Thread: Tibetan Students Denied Permission to Travel for Overseas Study

Tibetan Students Denied Permission to Travel for Overseas Study
Reported by Lumbum Tashi and Dorjee Tso for RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Translated by Karma Dorjee.
Written in English by Richard Finney.
2013-10-04


Tibetan students protest outside Xining government offices, Sept. 2, 2013.
Photo courtesy of an RFA listener.

Chinese authorities are refusing to issue passports to a group of young Tibetans who have received approval for study in Japan and the U.S., leading some to stage protests outside provincial government offices to highlight the discrimination, sources said.

The students, coming mostly from poor nomadic families in northwestern China’s Qinghai province, had been selected in July based on test scores and were set to attend schools in Japan and Washington state in the U.S., a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.

“On July 8, representatives arrived at the Girls’ School of the Tibetan Pastureland to recruit students for an American school called Skagit Valley College,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Verbal and written tests were conducted for those girls who graduated this year, and 42 students passed the tests and were selected to study abroad in the U.S.,” he said.

On July 9, a second group of 34—21 from the Girls’ School of the Tibetan Pastureland and 13 from the Qinghai Institute of Nationalities—was selected to study in Japan, the source said.

“Of these, some have already left for Japan,” he said.

Now, authorities in China have denied passports to the rest, RFA’s source said.

“On Sept. 2, one group, mainly girls, protested this unfair treatment in front of [provincial capital] Xining government offices, demanding that they be allowed to go, too.”

The students argued that if the children of high-ranking officials are permitted to travel for study abroad, students coming from “common families on the grasslands” should be allowed the same rights, he said.

Speaking to RFA on Friday, a source close to the Girls’ School of the Tibetan Pastureland confirmed that the students had not been allowed to travel.

“The story is true,” he said, adding, “I am still hopeful that the students can get passports to study abroad if their issue is not politicized by the authorities.”

The Girls’ School of the Tibetan Pastureland was established in September 2005 in Machen (in Chinese, Maqen) county of Qinghai’s Golog (Guoluo) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture “for girls in nomadic areas who have reached school age,” a local source said.

The school’s founder, a local Buddhist leader, also founded other schools and social-service groups in the area, the source said.

Calls on Friday seeking comment from Skagit Valley College, a two-year community college serving three counties in northwestern Washington State, were not returned.

rfa.org

To hell with China soon, please. With stuff like this going on the slim of the Chinese administration studying abraod should be sent home until China stops its oppression. It amazes me how comfortable the sons, daughters and other relatives of warped governments around the world live courtesy of the rest of the world when they abuse their own people. Hypocrisy of the west is alive and well. Crime and corruption pay for people in government. To hell with the Chinese who do this. May they have a 1,000 years of bad luck starting right now!

Nothing new. Oppressive governments have tried to keep the masses ignorant for years. The Chinese are no different and it is a risk for them to have the country's young learning abroad and learning anything other than Chinese propaganda.

One of the main differences with regard to keeping the masses down, is that the Chinese are becoming more affluent. When you are affluent, you have more opportunity, which is typically bought. The affluent usually become better educated because they can afford it and there lies the rub for China.

China has always been a country that kept its population down by poverty. That is coming to an end for many and with that comes revolutionary thoughts and that scares China to death. You will eventually see an attempt to stop travel out of China, but that will fail according to history.

If more young Chinese, especially Tibetans, were allowed to learn abroad, it would only be a matter of time before the existing government were overthrown.

I expect a lot more Chinese, millions and millions, will run rather than fight. I mean they'll try to go abroad to have a better future. I know one who came to Thailand to teach Chinese, the new big thing here in Thailand's schools. He doesn't want to go back to China and seems happy here only after living her for a year. With so many people in China we should see a lot more Chinese seeking to live in our countries through whatever means they can. Can't blame people seeking to better their lives. The world will change in many ways as the average person in developing nations gets the ability to travel and work in places that person's parents could never have dreamed of.