Chinese authorities in Tibet persecute relatives of self-immolated protesters

Chinese authorities have been harassing and discriminating against the relatives of Tibetans who protested against the Chinese government by setting their bodies on fire since 2008, two sources in Tibet told Radio Free Asia.

For example, students associated with such protesters have been denied authorization to take university entrance exams, while others have been denied job opportunities, they say.

“There is a student here who is related to someone who blew himself up in 2013,” a source from Labrang (Labuleng in Chinese) told Radio Free Asia Tibetan Service.

“That’s why the student was denied a government clearance letter to take a college entrance exam, and therefore that student was never able to go to college. I have witnessed it myself,” he said.

“Tibetans who participated in the 2008 riots and also those related to people who were part of those protests are discriminated against in their job opportunities, schools and in other ways,” he said.

Beijing has been collecting detailed information about people who participated in pro-Tibet political activities, especially on the 2008 anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, when up to 400 Tibetans were killed as Chinese authorities put down major protests.

Since 2009, more than 150 Tibetans have committed self-immolation to protest the Chinese communist government’s crackdown. Most of the self-immolations took place in the Ngaba (Aba) and Labrang regions.

The Chinese government maintains data on protesters and their families in an easily accessible online database.

Another Tibetan, from Ngaba, said the Chinese government regularly harasses the relatives of protesters.

“In 2022, the Chinese government continued to harass and examine a Tibetan who is the nephew of someone who self-immolated in Ngaba,” the Ngaba source said. “He was accused of contacting people outside of Tibet and sentenced to three years in prison. Subsequently, his relatives were denied all the government aid they were receiving”.

The government is even tougher on former political prisoners, the Labrang source said.

“They are constantly under scrutiny; their lives never go back to normal and they are also denied accommodation when they travel to different places,” the source said.

“Tibetans who have been convicted of crimes that the Chinese government considers illegal are often discriminated against and denied access to proper medical care. They are also denied financial assistance from the government.”

Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.