The Tibetan Government in Exile is undergoing a shift in focus in its strategy to gain recognition for Tibet as an autonomous region within China.
Spokesperson for the Australia Tibet Council, Dr Simon Bradshaw, said the Dalai Lama had conceded negotiations with Chinese authorities had produced no results.
Efforts would now be focussed on counteracting the anti-Tibet propaganda within China while garnering support from the international community.
“There is a shift in focus to reach Chinese people,” Dr. Bradshaw told The Epoch Times, and towards “advocacy building” in the West.
The Dalai Lama said as much in his statement on March 10, on the 50th Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day.
“Since the occupation of Tibet, the Communist China has been publishing distorted propaganda about Tibet and its people … I would like once again to urge our Chinese brothers and sisters not to be swayed by such propaganda, but, instead, to try to discover the facts about Tibet impartially, so as to prevent divisions among us.” he said.
Dr. Bradshaw said although information from within Tibet was difficult to garner, reports from Tibetan families indicated deteriorating conditions. Many were likening it to the darkest days of the Cultural Revolution.
“Almost any expression of Tibetan religion, culture and identity is deemed ’separatist'. Tibetans are forced to denounce the Dalai Lama and risk detention and torture if they speak out or pass information to the outside world.” he said.
Following the Strike Hard Campaign (a result of protests last year), Tibetan New Year, in late February, and now the 50th Anniversary, has brought a complete lock down in communication including exclusion of international media;increased military presence and intimidation, and a noticeable up scaling in propaganda.
“It’s quite a vicious cocktail,” Dr. Bradshaw said.
Chinese propaganda against the Dalai Lama has intensified in the lead up to the anniversary. The Regime has set its own counter celebration with a March 28, “Serf Emancipation Day”, and it has flooded the Internet with a stream of stories designed to sway opinion in the regime’s favour.
Although mainly for internal consumption, efforts to influence Western opinion have not been ignored. State run propaganda arm, Xinhua, has produced over 50 stories on Tibet during March alone.
Dr. Bradshaw said the Tibetan Government in exile and its supporters were focussing more on public opinion in the west and were particularly interested in strengthening support from Western governments.
“There will be no change in Tibet unless there is multilateral pressure on China to change,” he said.
This will surely upset the regime which has already overstepped diplomatic bounds by trying to influence an Australian MP not to attend a pro Tibet rally.
Federal MP, Michael Darby, Chair of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, made it known earlier in the week that the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, Mr. Zhang Junsai, had sent a heavy handed letter to him, requesting that he “refrain” from attending a pro Tibet rally in Canberra on March 10.
Mr. Danby who was reputed to be at the rally on behalf of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to accept a letter from the Tibetan community leaders said China had to respect the democratic norms of Australia.
“No self-respecting MP would listen to a letter like this and not turn up to some political event because an ambassador of another country told him,” he told the rally.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he totally supported Mr. Danby’s position, The Canberra Times reported.
“What a diplomat is not entitled to do is to somehow seek to direct an elected official or an elected Member of Parliament in how he or she might conduct himself or herself,” the Minister said.
