The Dalai Lama was recently hospitalized due to a chest infection. The world renown Buddhist leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient has since recovered but this incident has brought focus to a core doctrine in Buddhism: impermanence. All things are transient, Buddhist scripture states, and that includes the Dalai Lama.
When the Dalai Lama has passed on before, senior monks would go on journey to find his reincarnation, a practice that allowed the legacy to live on through the generations. For fourteen reincarnations, this quest was accomplished without hindrance.
But times have changed.
China invaded Tibet, the home of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, in 1950. In the course of annexing the nation, they murdered hundreds of thousands of Tibetans. As a result of their control of the region and tight dominance, this long-standing tradition may, itself, suffer its own impermanence.
Chinese leadership has now weighed in on reincarnation, clearly indicating their intention to interfere with the succession.
According to CNN, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said there are “clear rules” regarding the reincarnation of “the living Buddha.”
“Reincarnation of living Buddhas, including the Dalai Lama, must comply with Chinese laws and regulations and follow religious rituals and historical conventions,” Lu said.
It’s not the first time the Chinese Communist Party has involved itself in a long-standing tradition. Three days after the Dalai Lama identified the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the Chinese government kidnapped him. He has not been seen in over 20 years since.
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Some fear that U.S.-Taiwan relations would be downgraded in exchange for a stronger Chinese stance against North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Katherine Chang, the minister for mainland affairs, tells the Washington Post that Taiwan could become a “bargaining chip” in such a case.
Currently, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out force as a path to reunification. The U.S. has historically backed the “One China Policy” by refusing to diplomatically recognize Taiwan even though it has maintained an unofficial relationship involving trade.
Taiwan was not mentioned by either Trump or Xi during a joint news conference following their meeting on Thursday.
However, a number of Trump’s advisers have been known to be sympathetic to Taiwan’s concerns and grievances. In early December, Trump broke away from decades of tradition by making a congratulatory phone call to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen following her election victory. But, Trump has since said he will not engage with the Taiwanese president again without checking in with China first.
Furthermore, Trump and Xi have been enjoying an improved relationship, with Trump even saying both shared “great chemistry.” During a news conference in South Korea on Tuesday, Trump said Xi had “been trying very hard to solve the problem” with North Korea. In fact, the U.S. president has enjoyed some success where predecessors have failed on the North Korean issue. China, which is Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner, recently agreed to cut coal exports with the nation and sever ties with its banks.
When Trump was defending his call with Tsai Ing-wen, he had said that the U.S. stance on the One China Policy would depend on whether he can “make a deal” with Beijing on trade and other issues.
Still, the U.S. and Taiwan have enjoyed some good relations including a $1.42 billion weapons deal agreed on earlier this year. This is one of the reasons some diplomats feel a major shift in U.S. relations with Taiwan is unlikely.
Taipei is also looking forward to increase defense spending, establish a bi-lateral trade agreement with the U.S., and end all trade with North Korea.
But whether Taiwan can become a bargaining chip in the North Korean issue strongly depends on Xi’s decisions.
“Many have debated here in Taiwan whether President Trump will trade Taiwan in exchange for China’s position in North Korea,” said Alexander Huang, chairman of Taiwan’s Council on Strategic and Wargaming Studies. “But my hunch is that even if President Trump makes such an offer, President Xi would say no: ‘Taiwan is not in your hands. It’s in mine.’”
]]>However, Gui’s family says they have yet to hear from him. His daughter Angela Gui told reporters, “I still don’t know where my father is … Neither I nor any member of my family nor any of his friends have been contacted. It is still very unclear where he is. I am deeply concerned for his wellbeing.” Based in the UK, she said that the Swedish embassy had received notification that he would be released on October 17. She added that when Swedish officials arrived at the Chinese prison that morning, authorities had told them he left earlier at midnight and was free to travel as he pleased. They gave no detail of his whereabouts, Angela said.
Gui ran a controversial publishing house Mighty Current. its affiliated Causeway Bay Bookstore sold books controversial to the ruling Chinese Communist Party including titles about the personal lives of the country’s political heads.
Gui disappeared from Thailand in October 2015 before later appearing in China where he made a public confession about a fatal car accident that allegedly occurred in 2003. His daughter said it was forced.
Lam Wing-kee, another jailed publisher, agrees. He says the confession was written by Chinese authorities. He added that Lee Bo, another jailed publisher, was kidnapped from Hong Kong. Lee has not confirmed this, but news about Lee and Gui being allegedly abducted against their wills in an extrajudicial process caught the eye of the international community.
Sweden is seeking additional details about Gui’s release.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said he has been firmly opposing and preventing Taiwan’s Independence over the past five years in the opening speech of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China delivered on Wednesday. ‘We will never allow anyone, any organization or any political party at any time or in any form, to…
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a stern warning to Taiwan Wednesday, saying that Beijing has the will and power to thwart any attempts at independence. Addressing a twice-a-decade gathering of the Communist Party in Beijing, Xi warned that China has “the resolve, the confidence, and the ability to defeat separatist attempts for Taiwan independence in any…
Abudourexiti was pregnant at the time of her arrest, but is believed to now be without child. She is currently being held at Urumqi Women’s Prison. No explanation has been given for her arrest and the rights group says she is at risk of torture and other ill treatment.
Amnesty International believes her arrest is part of a wider on crackdown on the Uighur ethnic minority. In a call for urgent action report, the organization stated that “In early July, approximately 200 Uighurs were detained in Egypt by order of the Chinese authorities, with 22 who have been forcibly returned have not been heard from since.” According to Radio Free Asia, Chinese authorities have been urging Uighur students enrolled in universities abroad to return to China since May 2017.
Amnesty International is now urging citizens to take action and call on authorities to commit the following.
- Immediately and unconditionally release Buzainafu Abudourexiti unless there is sufficient credible and admissible evidence that she committed an internationally recognized offence and is granted a fair retrial in line with international standards;
- Allow her prompt, regular and unrestricted access to medical care on request or as necessary.
The rights group is calling on its supporters to reach the following individuals by Nov. 9, 2017.
Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region
Chen Quanguo Shuji
479 Zhongshanlu
Urumqi, Xinjiang
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Secretary
Ambassador Tiankai Cui, Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
3505 International Place NW, Washington DC 20008
Phone: 1 202 495 2266 I Fax: 1 202 495 2138
]]>Last year, the State Department then led by John Kerry decided to hand China a waiver to stay in Tier II for showing some improvement. But this year, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson decided China won’t get another “get-out-of-jail free card.”
Among a list of reasons he bumped China out, Tillerson said the government “has not taken serious steps to end its own complicity in trafficking, including forced laborers from North Korea that are located in China.”
The report accused China of being the source of several forms of trafficking including forced labor, forced begging, sex trafficking and trafficking of people from outside countries into China.
The U.S.’s move comes amid a shaking of Sino-American relations. In recent weeks, President Donald Trump seemed to lose patience with China after he announced that efforts to encourage China to take a tougher stance on nuclear-armed North Korea have “not worked out.” And his recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi probably didn’t raise many smiles among the Communist Party leadership.
]]>Xi had pledged to set his net across “tigers and flies,” or both high-and-low ranking officials who enriched themselves and their families through illegal means. And while the campaign is largely supported by ordinary Chinese, it may be starting to look less than noble.
Many suspect this crackdown is as much a reforming of the party as it is a crusade against Xi’s enemies.
To back this claim, critics point to the arrests of Politburo member Zhou Yongkang, and former minister of commerce Bo Xilai – both of whom were thought to challenge Xi’s ascension.
An even more high-profile example is the arrest of Guo Wengui, a real estate billionaire who has fled China and is under a “red alert” policy, requiring Interpol to turn him over to Chinese authorities. The former real estate billionaire and member of President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort has gained a large media following being interviewed for Chinese-language websites in the U.S. and even the Voice of America. The latter interview was cut short raising speculation that Beijing forced VOA to stop – a claim the company denies. However, Guo has pledged throughout cyberspace to unmask corruption at the highest levels of the Communist Party.
Guo claims relatives of He Guoqiang, a former member of the Politboro Standing Committee, used their influence to rip him out of a business deal. While he has offered no hard evidence, research by Chinese and Western sources points to ties between He’s family and various companies that may have benefited from such an incident.
Nonetheless, Xi Jinping has a lot to clear up as he looks toward a successful 19th Congress of the CCP, which is expected to take place later this year.
]]>The organization’s latest global report on the death penalty indicates that the Chinese government sanctioned more than 1,032 executions worldwide in 2016. But the real score on the mainland remains property of the Communist state.
Still, Amnesty speculates that thousands of people could have been subject to capital punishment in China that year. Dui Hua, an American human rights group, puts the figure at about 2,000 based on court research and communication with government officials and scholars.
The Secretary general of Amnesty International has called on China to loosen the noose.
Salil Shetty says “China wants to be a leader on the world stage, but when it comes to the death penalty it is leading in the worst possible way – executing more people annually than any other country in the world.
“The Chinese government has recognized it is a laggard in terms of openness and judicial transparency, but it persists in actively concealing the true scale of executions. It is high time for China to lift the veil on this deadly secret and finally come clean about its death penalty system.”
Still, the rights group notes that the worldwide record on China’s card has dropped by 63% from 2015, when it executed at a record high.
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