FINDINGS

The Commission finds no progress in the dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives is evident. After the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy returned to India after the sixth round of dialogue, he issued the briefest and least optimistic statement to date. Chinese officials showed no sign that they recognize the potential benefits of inviting the Dalai Lama to visit China so that they can meet with him directly.

Chinese government enforcement of Party policy on religion resulted in an increased level of repression of the freedom of religion for Tibetan Buddhists during the past year. The Communist Party intensified its long-running anti-Dalai Lama campaign. Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is coming under increased pressure as recent legal measures expand and deepen government control over Buddhist monasteries, nunneries, monks, nuns, and reincarnated lamas. The Chinese government issued legal measures that if fully implemented will establish government control over the process of identifying and educating reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist teachers throughout China.

Chinese authorities continue to detain and imprison Tibetans for peaceful expression and non-violent action, charging them with crimes such as "splittism," and claiming that their behavior "endangers state security." The Commission's Political Prisoner Database listed 100 known cases of current Tibetan political detention or imprisonment as of September 2007, a figure that is likely to be lower than the actual number of Tibetan political prisoners. Based on sentence information available for 64 of the current prisoners, the average sentence length is 11 years and 2 months. Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns make up a separate set of 64 of the known currently detained or imprisoned Tibetan political prisoners as of September 2007, according to data available in the Commission's Political Prisoner Database. Based on data available for 42 currently imprisoned Tibetan monks and nuns, their average sentence length is 10 years and 4 months. (It is a coincidence that the number of monks and nuns, and the number of prisoners for whom the Commission has sentence information available, are both 64).

In its first year of operation, the Qinghai-Tibet railway carried 1.5 million passengers into the TAR, of whom hundreds of thousands are likely to be ethnic Han and other non-Tibetans seeking jobs and economic opportunities. The government is establishing greater control over the Tibetan rural population by implementing programs that will bring to an end the traditional lifestyle of the Tibetan nomadic herder by settling them in fixed communities, and reconstructing or relocating farm villages.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To address these issues, Members of the Congress and Administration officials are encouraged to:

• Continue to convey to the Chinese government the importance and urgency of moving forward in dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives. The most effective way for the dialogue to move forward is for Chinese government officials to invite the Dalai Lama to visit China and meet with him face-to-face so that the Chinese and Tibetans can begin to overcome obstacles to progress in the dialogue, and seek an understanding that will contribute to the protection and preservation of the Tibetan culture and heritage, and improve China's stability, prosperity, and harmony.

• Convey to the Chinese government the importance of respecting the Tibetan people's right to freedom of religion, and of not using the law as an instrument to deprive Tibetans and other Chinese citizens of that right. Freedom of religion includes the right of Tibetan Buddhists to identify and educate their religious teachers in a manner consistent with their preferences and traditions, without regulation and supervision by the Chinese government. Continue to urge the Chinese government to allow international observers to visit Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the Panchen Lama as recognized by the Dalai Lama, and his parents.

• Increase funding for U.S. nongovernmental organizations to develop programs that can assist Tibetans to increase their capacity to protect and develop their culture, language, and heritage; that can help to improve education, economic, and health conditions of ethnic Tibetans living in Tibetan areas of China; and that create sustainable benefits without encouraging an influx of non-Tibetans into these areas. Such assistance to Tibetans is of increased importance following the start of operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

• Raise in meetings and correspondence with Chinese officials the cases of Tibetans who are imprisoned as punishment for the peaceful exercise of human rights. Representative cases include: monk Choeying Khedrub (sentenced to life imprisonment for printing leaflets); and reincarnated lama Bangri Chogtrul (serving a sentence of 18 years commuted from life imprisonment for "inciting splittism").