As we go further into the Himalayas' shadowy valleys, the saddening story of repression continues. In this article, we reveal the chilling truth hidden beneath a facade of "labour and vocational camps" imposed on the Tibetans. These sinister camps, disguised as vocational camps, remain nothing short of modern-day concentration camp. Under the guise of eliminating "Lazy people", the Tibetans are coerced into exhausting labour, a reminder of the atrocities echoing through history's darkest chapters. Yet again we delve into the struggle, shedding light on the resilience amidst the relentless torment endured by those hiding behind the Himalayas. In this post, we explore the issue of Tibetan repression through three questions, namely by using securitization theory, feminist critique of securitization and through Biopolitics and PARIS school approach to (in)securitisation.
Securitization theory by Ole Waever
Let us begin by looking at the issue of Tibetan repression by the Chinese government through the lens of speech act, focusing on how language and speech are used to shape perceptions of security. In the context of Tibetans experiencing repression by the Chinese government, the speech act of security is used to justify control, surveillance, and suppression. The Chinese government defends repression as "peaceful liberation," which permits the state to assert authority, disregard rules, and legitimize its extreme actions against the oppressed. This framing serves to securitize the issue by legitimizing the government's actions as vital for Tibet's survival and growth, as well as Tibetan assimilation into Han culture. By framing repression as a sort of liberation, the Chinese government hopes to defend its policies and avoid international criticism. (Waever, 1995)
The speech act deems an issue worthy of security when a security actor engages in verbal act of speech. So, in this situation, the Chinese government utilizes the speech act to label cultural genocide as a form of peaceful liberation, not only by forcing Tibetans to abandon their culture and religion, but also by attempting to brainwash them in mandatory re-education and labour transfer camps. There have been instances of where, Tibetan children have been separated from their loved ones and put to state-run "boarding schools" in an attempt to "culturally, religiously, and linguistically" integrate them into the majority Han culture. (Davidson, 2023) In this situation, the Chinese government is attempting to create their own narrative in which they portray themselves as so benign that they are allowing Tibetans to assimilate into the Han culture and meanwhile hiding behind the mask of "peaceful liberation," despite the fact that it has always been a cultural genocide (Waever, 1995).
Feminist critique of securitization Lene Hansen
Let us now examine the feminist critique of securitization, focusing on the "security as silence" problem, in which individuals or groups are unable to express their security concerns due to constraints or risks, and the "subsuming security" problem, which arises from the difficulty of including gender as a referent object.
In this case, the struggle and oppression faced by the Tibetans are subjected to being more mainstream because of the mainstream understanding of the Tibetan repression. Meanwhile, the voices of the women get silenced. Often, the women’s question gets pushed aside, and the dominant narrative of the Tibetan nationalist agenda, in this case, suppresses the feminist concerns. For example- how the Chinese government's policies and actions violate Tibetan women's rights to control their bodies and reproductive health. These rules are an example of gender-based violence and a violation of human rights. The Chinese government restricts Tibetan women's reproductive freedoms, it makes coercive sterilisation, compelled abortions, and the use of birth control techniques without informed consent. However, such incidents are utterly hushed, and what we see in the news are sanitised versions of the story (Hansen, 200; Herzer & Levin, 1996).
Biopolitics and PARIS school approach to securitization
Under the Chinese occupation of Tibet, The Chinese government strives to supress Tibetan cultural, religious, and political autonomy. Let's examine it through the lenses of Biopolitics, Necropolitics and PARIS school of securitization, delving into the nuances.
The Chinese government employs biopower to control Tibetans, rather than simply suppressing them. They push thousands of people into forced labour camps under the guise of vocational training, but they are actually military-style training centres where people are subjected to coercion and are enforced through indoctrination, surveillance, and severe punishments (Bagshaw, 2020; Foucault, 1990). These practices used by the Chinese government to exercise their power over the lives and deaths of Tibetans. In the sense that the government builds docile bodies by acts of regimentation, and if people fail to surrender to the authority, they will not hesitate to execute them. (Cadell, 2020). Even if the government allows them to survive, they have to comply with the official orders, such as forced work, giving up their cultural, religious, and political autonomy, and merge into Han culture, otherwise they will be executed. The Chinese government continues to have control over the Tibetans' lives and deaths; one act against them might result in their execution. This is one illustration of the government's power and control over Tibetans' deaths.
Tibetan’s lives have been stripped of their political significance, and they have been reduced to living a bare life in concentration camps. These concentration camps serve as a form of subjugation of the Tibetans to the power of death wielded by the Chinese government. Tibetans have lost control over their own bodies and rights. PRC government lulls people into believing in the sense of security in the camps, but people are selfishly used for the governments interests and pushed on to live a zombified life stripped of their political significance (Mbembe, 2003). For example, in the case of women the situation further deteriorates since their bodies become a focal point of regulation, such as abortion and contraception. Women are subjected to forced abortion and sterilisation procedures. The psychological torture suffered by Tibetan women only increases since they are forced to carry the foetus until it is potentially viable and then submit to an abortion (Foucault, 1990) (Herzer & Levin, 1996) (Mbembe, 2003).
Since, security and insecurity are inextricably linked, an actor's act of securing itself may become an insecurity for the other, as in this case, the Chinese government attempts to secure itself and its Han culture supremacy by assimilating Tibetans into the Han culture. They have established up so-called vocational camps for regimentation and re-education reasons. As PRC government policies try their hardest to integrate Tibetans into Han culture, even attempting to resettle Han Chinese in Tibetan areas, we see that the government uses securitization, surveillance, and a biassed narrative to subjugate Tibetans and integrate them into China, attempting to control populations in order to maintain a homogeneous ethnic identity, to feed into the superiority of its Han culture.
References
Bagshaw, A. G., Eryk. (2020, September 22). China forces 500,000 Tibetans into labour camps. The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-forces-500-000-tibetans-into-labour-camps-20200922-p55xyk.html
Cadell, C. (2020, September 22). Exclusive: China sharply expands mass labor program in Tibet. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN26D0GQ/
China ‘coercing’ thousands of Tibetans into mass labour camps—Report. (2020, September 23). BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54260732
Davidson, H. (2023, July 27). Satellite data sheds light on China’s detention facilities in Tibet. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/27/satellite-data-sheds-light-on-chinas-detention-facilities-in-tibet
Foucault, M. (1990) The history of sexuality: An introduction. Trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage 95. (Selection: Part Five: Right of Death and Power over Life)
Hansen, L. (2000). ‘The Little Mermaid’s Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School’. Millennium 29 (2): 285–306.
Herzer, E., & Levin, S. B. (1996) China’s Denial of Tibetan Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom. 3.
Mbembe, A. (2003) 'Necropolitics.' Public culture 15, no. 1 :11-40.
Wæver, O. (1995). “Securitization and Desecuritization.” In On Security, edited by Ronnie Lipschutz. New York: Columbia University
Hey, Arohi. The article was an insightful read. I particularly liked how you brought up the subject matter of China establishing control over Tibetans in the name of 'peaceful liberation,' which underlines China's belief that what they are doing is the only correct solution to the ongoing challenges faced by the forcefully colonized Tibet. These acts reinforce the hierarchical power structure at play, as well as decides who gets to be the 'other' in this setting. The dominant players have long utilized concentration camps to indoctrinate the marginalized 'other' in order to assert their power. In this situation, could you explain how these overlapping narratives impact worldwide responses to the issue? Are there any institutions in place to combat the…
Thank you for the insightful essay. Can you provide your views on how do biopolitical techniques, such as population control measures and surveillance, intersect with the securitization of Tibet and the experiences of Tibetan women in the region?
Thank you for shedding light on the deeply concerning issue of Tibetan repression by the Chinese government and exploring it through various theoretical lenses. One aspect that particularly caught my attention is the use of speech acts by the Chinese government to justify repression as "peaceful liberation." This manipulation of language to frame extreme actions as necessary for security is indeed alarming. What strategies do you think could be effective in advocating for the rights of Tibetans on the global stage, especially considering the challenges posed by China's influence?
China’s portrayal of itself as a savior to Tibet and its justification of the atrocities inflicted on Tibetan people is very efficiently brought out by your article. Thoughtfully done! Your case study does show how the politics of control and power lay itself in the overarching power structures of colonialism and capitalism and act as a threat object to Tibetans. The mention of surveillance under the guise of eliminating ‘lazy people’ is profound and it would have been great if you could provide more nuances to it using Foucault’s conception of biopolitics.
Hey Arohi, it was a great article. I was wondering if you could contextualise the in(security) faced by Tibetan women through a speech act. When looking at Lene Hansen’s ‘security as silence’, is there a case where these women face even more exacerbated existential threats if they try to voice their insecurity?