Letter in Support of Tibetan Language-Rights Advocate
In January 2020, the Executive Council authorized Executive Director Paula M. Krebs to sign on behalf of the association this letter written by PEN America.
Open Letter to His Excellency Mr. Xi Jinping, President of The People’s Republic of China
January 26, 2020
Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned members of the literary, academic, and linguistic community, are writing to you today in order to join PEN America in calling for the release of Tibetan language advocate Tashi Wangchuk.
Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan small-business owner, has spent the last four years in detention for his peaceful advocacy for the Tibetan language to be taught in schools and used in local government. He was secretly arrested on January 27, 2016, after featuring in a The New York Times report highlighting his efforts to lobby local authorities for Tibetan language education. Tashi was not afforded a trial until almost two years later, when he received a one-day trial on charges of “inciting separatism.” After the trial, which was not open to the public and in which Tashi had limited access to his lawyer, he received a five-year sentence. Today—the fourth anniversary of his arrest—Tashi remains in prison for his language-rights advocacy.
We are deeply concerned over how Tashi’s arrest and trial were marked by a lack of due process, including the fact that Tashi was reportedly tortured prior to his trial. In January 2019, Tashi’s lawyer reported that he was denied access to his client, despite the fact that he intended to discuss Tashi’s time-sensitive options for filing a petition for his release.
We would additionally like to emphasize that Tashi’s peaceful advocacy is consistent with the Chinese Constitution and its national laws, as well as with international law. Tashi himself has repeatedly indicated that his advocacy involves the pursuit of rights that are already present within the Chinese national system. To put it more simply, Tashi has committed no cognizable crime.
We appeal to you now, as members of a community of professionals dedicated to upholding and respecting linguistic diversity around the world. We believe that the right of everyone to learn, teach, and develop their native language must be protected. As such, we call upon the government of the People’s Republic of China to release Tashi Wangchuk, and to honor its own domestic and international obligations to uphold ethnic minorities’ rights to learn and develop their own spoken and written languages.
Sincerely,
Organizational Signatories
Alyson Reed, Executive Director, Linguistic Society of America
Paula M. Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association
Carrie Dyck, President, Canadian Linguistic Association
James Mackle, Programme Officer, Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization
Marga Stoffer, President, PEN Afrikaans
Elizabeth Csicsery-Ronay, PEN Hungarian Club