Chime Lhamo, a prominent Tibetan activist and community organizer hailing from Canada, delivered a compelling address at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Taipei on October 18, 2023, where she shed light on the dire situation in Tibet. Speaking at the forum, organized by the Human Rights Foundation and attended by 11 international activists and human rights advocates, Lhamo unveiled the stark reality of life for Tibetans under the Chinese Communist regime.
In her impassioned speech, Chime Lhamo declared, "Free Tibet is a Crime in the Eyes of the Chinese Communist Regime. Tibet is my homeland, and it's the homeland of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans in exile who cannot return and millions of Tibetans who cannot leave Tibet freely. But we will fight every single day, and someday we will reclaim our home."
Lhamo's address underscored the staggering human rights abuses endured by Tibetans, as she revealed that for the fourth consecutive year, Freedom House had ranked Tibet as one of the world's least free countries. She expressed her deep concern over the forced separation of four-year-old Tibetan children from their families, consigning them to the Chinese Communist Party's controversial educational boarding schools, where familial bonds often wither away within three months of enrollment.
The Tibetan activist went on to expose the troubling practice of a US biotechnology company, Thermo Fisher, forcibly collecting the blood of one-third of Tibetans, facilitating China's intrusive DNA collection without their consent.
Furthermore, Chime Lhamo underscored the sinister global implications of China's actions, elucidating, "China has formed an evil industrial chain with other dictatorships such as Venezuela and Cuba, exporting policies of genocide and surveillance that have been tested on Uyghurs and Tibetans. For instance, the Chinese telecommunications company ZTE assisted the dictatorship in Venezuela in illicitly storing people's personal data and monitoring them."
She also drew attention to the United Nations' perplexing decision to grant a seat on the Human Rights Council to China, despite its extensive human rights violations.
In a call to action, she urged the international community to unite in confronting these atrocities. She asserted, "Now is the time for us to step up to the plate, and while economic embargoes and boycotts may work against China, they will only work if more countries join in! We win when we work together!"
In a final plea, she mentioned an ongoing global campaign initiated by her and other international students to halt the illegal collection of DNA from Tibetans by the US company Thermo Fisher, encouraging others to lend their support to the cause.
Edited and collated by Team TRC