"Prosecute Them with Awesome Power": China’s Crackdown on Tengdro Monastery and Restrictions on Communications in Tibet
Human Rights Watch (2021), 63 pp.
ISBN 978-1-62313-918-6
"This report provides the first detailed account of the raid on the Tengdro monastery and its consequences, including multiple detentions and a suicide, that has appeared in any media within or outside China. It also provides analysis of what the case shows about conditions in Tibet today and assesses possible reasons for the unprecedentedly harsh sentences given to three of the four monks for minor online activities and communications that are commonplace among Tibetans. Human Rights Watch has not been able to find another case in which Tibetans were convicted of major offenses and sentenced to such long terms without any information emerging to explain the severity of the punishment." (Page 2)
BACKGROUND, 11
Tengdro Monastery and the Surrounding Community, 11
Inspecting the Village: Official Visits to Dranak, 15
I. THE RAID AND ITS AFTERMATH, 22
The Suicide of Lobsang Zoepa, 24
Political Re-education Imposed on Village and Monastery, 26
II. THE POLITICS OF SENTENCING: ONLINE OFFENSES, 32
Criminal Charges Against the Tengdro Monks, 32
Other Cases of Extreme Punishment in Tibet, 35
Online Offenses: Regulations up to 2019, 38
Arbitrary Detention for Online Offenses, 41
Long Sentences for Online Offenses, 43
Enforcement of Online Restrictions since Mid-2020, 46
III. BEHIND THE SENTENCES: PREVENTIVE CONTROL, 49
Management of Religion, 52
Sending Funds Abroad, 54
Increasing Border Security, 56
History, Profiling, and the Shelkar Choede Case, 58
Tengdro Monastery and the Surrounding Community, 11
Inspecting the Village: Official Visits to Dranak, 15
I. THE RAID AND ITS AFTERMATH, 22
The Suicide of Lobsang Zoepa, 24
Political Re-education Imposed on Village and Monastery, 26
II. THE POLITICS OF SENTENCING: ONLINE OFFENSES, 32
Criminal Charges Against the Tengdro Monks, 32
Other Cases of Extreme Punishment in Tibet, 35
Online Offenses: Regulations up to 2019, 38
Arbitrary Detention for Online Offenses, 41
Long Sentences for Online Offenses, 43
Enforcement of Online Restrictions since Mid-2020, 46
III. BEHIND THE SENTENCES: PREVENTIVE CONTROL, 49
Management of Religion, 52
Sending Funds Abroad, 54
Increasing Border Security, 56
History, Profiling, and the Shelkar Choede Case, 58
