(TibetanReview.net, Nov13’24) –Chinese police have roughed up well-known Tibetan language education right activist Mr Tashi Wangchuk in a 15-day period of detention and interrogation over Oct-Nov 2024 in his hometown of Kyegudo in Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai province, reported the Tibetan-language tibettime.net Nov 11. He had already spent five years in jail for his New York Times-publicized activism but resumed his campaign after his release in Jan 2021.
The report said the activist had recently posted three documents related to his re-arrest and detention on his personal website. These were stated to reveal that Tashi Wangchuk was accused by the Chinese police of repeatedly slandering the Chinese government, making distorted claims and baseless remarks against its decisions on instant messaging and other online media apps since Jun 2024. He was accused of thereby causing serious turbulence in online and social order.
The documents were stated to show that for these reasons, it was decided that he should be placed under detention in the administrative detention centre of the Kyegudo city government from Oct 20 to Nov 4.
The report said that it had earlier learnt from a source on Nov 10 evening that Tashi Wangchuk had been taken away by the Chinese police from his home in Ga Kyegudo; that no information was available about him ever since, and that he had been given an administrative detention sentence. It was also stated that Tashi Wangchuk had been warned against meddling in government works related to Tibetan language.
In 2015, Tashi Wangchuk had petitioned the Chinese government to protect the Tibetan language in keeping with the provisions of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Regional Ethnic Autonomy. He said that under its policy implemented in 2015, the government had sought to eliminate the Tibetan language in Tibetan region schools, as a result of which the Tibetan children’s knowledge of their mother tongue had become precarious.
He also narrated the difficulties being faced by schools in the Tibetan areas as a result of it to the Beijing correspondent of the New York Times and publicized it. For this reason, the Yushu prefecture policy secretly arrested Tashi Wangchuk on January 27, 2016. He remained disappeared for more than two years. On May 22, 2018, the Yushu Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to a five-year jail term for allegedly engaging in separatist attempts.
He was released on Jan 14, 2021, after completing his sentence. Even then, he was deprived of his freedom of movement and also subjected to detention and beating, the report said.