China pressuring Tibetans to relocate from long-established villages: Human Rights Watch

Revealing increasing atrocities against members of the Tibet community in China, Human Rights Watch on Wednesday released a report on the relocation of hundreds of Tibetans in recent times. Over 140,000 residents have been relocated or are currently relocating from 500 villages to new locations, Human Rights Watch said in a release.

The 71-page report – ‘Educate the Masses to Change Their Minds: China’s Coercive Relocation of Rural Tibetans,’ details how participation in “whole-village relocation” programs in Tibet, in which entire villages are relocated, amounts to forced eviction in violation of international law.

Officials misleadingly claim that these relocations will “improve people’s livelihood” and “protect the ecological environment.” The government prevents relocated people from returning to their former homes by generally requiring them to demolish these homes within a year of relocating., said the news release.

“The Chinese government says that the relocation of Tibetan villages is voluntary, but official media reports contradict this claim,” said Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch. “Those reports make clear that when a whole village is targeted for relocation, it is practically impossible for the residents to refuse to move without facing serious repercussions.”

The report draws on over 1,000 official Chinese media articles published between 2016 and 2023. It includes three case studies and video footage that show in detail the arguments and methods Chinese officials use to obtain the “consent” of residents to relocate their villages.

Chinese government policy in Tibet sets out that every household in every village targeted is to consent to relocation. Human Rights Watch found multiple references to initial reluctance among Tibetans whose villages were scheduled for relocation. In one case, 200 out of 262 households in a village in Nagchu Municipality initially did not want to relocate to a site nearly 1,000 kilometres away. The government claimed that all eventually agreed to move voluntarily.

According to the release, Chinese officials attribute their success in getting total consent to “publicity work” and “door-to-door ideological work” carried out by officials. This often involves intrusive home visits. In some cases, officials of increasing seniority visit families repeatedly at their homes to gain their “consent.” In some cases, they also tell residents that essential services would be cut to their current homes if they did not move.

They openly threatened villagers who voiced disagreements about the relocations, accusing them of “spreading rumors” and ordering officials to crack down on such actions “swiftly and resolutely,” implying administrative and criminal penalties. In addition, officials require each targeted village to reach a consensus decision and do not allow any individual resident to opt-out of that decision, creating additional peer group pressure on all residents to comply.

In addition to programs that relocate entire villages, officials in Tibet also use a form of relocation known as “individual household relocation.” This typically involves officials selecting poorer households for relocation to sites deemed more suitable for income generation. The government relocated 567,000 people under this program in Tibetan areas of China between 2016 and 2020.

While participants selected for this program could decline to take part, official media articles show that officials routinely assured them that relocation would lead to improved employment prospects and higher incomes. However, studies by Chinese government-affiliated researchers in Tibet show that most relocatees, having been moved to peri-urban areas where their farming or herding skills cannot be used, are unable to get sustainable employment.

While such mass relocations of residents have been occurring elsewhere in poor rural areas in China, these drive risk causing a devastating impact on Tibetan communities, Human Rights Watch found.

Together with current Chinese government programs to assimilate Tibetan schooling, culture, and religion into those of the “Chinese nation,” the relocation of rural communities erodes or causes major damage to Tibetan culture and ways of life – not least because most relocation programs in Tibet move former farmers and pastoralists to areas where they cannot practice their former livelihood and have no choice but to seek work as wage laborers in off-farm industries.

“The mass relocations of rural Tibetan villages are severely eroding Tibetan culture and ways of life,” Wang said. “China’s government should suspend relocations in Tibet until an independent, expert review of existing policies and practices is carried out to determine their compliance with Chinese law, and standards and international law concerning relocations and forced evictions.”