Sayragul Sauytbay/Сайрагүл Сауытбай was by the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on 4 March 2020 given the «International Woman of Courage»-award (IWOC), an American award presented annually by the U.S. Department of State (mainly to opposition figures in other countries), https://www.state.gov/secretary-of-states-international-women-of-courage-award/
Besides on Jun 22, 2020 the book «Die Kronzeugin: Eine Staatsbeamtin über ihre Flucht aus der Hölle der Lager und Chinas Griff nach der Weltherrschaft» by Sayragul Sauytbay and German journalist Alexandra Cavelius was published on «Europaverlag. And «Scribe Publishers», a publisher in the United States, is going to translate and published the book in the UK, the US and Australia in May 2021 under the title «The Chief Witness: Escape from China’s Modern-Day Concentration Camps», https://www.dw.com/en/how-china-is-destroying-kazakh-culture/a-54434930
Journalist Alexandra Cavelius has earlier cooperated with Rebiya Kadeer, former president of World Uyghur Congress, on writing the book: «Rebiya Kadeer, Alexandra Cavelius: Die Himmelsstürmerin, Chinas Staatsfeindin Nr.1 erzählt aus ihrem Leben» (Verlagsgruppe Random House, 2007). and with the English version: «Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace With China» (Kales Press, 2009)
Earlier in 2013 U.S. Department of State had given a similar «IWOC»-award to Chinese Tibetan Tsering Woeser.
A sum of money probably follows the award, but that is not stated at the web-site of the U.S. Department of State.
The following essay (translated below) written by somebody named “Crystal” was posted to Woeser’s blog. I am not sure that is the origin of the article, as some attribute it to 《联合早报》 (their version here). But it has been slowly spreading since to other sites like Anti-CNN, MITBBS, and Minkaohan forums. I think it’s a very good essay, informative and incisive.
I will also post some comments from those other sites. Feel free to chime in.
In light of the mega attention and millions of yuans that chinese government use to establish a new holiday in Tibet “Serf Emancipation Day”, and advertise this around the world, clever Tibetan youth in Tibet created the following cartoon: “Surf Emancipation Day: 50 years of harmonious oppression”.
An assessment of thirty years of dialogue by Skylight.
For thirty years, Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in Exile has approached the Chinese leadership to resolve the Tibet issue. Since the resumption of dialogue in 2002, there has been seven rounds of meeting and confidence building exercises between Dalai Lama’s envoys and the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Read more…
This article from the IHT inspires me to write about a topic that’s been on my mind in recent months. The article is about the well-known Tibetan-Chinese writer Woeser. The title of the article alone gives you a pretty good idea of what its going to say: “Tibetan writer alleges harassment by Chinese police…” Woeser lives in Beijing, and is the daughter of a Han Chinese People’s Liberation Army general and a Tibetan woman. She also happens to be wife of Wang Lixiong (discussed previously). She has written extensively about Tibetan issues for years, both in print and on her blog.
A more detailed feature on Woeser comes to us from the Washington Post, which has also kindly provided a platform for other Chinese voices: Wang Qianyuan, Yang Jianli. I don’t think it takes too much brain-power to guess the criteria by which the Washington Post selects its Chinese guest editorialists. Of course, I think it’s fair to say these three voices represent probably millions of Chinese voices, so I certainly understand the Western media’s right to feature their stories. My only question is… when will they give print real estate to Chinese voice that can speak for the other hundreds of millions of Chinese that disagree with them fervently?
All of this adds up to one question about the status of political dissidents in China: is the glass half-full, or is the glass completely empty?
So Tibet is very similar to the European colonies. Researching this is my day job so I can provide you more references if you want. And I’m disappointed that you would deny it because you think “its dangerous” to do so. I thought you were interested objective reality?
My point here is not that Tibet should be independent, or even that it should be more autonomous: after all the Maori now have very little autonomy in New Zealand. But I would have liked to have seen some honesty regarding Tibetan history from Chinese netizens. Happily, there are Chinese scholars who are more honest about Tibet’s colonial past and present though. I suggest you check out 王力雄, a Beijing based researcher, whose work presents Tibetan history from a fairly neutral perspective.
Your “suggestion” that we read Wang Lixiong’s works is not only patronizing, but also misguided. I’ll respond to this below.
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