The Geneva Summit for Human Rights & Democracy 2023

Read The Script:

In 2015, I finished my Ph.D. in Sociology of education at the University of Toronto, and I moved back to Tibet. The next year, I got a phone call from my brother. He said: “Gyal Lo, I need you to come home to check on my two granddaughters. Strange things are happening with them, and I don’t know how to interpret it.” 

On a Friday afternoon – I went to pick up my grandnieces from their boarding school. But this was not just any boarding school – it was a boarding preschool. They were only ages 4 and 5 years old. And this was an entirely new policy in Tibet. When these two little girls got home, I closely observed them and the way they interacted with the family. They didn’t hug anyone. There was no emotional exchange. They were silent, distant, almost like strangers or guests in their home!

I’m here to tell you, today, that all of this is by design. 

China’s mandatory boarding schools WILL destroy Tibet’s culture and identity if they are not stopped. Like a gardener, ripping out plants from the ground – the CCP is trying to completely cut off Tibetan children from their cultural roots in order to eradicate us forever.

Around 1995, when I was teaching at a university, I noticed my undergraduate Tibetan students were speaking Tibetan fluently in class, but when they turned in written assignments, their grammar was strange. I asked why, and they said: “This is the way we learned from our school.” So I got their textbooks and realized they were very poorly translated from Chinese. I thought, “We must write our own textbook!” I organized a group of principals, professors, and local students to ask: “How should we teach child literacy in Tibet?” Together, we came up with an outline, and then it was my job to write the book. I collected oral history from different villagers, transcribed it, and edited it. 

In 1999-2000, when we distributed the book to schools around Tibet, the kids were so happy! And their parents kept asking to borrow those books. Parents said, “Wow, your school is teaching this?!! You have to go every day.” Their enthusiasm and pride in our culturally relevant textbook and in our own language majorly increased daily attendance.

In 2009, when I heard a rumor that China was planning a mandatory preschool program in Tibet for children ages 4 to 6 I thought, “We must get ahead of this. Let’s bring everyone back together to discuss what we’d want as a mother-tongue-based curriculum and give our recommendations to the Chinese government.” 

But I was in Canada when Xi Jinping announced the new preschool policy. And it wasn’t until I saw my grandnieces that I realized that their boarding preschool curriculum was worse than everything we could’ve imagined. 

So for 3 years, I traveled across eastern Tibet, visiting more than 50 boarding preschools, meeting with students, principals, and local people. And what I witnessed was nearly identical to my grandnieces’ experiences. Students are forced to speak in Mandarin. Teachers can only use CCP-approved books. And each classroom is monitored remotely by security cameras so teachers can’t deviate from the curriculum. Chinese teachers brought their cultural artifacts into the classroom and asked students to close their eyes, imagine the objects, and then draw and explain what they saw in their minds – in Mandarin. 

Every day, it’s lessons like this. So when these 4 and 5-year-old children go home, they have almost nothing in common with their parents. Nothing to talk about. Almost like they were raised in a foreign country.

When I asked my brother: “What would happen if you don’t send the girls to the boarding preschool?” He teared up, and said, “the girls will be blocked from getting an education for the rest of their life.” 

Even if most Tibetans don’t agree with this policy or Beijing’s curriculum, they have no choice. This is why 1 million Tibetan children are in boarding schools today. And this number means that 3 out of every 4 school-age Tibetan children now live separated from their parents and in the control of the Chinese state.

As an educator, I can tell you that China’s pedagogy is very advanced. They’re brainwashing an entire generation of Tibetan kids so successfully that they won’t know how to practice their own language, culture, or religion in their homeland.

 The Communist Party is trying to force our Tibetan kids to become Chinese. If this continues, then China will end Tibetans’ 5,000-year-old civilization. 

In September 2020, after so many years of advocating for the right to receive a Tibetan education in Tibet, I began to face serious political consequences. I tried to fight this, but a well-known lawyer recommended that I leave quietly, right away, before I’m in physical danger. I was shocked. It felt so sudden. But I packed up all my things and had one last dinner with my family. I told them, “I can’t stay here anymore. It’s possible we won’t see each other for the rest of my life.” But I couldn’t bear to tell my 80-year-old father the truth so I just said: “I have to go, but I’ll be back soon.” 

Today, I live with my wife & daughter in Canada. And I’ve watched Canadian Prime Ministers, Parliamentarians, and even Pope Francis apologize for forcing Indigenous kids into Residential Schools where they were stripped of their language and culture. And yet – today – in 2023 – China is intentionally recreating this genocidal system in Tibet – and at nearly 10 times the scale.

The only thing that will stop Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party is international pressure and sanctions. We must force them to end this practice, or Tibet will cease to exist.

Thank you.

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