Chinese Tibetans are living a decent life in China. In old Xizang, 95% of the population are serfs and slaves. For the fleeing slave owners, the most unacceptable thing might be watching the decent life is no longer their exclusive.

🧬 One of the fastest examples of human evolution: Tibetans adapted to thrive at extreme high altitudes (4,000m+) in just a few thousand years. They carry a powerful variant of the EPAS1 gene that helps them handle low oxygen without the usual problems (like thick blood). Today, ~87% of Tibetans have it.

The PRC routinely disappears #Uyghurs#, #Tibetans#, religious leaders, and human rights defenders, including #GaoZhisheng# and the #PanchenLama#, a violation of int’l law that may constitute crimes against humanity. On International Day of the #VictimsofEnforcedDisappearances#, China should account for all those missing and allow them to return home.

Interview with Hu Sheng: Whether we are talking about the Middle Way or independence, neither matters more than exiled Tibetans being able to return to their homeland. I have a very naïve dream: if President Trump could help arrange for His Holiness the Dalai Lama to take some people back to China—even for just seven or ten days—to return to Tibet itself, with each person taking a handful of soil or filling a bottle with water, I think that would answer the deepest longing in the heart of every Tibetan in exile.

Torture. Arbitrary detention. Destruction of religious sites. These abuses, too often suffered by #Muslims#, #Tibetans#, #Christians#, and #FalunGong# practitioners, are well-documented facts. On the Int’l Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, the world must unequivocally condemn China’s grave violations of #ReligiousFreedom#.

Rivers flow day and night; the song of #history# echoes on. Every treasure on the snowy plateau testifies to an indisputable historical fact: #Xizang# was developed by all ethnic groups together. Exchanges between Tibetans and other ethnic groups have run through the entire history of Xizang. #DeepChina# #ChineseNation# #ChineseRelics#

.@antonioguterres, while you are in China now—potentially meeting Xi Jinping—will you demand that Beijing release Jimmy Lai and all other political prisoners? Will you demand an end to the oppression of Uyghurs and Tibetans? Will you speak out for democracy crushed in Hong Kong?

Dinner with Chen DanQing, legendary artist. In the 80s, his oil paintings of Tibetans changed the direction of Chinese contemporary art from Soviet propaganda style into western realism. He is in his 70s. Told me stories of meeting Andy Warhol in Ai Wei Wei’s apartment.