要中国给藏人自由：习近平须听到宗教自由是阻止自焚的唯一办法（华尔街日报）

Challenge China to Free Tibetans

Xi Jinping needs to hear that religious freedom is the only way to stop self-immolations.
要中国给藏人自由：习近平须听到宗教自由是阻止自焚的唯一办法

作者：ELLIOTT ABRAMS AND AZIZAH AL-HIBRI

译者：@kRiZcPEc

原文发表：华尔街日报

发表时间：2013年4月18日

当三十岁的四个孩子之母格吉，在三月自焚抗议中国对西藏[图伯特]的镇压时，她成了人数日增的绝望者之一。在过去四年间，有112位藏人[注：这是境内自焚藏人当时的人数，未包括四位在境外自焚的藏人]自焚抗议中国的压制。

西藏[图伯特]正在燃烧，包括美国在内的国际社会必须发声，说服中国新一任主席习近平和全体领导层，使他们明白：尊重人权——特别是宗教自由，以及和西藏[图伯特]的流亡精神领袖达赖喇嘛重启对话，是攸关中国利益的。

不幸的是，要说服北京并不容易。在自焚人数继续增加的同时，中国的统治者对西藏[图伯特]不仅坚持不让步妥协，还增加压制措施，以及指控外国势力煽动西藏[图伯特]人的反抗。

目前，中国和世界对西藏[图伯特]的看法仍有极大分歧。当其他国家认为一个虔诚专注的民族在绝望抗议时，中国的领导层认为它的敌人阴谋破坏“和谐”，夺取该国对偏远的[西南部]地区的控制。北京指责达赖喇嘛煽动抗议。

世界各国领导人应该反驳北京把只占中国人口0.5%的藏民族视为对国富兵强的中国的威胁。中国国内的武装叛乱没有成功的可能，而且没有外力威胁入侵中国。美国和国际社会承认中国的国界。达赖喇嘛继续呼吁给予西藏更大的自主权，而不是独立。

中国近年来的行动使政府和藏人之间的鸿沟扩大。拉萨在2008年爆发抗议活动之后，北京更大力控制西藏宗教，包括佛教宗教领袖的选择。数百名僧尼因和平抵制这种劫持他们信仰的企图而在牢房里饱受煎熬。

僧侣自焚抗议是在2011年[注：应为2009年2月]于四川省藏区的格尔登寺开始的。他们这些行动是响应驻寺警察增多、宗教事务控制升级，以及他们对达赖喇嘛的忠诚遭到更加大力地摧毁。这种形式的抗议活动已蔓延到整个中国以及印度和尼泊尔等国家。

中国的反应是取缔卫星通信、限制使用易燃材料、加强控制寺庙以及增加宗教场所的警务活动。在上个月，政府还颁布了一项把协助自焚等同谋杀的法律。2013年2月，五名藏人以涉嫌煽动自焚抗议被捕，他们将面临长期监禁。

换句话说，面对自焚人数上升，中国领导人的响应是加强那些最初引发这些行动的压制做法。这政策不仅远远不能稳定该地区，而且还加深了藏人的绝望和绝望。在过去六个月，自焚事件增加了，自焚者由僧尼扩大至像格吉这样的年轻藏人。

自焚没有结束的迹象，美国和其他大国是时候向中国清楚表达它们对中国各种虐待的深切关注。要使中国明白就西藏自治议题重新谈判是合乎其自身利益的话，世界各国不能只是偶尔让中国听到它们对西藏的关注，也不能避免与达赖喇嘛及其代表公开会晤。

自由国家的领导人应该让习近平知道，北京的西藏政策极其失败这一事实。在国内的镇压会玷污中国的国际形象，使之在海外受损害。

沉默是不可原谅的。我们必须持续一贯地呼吁北京，为了人权和稳定的缘故，维护宗教自由。习近平必须多些听到美国总统奥巴马和其他国家领䄂的声音：中国的政策无视那些表明和平及繁荣的社会在于自由而不是镇压的大量证据。这些社会所以安全，是因为它们尊重人们的尊严、价值，授权鼓励他们参与民间社会，以法律和实务来保障他们的自由，并容许他们践行自己的信仰，依据自己的良心来过自己的生活。

在中国这样幅员广阔、民众多元、和世界各国都有往来的国家，当人们的宗教自由被剥夺的时候，持久稳定是不可能的。假如北京保证所有人——包括藏传佛教徒、维吾尔穆斯林、基督徒、法轮功学员—享有自由，这会是中国寻求安全的助力，而非阻力。

——关于作者：阿布拉姆斯(Abrams)先生及希布里(al-Hibri)女士为美国国际宗教自由委员会委员。

Challenge China to Free Tibetans

Xi Jinping needs to hear that religious freedom is the only way to stop self-immolations.

By ELLIOTT ABRAMS AND AZIZAH AL-HIBRI

When Kal Kyi, a 30-year-old mother of four, set herself on fire in March to protest Chinese repression of Tibet, she joined a grim and growing fellowship of despair. Over the past four years, 112 Tibetans have immolated themselves in protest against Chinese oppression.

Tibet is burning, and the world community, including the U.S., must speak out. China's new president, Xi Jinping, and the rest of its leadership must be persuaded that its interests lie with respecting human rights, particularly freedom of religion, and to restart discussions with Tibet's exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

Unfortunately, persuading Beijing is no simple task. China's rulers have dug in their heels on Tibet as self-immolations continue to mount. They have expanded repressive measures while accusing foreign forces of fueling Tibetan grievances.

There remains an extraordinary disconnect between how China and the rest of the world view Tibet. While other nations see desperate protests by a pious and devoted people, Chinese leadership sees its enemies conspiring to disrupt "harmony" and wrest control of the country's remote southeast. Beijing blames the Dalai Lama for instigating the protests.

World leaders should counter Beijing's contention that Tibetans, a mere 0.5% of the population, threaten the power of wealthy and militarily secure China. A domestic armed rebellion has no realistic prospect of success and no outside force threatens to invade China. The U.S. and the international community recognize China's borders. The Dalai Lama continues to call for greater Tibetan autonomy, not independence.

Chinese actions have widened the gulf between the government and Tibetans in recent years. After protests erupted in Lhasa in 2008, Beijing redoubled its efforts to control Tibetan religion, including the selection of Buddhist religious leaders. Hundreds of monks and nuns languish in jail cells for the crime of peacefully resisting this attempted hijacking of their faith.

Self-immolation protests began in 2011 with the monks of Kirti monastery, located in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province. Their acts were meant as a reply to the ramped-up police presence at their monastery, growing control of their religious affairs and increased efforts to destroy their allegiance to the Dalai Lama. This form of protest has spread throughout China and into countries like India and Nepal.

In response, China has clamped down on satellite communication, restricted usage of flammable materials, tightened control over monasteries and increased police activity at religious sites. Last month, the government also enacted a law that equated assisting in a self-immolation with murder. In February 2013, five Tibetans were arrested and face long prison terms for alleged incitement of immolation protests.

In other words, faced with a rise in self-immolations, China's leaders responded by redoubling the kind of repression that triggered these actions in the first place. Far from stabilizing the region, their policies have deepened Tibetans' hopelessness and despair. Self-immolations have increased over the past six months, and have spread from monks and nuns to young Tibetans like Kal Kyi.

With no end in sight, it is time for the U.S. and other major powers to express plainly to China their deep concerns about its abuses. China cannot hear about global concerns over Tibet occasionally, nor can public meetings with the Dalai Lama and his representatives be avoided if China is to understand that renewed negotiations over Tibetan autonomy are in its interest.

Leaders of free nations should confront Xi Jinping with the fact that Beijing's Tibet policy is a colossal failure. Repression at home damages China abroad by tarnishing its global image.

Silence is inexcusable. We must consistently and persistently call for Beijing to uphold religious freedom for the sake of human rights and stability alike. President Xi must hear repeatedly from U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders that China's policies ignore mounting evidence that freedom, not repression, creates peaceful and prosperous societies. Such societies are secured by honoring the dignity and worth of people, empowering and encouraging their participation in civil society, protecting their liberties in law and practice, and allowing them the fundamental right to practice their faith and live their lives according to their conscience.

In a country as vast, diverse and globally engaged as China, lasting stability is impossible when people are denied religious freedom. If Beijing guarantees freedoms for all, from Tibetan Buddhists to Uighur Muslims, and from Christians to the Falun Gong, it will help, not hinder, China's quest for security.

—Mr. Abrams and Ms. al-Hibri serve as commissioners for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.