The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on Chinese officials who are pursuing a policy of “forced assimilation” of Tibetan children, more than a million of whom UN experts say have been separated from their families.
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The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, announced that his country would no longer grant visas to the Chinese leaders responsible for the system of boarding schools, to which young Tibetans who have been separated from their families are forcibly sent.
This decision is part of a series of actions by the United States against China, despite the recent resumption of dialogue between senior officials from these two powers.
Beijing’s policy “aims to eliminate Tibetan-specific linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” Blinken said in a statement.
“We call on the Chinese authorities to stop forcibly sending Tibetan children to government boarding schools and end the policy of forced assimilation in Tibet and other parts of China,” he said.
Since 2021, the United States has accused China of “genocide” against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang in the north-west of the country. US authorities, as well as Witnesses and human rights organizations, allege that many members of this minority are subjected to forced labor and detention in camps.
The visa ban imposed on Tuesday will apply to former and current officials involved in China’s policy in Tibet, a foreign ministry spokesman said without giving further details.
In his statement, Antony Blinken referred to the work of UN special rapporteurs, who concluded in February that around one million Tibetan children had been separated from their families and forcibly assimilated into boarding schools.
According to these experts, this program appears to be designed to forcibly integrate young Tibetans into the predominantly Han culture. In the boarding schools, they are forced to study Mandarin Chinese and do not study Tibetan language, history and culture.
In April, other UN experts accused China of forcing hundreds of thousands of Tibetans into “vocational training programs” that could threaten Tibetan identity and lead to forced labour.
The Chinese Foreign Minister had claimed that this report was “unfounded”.
Tibet has been ruled by China with an iron fist since the 1950s. Many Tibetan exiles accuse the country of repression and torture and claim it is trying to eradicate their culture.