China continues to repress religious practices in Tibet: Report

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to repress Tibetan religious practices amid other gross violations in Tibet, said a report.

The annual 2021 report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said that communication between Tibetans inside and outside Tibet is severed due to heavy restrictions imposed by China, Phayul reported.

The findings emphasized the increasing cases of surveillance of Tibetans including US citizens, adding that advanced technology measures including "DNA data collection" could further enable other authoritarian states.

"The Chinese government's horrific abuse of human rights and trampling of human dignity makes it more important than ever that the Congressional-Executive Commission on China document abuses of human rights and the rule of law in China, as the Commission has done for the past 20 years," Phayul quoted CECC Chairman Jeff Merkley as saying in a statement.

The commission on China called on US President Joe Biden's administration to use the resources made available by Tibetan Policy and Support Act 2020, a landmark bill passed during the Trump presidency, to help protect Tibetan culture and to confront policies that endanger the Tibetan language, Phayul reported.

It further reported that another recommendation by CECC implored the members of Congress and the US administration to interact "regularly" with the leaders of the Central Tibetan Administration, also known as the Tibetan government-in-exile, and with parliamentarians around the globe to build international support for Tibet.

"It is no secret the Xi Jinping regime has embraced an ever more authoritarian agenda directly opposed to the values of democracy, rule of law, and human rights. In Tibet, brutal oppression and intense surveillance continue the CCP's systematic work to erase Tibetan culture, religious freedom, and basic human rights," Franz Matzner from International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said on the findings, according to Phayul.

Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1950 and later annexed it. The 1959 Tibetan uprising saw violent clashes between Tibetan residents and Chinese forces.

( With inputs from ANI )