World should follow India in fighting against China, says Tiananmen Student Leader Zhou Fengsuo

Lauding the steps taken by India to counter China's expansionist policies, Zhou Fengsuo, co-founder and President of Humanitarian China and Tiananmen Student Leader asked other countries to follow India in tackling China.

Speaking to a webinar titled ‘Emperor Has No Clothes: China Under Xi Jinping,  Zhou Fengsuo said today the great democracy of India is facing a totalitarian regime of China and I see a big role for India.

“What can India do to confront Xi Jinping’s China? There are a lot of issues that I am deeply concerned about. First is the interaction with Taiwan. It is a liberal and thriving democracy. During my last five visits to Taiwan, I was amazed to see how wonderful it has done. The country has no match because Taiwan knows CCP very well. This is why they were alert during the Covid-19 and were able to contain it. They need recognition. I hope India could establish a formal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Before that, we could have a lot of exchanges. Another important issue is the Hong Kong crisis. Think about national security law. Never in world history, we have seen a law that could prosecute people outside their country. I hope India can do a lot of this. The third issue is the Chinese firewall,” said Zhou Fengsuo.

Zhou also added that India is a very strong tech power. We have to fight on the firewall technology together. There were internet canons impacting the business of companies deployed by China. Any country that benefits from the global internet shutdown is China as it has built its own internet surrounded by walls. We have to fight together against China to keep the internet free and open. We can work together to break the firewall. This is also a tool for CCP for brainwashing. It is like a fortress.

Sharing his story and struggle at Tiananmen Square, Fengsuo said, “My story begins from the Tiananmen protests in 1989, which represents the dream for freedom and democracy in China. It was for the first time in China that Chinese people were able to express their love for freedom. Since then I have been working to take forward the legacy for freedom of democracy in China in the future.My organisation Humanitarian China works for supporting human rights in China. Every year we support 100-200 political prisoners from China. The number of such political prisoners is increasing day by day. Our idea is to provide moral support of connecting people outside with people facing persecution in China - supporting the freedom movement."

On China’s role in spreading the COVID-19 pandemic, Fengsuo said, “Very recently, a Professor of Peking University, sentenced for several years in prison and during the pandemic he wrote an open letter criticising China for spreading the virus and asked the world to take action. Wuhan is somehow like Tiananmen. People were not allowed to talk. There is no way for people to speak out. This pandemic has become a global threat because of the totalitarian CCP regime. It is shocking to learn that a Medical General said that China released the vaccine on February 26. This is extremely shocking!”

He argued that the Chinese Communist Party is a threat to the entire world and said that everyone must realise China’s human rights situation as it has an impact on people all over the world including India. The world should have understood how a regime who is killing its own people won't be a threat to the entire world? The even bigger tragedy was the silence of Western powers. I applaud India for banning all these apps.

Regarding the debates on Xi deviating from CCP powers, Zhou Fengsuo opined that CCP is a monster, an evil. It has been the same years ago. For example, the Party Secretary who was supporting the students in Tiananmen and was favouring opening China politically was abducted. Every step after that was a natural extinction. Xi Jinping, Hu Jintao, all had to go through this process. Xi Jinping wants to be Mao 2. For Mao, the influence was morally and politically inside of China. He was just an emperor of China. But outside China, his life was restricted just to the Communist world. Xi Jinping comes out from it and is working to expand China. They want to occupy the world. They will not stop. That's why it becomes important for India. Xi Jinping declared himself as the permanent leader. BRI might be economically and technologically important for China, but it is also a military success. He will further go after that process. There is also some background of him. He was not a mainstream princely. His father was a labourer and was on the margins. Jinping was never at the centre. As a result, when Xi grew up, he suffered a lot from psychological insecurity. A lot of this has to be explained by this. People who are close to him were surprised by this change.

Speaking to the webinar Thinlay Chukki ,a Special appointee for Human Rights at The Tibet Bureau, Geneva, said that in Tibet  there has been a massacre of 1.2 million Tibetans and more than 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed.

“All the thirty rights that are enshrined in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, have been destroyed by China. These rights are only in letter and never allowed to be practiced. When it comes to freedom of religion, we are not even allowed to keep portraits of His Holiness Dalai Lama in our homes.” said Thinlay Chukki.

Chukki  also added ,enforced disappearances are not new phenomena in Tibet. Our 11th Panchen Lama was kidnapped along with his family when he was just 6 years old. Today he has turned 25. China has categorically refused to release him. In his place, China has appointed its own Panchen Lama who is from a family of CCP cadres. The monks are forced to sing and dance to songs claiming victory of China. They are even forced to spit on pictures of the Dalai Lama.”

On Chinese attempts of rapid demographic change in Tibet, she said, “China is working on an intense demographic change in Tibet. According to a very recent report, the population of Tibetans in Tibet is around 6 million and there are 10 million Chinese staying there. If you look at urban areas, there are 10 Chinese on every one Tibetan. Every policy executed by Xi Jinping is aimed at the sole objective of the sinicization of Tibetans and their unique identity and culture. Out of 154 self-immolating Tibetans, most of them have been monks and nuns. In one of the most touching stories, Tenzin, a 23-year-old girl self-immolated herself, leaving behind a 6-year boy. It shows that being Tibetan is so difficult, we can't even say our prayers in front of His Holiness Dalai Lama.”

The webinar was organised by Law and Society Alliance and Defence Capital and moderated by senior journalist Bipindra NC and advocate H Vaidynathan.