Newsletter #41 references a presentation on this topic. The presentation, in Powerpoint format, is available here and in the Articles section of this website. (I tried to make it a link from within the Newsletter PDF file, but while I can do that on my own computer, I can’t make it work from the server hosting the MODCLS website, so you have a couple of extra clicks to make. Life’s a b****.)

…is now posted online as a downloadable PDF (as are all previous issues). This one contains mention of a Highways presentation–as soon as Alan sends me the .ppt file, I will hotlink it to the newsletter so you will be able to see it.

Best,

DE

Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping is unjust, inhuman, and disgusting. We need to speak out.

—David Ellis

Tibet activist jailed in China over language campaign

A Tibetan activist has been jailed for five years in China for “inciting separatism,” after he spoke to the New York Times about efforts to preserve his native language.

Tashi Wangchuk was arrested in 2016, after featuring in a video by the newspaper.

In the interview, he spoke of his fear that Tibetan culture was being destroyed in China.

Amnesty International denounced the verdict as “beyond absurd”.

Tashi, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, will be due for release in 2021.

His lawyer told the AFP news agency that he planned to appeal the decision.

“I believe he committed no crime and we do not accept the verdict,” Liang Xiojun told AFP.

Tashi appeared in a New York Times documentary in late 2015, where he voiced concerns that Tibetan culture was being destroyed in China.

He attempted to file a lawsuit in Beijing against local officials in his hometown, Yushu, saying they were sidelining the Tibetan language in favour of Mandarin in schools.

Mr Liang told reporters at Tashi’s trial earlier this year that the video was used as a key piece of evidence by the prosecution.

“He doesn’t believe he’s incited separatism,” Mr Liang said. “He only wants to strengthen Tibetan language education

Joshua Rosenzweig, East Asia research director at Amnesty International called the verdict a “gross injustice”.

“He is being cruelly punished…to brand peaceful activism for [the] Tibetan language as ‘inciting separatism’ is beyond absurd,” he said in a statement.

Tibet, a remote and mainly Buddhist territory known as the “roof of the world”, is governed as an autonomous region of China.

Beijing says Tibet has developed considerably under its rule. But rights groups say China continues to violate human rights, accusing Beijing of political and religious repression – something Beijing denies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-44207981

Those who were CLS students in early 70s cannot fail to remember the vocal social campaigner & leading light of the Urban Council, she often on local TV giving voice to her concerns, a member of it since 1963 and an elected member of the Legislative Council from 1988 to 1995. She married Andrew Hsueh-kwei Tu (a native of Inner Mongolia) in 1985, with whom she had co-founded Mu Kuang English School in an old army tent at Kai TaK, remaining Principal of the school until 2000. Appointed CBE in 1977, she was a first recipient of post-handover Hong Kong’s highest honour, the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 1997. Britain’s Daily Telegraph of 16 December 2015 carried a full obituary (from Alan Robertson)