ITV Exposure: Undercover filming uncovers new evidence of repression in Tibet

Best on the Box choice for Sunday, February 16th…

The Chinese Embassy in London has called for the ‘cancellation’ of a major undercover investigation for ITV Exposure, Inside China: The Battle for Tibet, that reveals new evidence of political and religious repression in one of the world’s most tightly guarded regions.

For the first time in nearly 20 years, an undercover documentary filmmaker has secretly filmed inside Tibet, in a year-long investigation into the Chinese government’s campaign to impose its will on some seven million Tibetans. Beijing claims Tibet, which covers roughly a quarter of modern China, as its own. Independent reporting from inside Tibet is impossible. Few people are allowed in and even fewer Tibetans are allowed to leave.

A brave filmmaker who we’re calling ‘Chang’ to protect his identity, enters Tibet and starts to gather footage. Dodging police checkpoints, he finds a place where religion is suppressed, dissent is harshly punished, and China is tightening its grip.

One of the first things he notices is the extreme level of surveillance and policing. Checkpoints and police vans are everywhere. In the capital, Lhasa, there are police posts equipped with high-tech surveillance every 500 metres. “Almost every intersection had a police post,” says Chang.

Chang notices that images of China’s Communist Party leaders are ubiquitous. “It’s certainly the case now that they think loyalty should be to the Party, especially under Xi Jinping,” says Robert Barnett, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

In a statement for the programme the Chinese Embassy in London says that “human rights are their historical best” and that Tibetans’ lives are “significantly better”. But one Han Chinese man tells Chang that self-immolations – the act of setting oneself on fire as an extreme act of protest – continue to happen. “It happens, two self-immolated recently,” the man says. Since 2009, around a hundred and sixty Tibetans are believed to have set themselves on fire as an act of resistance against Chinese rule.

Tensions between Tibet’s spiritual leader and China reaching a critical point

The Dalai Lama has been locked in conflict with China for almost seven decades but now he’s approaching his 90th birthday, tensions are reaching a critical point. At stake: his succession, the future of Tibet, and the fate of its unique culture.

China invaded Tibet 75 years ago. After a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled to India. He’s remained a potent symbol of Tibetan resistance, and his commitment to upholding Tibetan culture, language and religion in exile earned him a Nobel Peace Prize. But China still considers him a dangerous threat to its rule, branding him an “anti-China separatist”.

Those caught supporting the Dalai Lama in Tibet today face severe punishment. The film tells the story of one of them: a young Tibetan woman called Namkyi.

Namkyi describes how aged just 15, she walked through the streets of Ngaba holding a portrait of the Dalai Lama, calling for his return and freedom for Tibet. She says she was detained, beaten up and sentenced to three years in jail – one of thousands of political prisoners detained or sentenced in Tibet for their political beliefs.

After her release she risked re-arrest and even death to escape Tibet, making the perilous journey across the Himalayas to neighbouring India. “China certainly gives us huge repression both mentally and physically. However, our faith and trust is never diminished,” she says.

The Chinese Communist Party has imposed strict regulations on the practise of Tibetan Buddhism to try to ensure absolute loyalty. Chang gathers evidence of this during a secretly filmed encounter with a high-ranking Tibetan official who tells him government employees are not allowed to practice their religion. Those who grew up visiting monasteries are now afraid to go, he says, because of the levels of surveillance: “If you are caught by camera, you’d be purged.”

“Everyday activities such as language preservation, passing on traditional Tibetan practices, are being criminalised. Surveillance is at the heart of this process of subjugating the Tibetan people, of making them Chinese,” says cyber security expert Greg Walton.

Inside China: The Battle for Tibet shows how Beijing is trying to impose control over the vast landmass that is modern China by assimilating ethnic minorities into a singular Chinese identity, centred on Han Chinese culture. This is central to President Xi Jinping’s power and rule. A Han Chinese man who has resettled to a Tibetan town tells Chang: “The Communist Party’s goal is to gradually assimilate them into Han Chinese, so they can’t make trouble.”

Education is seen by Beijing as key to consolidating this goal in Tibet. According to campaigners, up to one million Tibetan children as young as four have been placed in boarding schools where they are separated from their families, taught in Mandarin and moulded into citizens loyal to China and the communist Party.

One mother, whose children go to a local school, tells Chang that her children respond to her in Chinese and can’t speak Tibetan anymore: “They don’t speak our language. just Chinese from kindergarten and primary school. When parents ask what they are eating, they answer [in Chinese]. We can’t teach the kids [Tibetan]. They don’t listen to us, they just speak Chinese.”

Under President Xi Jinping it’s estimated that up to one million Tibetan children are now taught in boarding schools. Rare footage in the film appears to show how some children are mistreated in school. One clip shows the headmaster of a boarding school beating a boy around the head. Another clip shows a teacher beating a child on the hands with a stick, hitting him with a chair and throwing him onto a table. Human rights groups report that physical abuse in these boarding schools is commonplace.

The film shows why the 14th Dalai Lama’s death is expected to ignite a clash between Beijing and the Tibetan government-in-exile over his successor. Beijing says that only the atheist Communist Party can name the Dalai Lama’s next incarnation. Thirty years ago, Arjia Rinpoche, a senior lama from Tibet, was an eyewitness to the execution of a Chinese Government plan that could empower it to choose its own successor to the Dalai Lama.

In May 1995, the Dalai Lama recognised a six-year-old boy as the 11th Panchen Lama, who in religious terms would play a critical role in recognising the next Dalai Lama. The Chinese Government swiftly abducted the boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and he was never heard from or seen again publicly. China says the Dalai Lama broke Buddhist tradition and acted illegally.

Six months later, Tibetan Buddhist leaders, including Arjia Rinpoche, were forced to attend a ceremony in Lhasa. They were there to witness the choice of a Chinese approved Panchen Lama, who could in future recognise the next Dalai Lama. Arjia Rinpoche says that the process was rigged by Chinese officials, who had pre-selected one boy, Gyaltsen Norbu. Now the official Panchen Lama, he’s grown up under the control of Beijing and publicly supports China’s rule in Tibet.

The documentary investigates what happened to the abducted boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. Many people are afraid to talk even privately and off the record. Only one image of him has surfaced since he was abducted from his hometown of Lhari, deep inside Tibet. Kate Saunders, a Tibet specialist, managed to get the photo which has never been broadcast before. She says: “It seems to show Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. He’s got a toy helicopter; he’s sitting on his father’s lap. He could be around 10, around 11…. I believe it’s genuine, but we still haven’t been able to fully confirm that.”

When the programme-makers researched the provenance of the photo, they discovered that those who may have credible information are too scared to speak. Kate Saunders tells the programme: “When China wants someone to disappear, that person can disappear like a stone.” Now living in exile in the USA, Arjia Rinpoche says he doesn’t know if Gedhun Choekyi Nyima “is alive or not”. Some fear that if the Chinese Government appoints its own Dalai Lama when the time comes, it will fully control Tibet.

In a statement for the film, the Chinese Embassy in London said: “We call for the cancellation of the broadcast of the programme. We encourage objective and fair reporting to enhance mutual understanding and trust between China and the UK.” It said the programme is “filled with bias and false accusations”. “Xizang [Tibet] has been part of China since ancient times [and] has seen continued and sound economic growth, social harmony and stability.”

“Boarding schools [are] a practical way to ensure all children’s equal right to education…[in] a region of highly scattered population.” It said students can go home and parents can visit their children. “Courses of traditional culture and Xizangan [Tibetan] language are available. The so-called ‘forced assimilation’ is pure fabrication… [We are] currently unable to verify the [abuse] videos and have no comment.”

“The Chinese government [respects] the reincarnation of Living Buddhas, [and the] procedures [that] have been established over the centuries. The religious rituals, historical conventions [and] Chinese laws need to be complied with in this process.”

Inside China: The Battle for Tibet airs tonight, Sunday 16th Feb, at 10.20 pm on 22:20, ITV1, STV, STV Player and ITVX. From the Bafta and Emmy award winning Hardcash Productions.