Self-immolation of Tibetan activist at UN draws attention to Tibet's 'systematic erasure'

On 2 July, Lobgas Rangzena, a Tibetan activist living in exile, set himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in New York. In an opinion piece by Brahma Chellaney, this was not merely a personal act of despair, but a desperate attempt to shake the world and draw its attention to what he calls the systematic erasure of Tibet.

Chellaney recalls that China occupied the then-autonomous Tibet shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The occupation is often viewed primarily through the prism of human rights, but it should also be understood as an attempt to secure one of Asia's most valuable geopolitical assets. The vast, resource-rich Tibetan plateau dominates the Himalayan region, holds the sources of Asia's major rivers and offers a strategic position with access to South Asia, Central Asia and Southeast Asia.

In recent decades, China has made enormous investments in the plateau, building extensive military infrastructure, constructing giant dams on Asia's major rivers and expanding extraction of strategic minerals. At the same time, according to the author, surveillance, coercion and security forces have been used to suppress resistance. For Chinese President Xi Jinping, physical control over Tibet is apparently insufficient; he is said to want complete and lasting control over the entire Tibetan plateau.