Washington DC: As part of the ongoing outreach initiative to the Chinese students in particular and the larger Chinese community in general, the Office of Tibet Washington organized a Sino-Tibet Youth Interaction at Tibet House in New York City on Saturday. This interactive event was inspired by His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s sincere efforts beginning in the 1990s to reach Chinese students whenever he used to visit abroad.
Representative Namgyal Choedup and former Chinese Liaison Officer Kunga Tashi joined the event attended by Chinese activist and scholar Dr. Teng Biao and Zhou Fengsuo, who shared their perspectives with the youth participants.
Tsultrim Gyatso, Chinese Liaison Officer from the Office of Tibet, moderated the event after briefly introducing the purpose of this youth outreach event. He urged more involvement from both communities in the light of changing China while the Tibetan issue remains unresolved. Representative Choedup gave a brief history of this outreach program, adding it to implement His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s vision of promoting dialogue and common understanding between the Chinese and Tibetan youngsters. He further emphasized the four principal commitments of His Holiness and highlighted the CTA’s official policy of the Middle Way approach. The focus of this interactive event was to facilitate dialogue through group discussions in small groups and focus on the future direction of the Tibet-China relationship, finding common ground, and planning further similar interactions.
Around 80 participants were divided into two groups that interacted in English, and one more group interacted in Chinese to discuss the above two themes. Participants discussed Chinese Politics and the Future of Tibet. Although a wide range of ideas came up in the discussion, some of the main shared talking points are the geopolitical shifts in perceiving China, youth involvement in the white paper revolution both in China and abroad, Middle Way Approach and Tibetan’s right to self-determination. Each group selected a Tibetan and Chinese to present group reflection by summarizing the discussion.
The programme for the event was designed to let participants understand each other’s thoughts and ideas in the first session, followed by discussing Finding Common Grounds and Strategy Planning in the second session. Groups explored common aspects shared by the participants, and many expressed the importance of the distinction between the Chinese government and Chinese people as both Tibetans and Chinese are the victims of the regime, shared aspiration for a democratic system back home and the fight for the collective goal of freedom. Highlighting the strategy planning, most participants agreed to further interaction in the future to learn more about China’s cause and status quo. Social media advocacy and interaction groups are recommended to form for organizing future events.
–Filed by Office of Tibet, Washington DC
Tsultrim Gyatso, Chinese Liaison Officer from the Office of Tibet moderating the event.
The groups in discussion.
The groups in discussion.
