Counterfeit Chinese-Tibetan-Canadian Friendship Group

"This year has been a special year -- the 60th anniversary of democratic reform in Tibet. Because of Chinese government support and help, Tibet has changed a lot. There's a big change in Tibet."
"Such as people's standard of living ... religious rights. And so on and so on."
"The purpose and aim of our association is to persist in reunification and oppose separation."
Dorjee Tenzin, president, Tibetan Association of Canada

"It's very disruptive. People are not able to distinguish between which is a genuine community-based organization, and which is a foreign-government-funded organization who's lobbying on behalf of another government."
Tsering Shakya, professor, Tibet expert, University of British Columbia

"This is definitely another propaganda tool by the Chinese State."
"I see it as a threat to me personally. I will not know about my Tibetan history if these entities gain power and start to influence our academic institutions and other cultural spaces."
Chemi Lhamo, president, University of Toronto Scarborough campus students union

"We are shocked at the extent this Chinese government-backed group went to deceive Canadians that they represent Tibetans in Canada."
"We call for a criminal investigation of this association and appropriate actions be taken. And for all their claims of development in Tibet, let’s start with opening of Tibet for international media, independent researchers and human rights experts."
Sherap Therchin, Canada Tibet Committee

Tibetan monks protesting, with the prohibited Tibetan flag and image of the Dalai Llama

A purportedly new Tibetan-Canadian organization held an opening gala to which they invited as many government officials as would respond positively to their invitation. The new group had the inestimable assistance in their set-up of the Toronto Confederation of Chinese Canadian Organizations which co-hosted a news conference for Chinese-Canadian media, to introduce the presence of this new group.

With their history of close relations with Beijing, the confederation's assistance to another group ostensibly one dedicated to furthering Tibetan interests should have smacked of suspicious origins to a sharp eye.

Beijing's Overseas Affairs office has praised the work of the confederation, extremely helpful in working with the Chinese consulate in Toronto, in putting on a lavish China exhibit about Tibet at city hall in 2001. Harmony, you see, is anti-splittist; the former the goal, the latter anathema. And portraying Tibet as wholly content and privileged to be a part of China -- and not as the Dalai Llama and most Tibetans would prefer, wholly independent of Chinese rule -- the very picture of harmony.

The Toronto school board was convinced that to establish a branch of the Confucius Institute would be of enormous benefit, thanks to the energetic lobbying of the confederation. The launching party of the new Tibetan-Canadian organization attracted the diplomatically supportive presence of provincial and municipal politicians accustomed to taking turns among their colleagues in attending such ethnic events to demonstrate just how obligingly inclusive Canadians are while at the same time demonstrating their oblivious innocence to deeper plots beyond their ken.

Several months ago Tibetan Chemi Lhamo experienced an organized campaign from thousands of Chinese students, both residents and foreign, to her elevation as president of the U.of T. student council at the Scarborough campus. She is a Tibetan activist, speaking openly of the Chinese takeover of her country, the People's Republic of China's repression of Tibetans, Buddhism and its insistence that Tibet is part of China, not a wholly autonomous nation.

She was threatened with violence on line and thoroughly distressed, but not intimidated.

On Chinese-language websites the two-month-old organization is referred to as the Tibetan Canadian Friendship Association. At the announcement of its existence at a news conference, speakers stood before a row of Chinese and Canadian flags. Signs were in English and Chinese, not Tibetan, at the group's launch where Chinese and Canadian anthems were sung.

With China's 1950s takeover of Tibet, many of the country's Buddhist monasteries were shuttered. A Chinese-approved-and-sponsored Tibetan replacement for the Dalai Llama was put in his place. Tibet's religion and language were suppressed, its people's rights as a sovereign nation abused. Han Chinese were encouraged to settle in Tibet to make them the dominant population base. 

"The strategy of this group, strongly supported by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government, seems to be to divide the Tibetan community in Canada. As well, it is misleading senior Canadian officials into thinking that this new group actually represents Tibetans in Canada. A similar strategy by the Chinese government and the Communist Party have also been used in the United States."
"Even more troubling are the claims made by the president of the new group stating that Tibet now enjoys freedom of religion, economic development, ecological and environmental preservation, and improvement of Tibetans’ livelihood."
Joint statement from five Tibetan organizations in Canada

Take Tibet Train from Xi’an