countries. Once these two countries join hands, the Chinese could be repelled back,” he suggested.

Talking about the idea behind the IPAC, Luke de Pulford argued, “I want to lay down a few predicates. First, the human rights order and law based orders are custody of all the nations. This is not the property of one country. Second, the defence of these is the common responsibility of all the nations, not one country."

"Three, the rule-based order has come under a severe threat from the CCP. The above three predicates led to the motivation of the nonpartisan initiative to maintain human rights and law-based international order. This order has been dismantled and abolished by the CCP,” he said.

He also expressed his concerns on the growing influence of China in the United Nations and said, “the CCP has strategically rolled out an effort to undertake initiatives of the UN leading to the dependency of the UN agencies on the CCP and coming under it. Currently, at least 15 UN organisations and bodies are being headed by the Chinese nationals. These are huge and important institutions. This is obstructing these agencies to speak up against China."

"The exclusion of Taiwan from the International Civil Aviation Organisation was on a single request of CCP. It has cost the world massively, as Taiwan was not able to speak during the pandemic," he said.

"The institutions of the UN do not question in the way they should. Hence, neither the genocide determination of Uighurs can be reached through UN agencies, nor a tribunal could be formed on this. Neither is possible as the UNSC would be vetoed by China and every attempt at the UNHRC shall fall down due to Chinese clout," he said.

“We are yet to welcome India in the IPAC and want it to come on board with us shoulder to shoulder on defending the world order. I applaud the words of Mr. Ninong Ering”, he concluded.