Hon. Penpa Tsering, President of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, will make his Address to the National Press Club on "Resolving Sino-Tibet conflict and securing peace in the region". This date has changed from Tuesday 20th June to Wednesay 21st June 2023, all ticket holders will be contacted.
"Hon. Penpa Tsering is the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, formally known as Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), headquartered in Dharamsala in northern India. He was elected the Sikyong, a Tibetan title for President, in 2021 in an election participated by exiled Tibetans spread across nearly 30 countries, including Australia.
Penpa was one of the longest-serving Members of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, having served from 1996 to 2016 and the last two terms as the Speaker of the house.
Born in a Tibetan refugee settlement in southern India, Penpa completed his degree in economics from Madras Christian College.
Penpa also served as the Representative of the Dalai Lama and the CTA to North America. He has testified before the US Congress and parliaments worldwide.
He is a leading proponent of the Middle Way Approach, a policy proposal initiated by the Dalai Lama and endorsed by the Tibetan parliament, to achieve a genuine and a meaningful autonomy for the Tibetans.
More than 70 years after China’s invasion of Tibet, the hope among Tibetans to return home remains strong.
However, China’s colonial project in Tibet has entered an alarming new phase, leaving Tibet’s unique cultural identity, and future, hanging in the balance. Reminiscent of Australia’s Stolen Generations, nearly one million children, comprising 80 per cent of children in Tibet, have been reportedly separated from their families and forced into a vast network of Chinese colonial boarding schools, which UN rights experts have warned is an effort to assimilate Tibetans into the majority Han culture. Tibetans call it a “cultural genocide”.
Meanwhile, surveillance and intimidation tactics are used to silence Tibetans in Tibet and beyond its borders.
While erasing the rights and culture of Tibetans, the Chinese Government has also worked to erase Tibet from the international consciousness. This has included an extensive program of propaganda and influence operations in Australia.
As Australia and China got richer together in the last three decades, human rights in Tibet have continued to worsen.
In this talk, Sikyong Penpa Tsering will discuss the real situation in Tibet today and Australia’s obligation to help end widespread human rights abuses committed by its main trading partner."*
* Provided by speaker organisation
