Beijing

The United States has announced it will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials that are pursuing "forced assimilation" of children in Tibet. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday (August 23) said Washington would go after Chinese officials who are behind the policy of state boarding schools forcefully assimilating over one million Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools. 

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"@StateDept is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on PRC officials for the forcible assimilation of Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools. We call on the PRC to cease these actions that undermine human rights," posted Blinken, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Blinken argued the 'coercive' policies of the Chinese government seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans. 

After Blinken's stern statements, Beijing retaliated and dubbed the move as "smears". It urged Washington to avoid bringing measures that interfere with the country's sovereignty.

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According to a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, centralising children in boarding school “effectively solves the problem of ethnic minority students’ difficulty in attending school at a distance where the local people live scattered".

WATCH | WION Fineprint| Report: Chinese authorities gathering DNA samples across Tibet

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Chinese academics bat for changing Tibet's name 

Notably, the decision by Washington comes a few days after Chinese academics called for renaming Tibet to Xizang to help "reconstruct" its image. The appeal came during an official conference on Tibet held in Beijing. 

The details of the conference were mentioned in a WeChat account managed by the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the SCMP report added. UFWD is an agency in charge of overseeing matters pertaining to ethnic and minority groups.

Also read | Chinese academics call for renaming Tibet as Xizang for ‘reconstructing’ image

For a long time, China has been attempting to transform the identity and culture of Tibetans after forcefully occupying it. Last year, a study published by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab revealed that Beijing had collected over 1.2 million DNA samples of Tibetans in the last five years.

The study reached its conclusion by analysing 100 publically available sources. Experts said China's aim is to create a gene pool to police ordinary Tibetans. 

Notably, Tibetans are not the only minorities that are treated horribly by the Chinese government. The Xi Jinping administration is known for operating inhumane and cruel concentration camps for Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province of the country. Beijing continues to claim these camps are vocational centres.  

(With inputs from agencies)

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