NEWS from the Laogai Museum

September 26, 2012 by admin

Hello!
Our friends at the International Campaign for Tibet are sponsoring a discussion with Chinese writer Yu Jie. Please see below for more details, we hope you see you there!

International Campaign for Tibet presents

China's Policy on Nationalities and Tibet
A discussion with Chinese writer Yu Jie

China's ongoing repressive measures in Tibet in the light of the recent self-immolations are highlighting the appropriateness of the current Chinese Government's ethnic policy. Instead of bringing about a harmonious society, Chinese policies have led to a widening of a gap between Tibetans and Chinese and the nationalistic feelings among Han Chinese.

Chinese academics like Ma Rong, Hu Angang and Hu Lianhe have been promoting the idea of changing the current Chinese policy so that people considered minorities will not have any preferential treatment. The Executive Vice Minister of the United Front Work Department, Mr. Zhu Weiqun, who had been the lead person on the Chinese side in the talks with the Envoys of the Dalai Lama, had also written in a Party newspaper about the need for such a change.

Where are these discussions in China heading and what does it mean for the future of the Tibetan people? We have invited prominent Chinese writer and thinker Yu Jie to share his thoughts. Focusing on the views of Liu Xiaobo and such like Chinese scholars, who support the Tibetan people's right to choose their own lifestyle, Yu Jie will analyze and speak to the future of political development in China and the future of the Tibetan issue.

4:30PM, Thursday, September 27, 2012

Doors open at 4:00, lecture begins at 4:30PM

Please RSVP to rsvp@savetibet.org or 202-785-8591

NOTE: This lecture will be webcast LIVE at www.ustream.tv/channel/ict-lecture-series

Questions and comments can be emailed to comments@savetibet.org

Location: The International Campaign for Tibet
1825 Jefferson Place, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Metro system: Red line, Dupont Circle or Orange line, Farragut West

Biography:

YU JIE, is a prominent dissident Chinese writer. Yu Jie served as the vice-president of the IndependentChinese PEN Center (2005-2007), and was one of the early signers of Charter 08 - a landmark manifesto calling for constitutional democracy and gradual political reforms. Yu Jie graduated from Peking Universityand won fame as a critical and sharp-minded essayist in the late 90s. In 2010, he published "China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao" which was banned in mainland China and led to several interrogations by Chinese police. His enduring friendship with Liu Xioabo, led to his kidnap and arrest by Chinese officials on December 9, 2010, the day before the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for Liu Xiaobo, and a year of house arrest and harassment following this. Yu Jie emigrated to the United States in January 2012 in order to complete his biography of Liu Xiaobo and continue his work. He was the recipient of the Civil Courage Prize of the U.S. based Train Foundation earlier this year and his biography of his friend, Liu Xiaobo in Chinese was published in Hong Kong.

Moderator:

BHUCHUNG K. TSERING was born in Tibet. His family fled to India in 1960 in the wake of Chinese Communist invasion. He studied in India, receiving his B.A. in English literature from the University of Delhiin 1982. He worked as a reporter for the Indian daily, Indian Express, in New Delhi, thereafter joining the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India, in January 1984. He has worked as the editor of Tibetan Bulletin, the official journal of the Tibetan Government. He joined the International Campaign for Tibet inWashington, D.C., in 1995 and is currently the Vice President for Special Program, overseeing Chinese outreach and Tibetan empowerment programs. He has spoken on Tibet in different colleges as well as Amnesty International-organized events. He was a columnist for the Tibetan monthly, Tibetan Review, and has contributed articles on Tibet to Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Swiss and American journals. Bhuchung Tsering is a member of the Task Force for Sino-Tibet negotiations and has been part of the team led by envoys of H.H. the Dalai Lama since 2002 for talks with the representatives of the Chinese leadership.
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