Dharamshala — "The negative news from western media and one-side information from some books are making misunderstandings over the Tibet issue", pro-China Austrian lawmakers reportedly said last month in a meeting with a delegation from the communist totalitarian regime.
"After decades of negative reporting by some western media, members of the Austrian parliament suggested that the real situation and history of Tibet should be displayed," said a report by Xinhua, the Chinese state-controlled media.
"There are misunderstandings over the Tibet issue in the Austrian society, especially due to the book "Seven Years in Tibet," Peter Wittmann, a member of the Austrian parliament, reportedly told Xinhua.
The report said that "many Austrians obtained information regarding Tibet from 'Seven Years in Tibet', written by Austrian writer and actor Heinrich Harrer, who went to Tibet in 1946 and was found a member of the Nazi party in 1996."
"Some westerners visited Tibet hundreds of years ago and left documents noting Tibetans struggled under serfdom which, however, is ignored by many westerners," said Hao Shiyuan, a Chinese scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The report quotes Hao as saying: "The double-digit economic growth of Tibet in recent years is one of the highest in the world."
"I think it is not easy to obtain positive news in this regard," said Johannes Hubner, a member of the Austrian parliament, emphasizing U.S. media's influence on the direction of European news reports on Tibet. The report said that "Hannes Jarolim, another member of the parliament, suggested that an exhibition on Tibet should be held in Austria to show the real situation of Tibet to the Austrian people."
"Since 1959, the Chinese government initiated reforms in the region, greatly improving Tibet's economy, living standard and education," the report added: "A Tibetan said in the meeting that his village changed a lot in the past decade, as hospitals and schools were built and people received benefits."
However, international fact-finding missions have not been allowed to enter Tibet, and foreign journalists have also been barred from reporting the real situation in occupied Tibet, particularly within the 'Tibet Autonomous Region' after the outbreak of widespread protests in 2008.
In the meeting with Chinese delegates, the event indicates that the pro-China lawmakers spoke in favour of the communist regime, while intentionally or unintentionally ignoring great suffering and injustice in Tibet. The pro-China delegates also seemed to be ignoring China's worsening crackdown on fundamental human rights, not only in Tibet, but also in mainland China.
The quality of human rights in Tibet and China has declined dramatically in recent years, shown by a series of draft laws presented in 2015 for public comment that threaten to further restrict independent civil society and freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.
In response to the claims made by the Chinese Communist government, Tibetans say that the Chinese communist authorities who followed the "Chinese dictator Mao Zedong", as one of the "greatest mass murderers in world history", have in reality turned the whole of Tibet into a hell with 'occupation, colonization, political repression, cultural assimilation, language elimination and environmental destruction' under totalitarian rule following the 1949 invasion.
Tibet was invaded by Communist China in 1949. Since that time, over 1.2 million out of only 6 million total Tibetans have been killed, over 6000 monasteries have been destroyed and acts of murder, rape, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment have been inflicted on the Tibetans inside Tibet. Beijing continues to call this a "peaceful liberation," and claim that "Tibetans are living in a Maoist socialist paradise."
