At the UN Forum, Tibetan activist Tenzin Dorjee condemned China’s colonial assimilation in Tibet, East Turkistan, and Southern Mongolia, calling it a campaign of cultural erasure.
Tenzin Dorjee, Senior Researcher and Strategist at Tibet Action Institute, delivered a powerful statement at the United Nations’ 18th Forum on Minority Issues, strongly condemning China’s ongoing assimilation policies in Tibet.
According to Phayul, Dorjee opened his remarks by sharing his lived experience as a Tibetan refugee in India, a minority student in Delhi, and later an immigrant in the United States. He underlined that minorities do not burden societies but instead enrich them through their culture, labor, innovation, and unique perspectives.
Dorjee stressed that Tibetans, Uyghurs, and Southern Mongolians should not merely be seen as ethnic minorities, but as distinct peoples entitled to the right to self-determination under international law.
“Systematic cultural eradication”
The Tibetan activist outlined China’s extensive policies of repression: the mass internment of millions of Uyghurs in East Turkistan, sweeping language bans targeting Mongolian in Southern Mongolia, and the dismantling of Tibetan identity through a vast colonial boarding school system.
Referencing Tibet Action Institute’s findings, Dorjee warned that nearly 800,000 to 900,000 Tibetan children — about three out of every four — are currently separated from their families and placed in state-run boarding schools where their language, culture, and identity are being systematically destroyed.
“These children are being systematically turned into Chinese,” he said, calling for the closure of colonial schools and the reopening of community-based education that allows children to grow within their families and local environments.
“The problem is repression, not diversity”
Dorjee firmly rejected the narrative promoted by some governments that cultural diversity threatens national unity.
“If you have one terrorist, you have a problem. But if you have a million ‘terrorists,’ perhaps you are the problem,” he stated, emphasizing that it is enforced assimilation — not diversity — that fuels tension and instability.
Despite two attempts by the Chinese delegation to interrupt, Dorjee continued his speech resolutely and without hesitation.
He concluded by urging all nations — including the PRC — to uphold the rights of national communities to maintain and develop their languages and cultural heritage.
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