Tibetan issues no longer in focus, but Chinese repression persists: exiled former leader

The plight of Tibet has become less discussed internationally but repression continues and China is applying what it did there to other regions, a former head of the Tibetan Government-in-exile said.

The plight of Tibet has become less discussed internationally but repression continues and China is applying what it did there to other regions, a former head of the Tibetan Government-in-exile said on January 13.

China seized control of Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a "peaceful liberation" from feudalistic serfdom. International human rights groups and exiles routinely condemn what they call China's oppressive rule in Tibetan areas.

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Speaking to Reuters during a visit to Taiwan to observe the island's elections, Lobsang Sangay, the leader of the India-based Central Tibetan Administration until 2021, said Tibet had somewhat fallen off the international agenda.

"I think Tibet is not current," said Mr. Sangay, who remains an influential figure in the exile community and close to exiled spiritual leader and Nobel laureate the Dalai Lama, who he met with in India just before arriving in Taipei.

Tibet went through mass protests in 2008 before Beijing held the Olympics, and then a series of self-immolations by Tibetans in protest against Chinese rule, but then what China was doing to Uighurs in Xinjiang followed by the security crackdown in Hong Kong took more attention, he added.

"On the one hand, yes, there is less coverage about Tibet. That doesn't mean the situation in Tibet is less serious," Mr. Sangay said.