Season 1 Episode 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmm8WLG08Sg
Conversation with Tenzin Thinley
During the session with Tenzin Thinley, a student of Poltical Science who completed his
Under Graduation from Methodist University, North Carolina, USA he engaged upon his
personal life experiences till now. Throwing more light on being a Tibetan Refugee, his
engagements with International Student. Be it during his High School in United World
Colleges, Wales and his Under Graduate years in North Carolina. Furthermore, Tenzin
Thinley expounded the governmental structure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and
deliberated upon the upcoming 20 th National People’s Congress (NPC) of China.
It started with his experience being a Tibetan Refugee and dwelled deeper into this subject.
We then came across the Identity Certificate (IC), the travel documents/passports provided by
the Indian government to Tibetans who travel abroad. He shared an anecdote of how he was
stalled for several minutes just because he possessed an Identity Certificate and felt
embarrassed. This incident is something which everything Tibetans more or less faces when
he/she possesses the Identity Certificate as his travel documents.
Moving on Tenzin Thinley explained and elaborated upon the governmental structure of the
PRC. Their structure is very much different from popularly known democratic system where
we have the pillars of democracy with a level of checks and balance between these pillars.
This was something amiss in the PRC’s structure as mentioned by Tenzin Thinley and he
states that “The structure of the Chinese government is Arcane and synonymous with the
Chinese Communist Party because the party wants to preserve its monopoly over the nation
itself.” He also stressed about how regardless of the generational shift in leadership occurring
in China, the policy making of the PRC will continue to remain more or less the same with an
overt shift in such policy very less likely.
This was followed by an in-depth discussion on the upcoming 20 th National People’s
Congress (NPC). He was of the opinion that Xi Jinping is going to secure the unprecedented
3 rd term as president of the PRC in the upcoming NPC. And when talking about the Chinese
leadership, he emphasized the measures of vetting and scrutiny one goes through before they
are promoted. Hence, he concluded how a leader within the party would hardly break lines
and keep their toes in check especially when it comes to party directives.
Tenzin Thinley was vocal in criticizing Beijing for its oppressive policies in Tibet
highlighting the recent, mass DNA collection and Zero-Covid policy. He also mentioned the
assimilation drive by China which has now created a demographic scene where in big Tibetan
cities the Chinese population is now more or less equal to Tibetans. And for him instead of
China who has recently spurred the narrative of ushering a new world order with it being the
dominant power in Asia, it should be India with the mantle of leadership in Asia and is a
better alternative and constitutes a more representative government that China.
Moving on he shared his own experience in the United Kingdom and the USA. Here Tenzin
Thinley set about to explain his internship at the Office of Tibet, Washington DC and he
brought forth several anecdotes, one which stuck out was during the His Holiness the 14 th
Dalai Lama’s visit to a university. The problem arose when Chinese students in the university
protested against the invitation and arrival of His Holiness the 14 th Dalai Lama. He personally
was taken aback by the pressure but stated “I have never been put under that much pressure
before but I believe when you are put in an uncomfortable position, you learn the most”. This
was followed by the deliberations on the recent bill passed in US Congress titled as
“Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act”. And Tenzin Thinley being
someone who has not only studied in the USA for more than 4 years but has worked at
various institutions highlights clearly that the USA’s support to Tibet is not based entirely
upon humanity but more aligned towards their national interest.
Finally, he feels a strong sense of gratitude towards those working in bringing a resolution in
the Tibet-China conflict especially to those non-Tibetans as their actions and initiatives really
inspires him. He emphasized how in the lead up to the recent Beijing Winter Olympics, non-
Tibetans really pushed for its boycott along with the Tibetans these initiatives really inspire
him to work for the resolution in the Tibet-China conflict. One can note how India also
switched their Olympic kit supplier from Li-Ning – a Chinese sports company to an Indian
company ShivNaresh in the lead up to the 2020 (delayed to 2021) Tokyo Summer Olympics.
