Palden Yeshi, a Tibetan monk and teacher from eastern Tibet, has reportedly been sentenced to six years in prison by Chinese authorities for teaching the Tibetan language to local children during school holidays, according to a report by the Dharamshala-based independent radio station Voice of Tibet (VoT).
He was a teacher at Karze Monastery in Tehor, Karze County, and was arrested on May 17, 2021, while serving at the monastery. According to sources cited by VoT, Chinese police suddenly arrived at the monastery and detained him without prior notice, forcibly taking him away.
Following his detention, authorities did not provide his family with clear information regarding the reasons for his arrest or the legal basis for the charges against him.
Sources indicate that the primary reason for his detention was his efforts to teach the Tibetan language to more than 300 local children during school holidays. The classes were reportedly organized for young students from nearby communities who wished to learn Tibetan reading and writing. Chinese authorities are believed to have deemed these voluntary language lessons illegal.
[...]
In related news, China bars Tibetan government employees from religious rites and family funerals.
Tibetans employed in government positions have been strictly forbidden from engaging in religious practices. While they are technically allowed to visit major religious sites such as the Jokhang Temple (Tsuglakhang) and the Potala Palace during Losar, their presence is limited to sightseeing purposes only.
They are expressly prohibited from offering prayers, making ritual offerings, performing prostrations, or displaying any other forms of religious devotion. Authorities reportedly warned that such acts would constitute violations of Communist Party discipline.
The restrictions extend into private family life. Government employees are said to be barred not only from participating in public religious ceremonies but also from attending last rites, weekly memorial prayer services, and cremation rituals for their own deceased relatives. A Lhasa resident told TT that even the traditional seventh-day prayers for the departed cannot be attended by those in state employment.
[...]
Who says China is an authoritarian regime? You can't prove that. /s
Just saw a post about their social credit score and lots of comments telling how 90% of their population is very happy and very supportive of the government. Idk if they are bots or people believing this.
It depends how people are asked imo. Most such surveys are done on Chinese social media or in similar surveys where individual answers can be tracked. According to polls done in China, the vast majority of citizens also agree that China is a good democracy and that they trust their government.
But what else would people say? Openly disagreeing with the government can put you in big trouble in China. It's basically a choice between being supportive of what the government does or risking to simply disappear.
to be fair the social credit score as it is imagined by westerners with AIs tracking your every move to make a number go up or down that determines your standing in society is fiction. What does exist are two separate systems; one for creditworthiness like all creditworthiness systems around the world and another system that leaves you on a blacklist if you intentionally don't pay off your debts. that system can actually prevent you from taking high speed rail (among other things i can't remember), and some people who are not very aware of the world may have gotten into debt, didn't notice, didn't pay their debts, got blacklisted and only noticed when they tried to take the high speed rail somewhere.
to be fair to critics of china too, this (meaning this lemmy post and other political persecution up to possible genocide) is absolutely terrible and inexcusable. i sincerely detest nationalism, but that's what the ccp leadership wants, using many means, and I can't square that circle.
I'm sure the blacklisting system has been abused before too. i just don't interact a lot with chinese news and the chinese internet, and i might not even be able to check if i did try. i know there was that boxer who beat up martial artists who was on the blacklist system, but I don't know if that was from debt or from persecution. i know the general media vibe here in the west was persecution, but there's no way I'm going to trust vibes about that.
No, it isn't fiction. It is real.
Every Chinese citizen gets a score, to which points are added or deducted depending on individual everyday actions.
The system rewards citizens based on their accumulated "score," which basically reflects their alignment with state-approved values. A high score grants valuable incentives and preferential access to public services. For example, citizens with good credit may be exempt from paying deposits when using public hospitals or libraries, receive discounts on public transportation, and benefit from streamlined processes for certain international visas. Conversely, acts like running a red light or jaywalking can result in public shaming and a loss of points.
Based on this social credit system, the Chinese population is divided into 4 classes of citizens, depending on your score.
There is a documentary by a French journalist and his (Chinese) wife who were living in China's capital Beijing. The documentary has been made in 2023, but there is an edited version from 2025 (I watched the film back in 2023 and also the 2025 version; as far as I remember, the 2025 edits reflect the role of AI in the system).
Here is a YT link: Life Under China’s Social Credit System: A Dystopian Reality?
Here an alternative Invidious link: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=p19nYrjZ1dQ
The documentary lasts 52 minutes.
@bazo@sh.itjust.works
@Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
[Edit typo.]
I just read more about it, specifically here: https://thechinaproject.com/2022/02/03/how-chinas-laws-and-social-credit-system-actually-work-explained-by-jeremy-daum/ from 2022, and it seems at the time there were pilot projects to do something like a real social credit score system.
So, most of the information going into it is what they call public credit information, which is information created or collected by the government in the course of its normal business. So that’s to say that the creation of the idea of the Social Credit System didn’t involve collecting much more information.
What it did involve was sharing information between regulatory agencies, and they’re now making it so that if you violated say a food safety law… In the past, you might… The food safety regulators would know that that had happened, but it’s now available for the public to see in most cases. And also, other regulatory agencies will see this.
What I strongly disagree with though is the dramatized and biased view your video approaches the topic with. Analyzing these things should be sober, not like that. I couldn't watch past the first few seconds. "Do we have no privacy? (in response to filming themselves for a year) We don't have any anyway (to point out the evil state monitoring their every move)"
Watch the documentary. Each individual gets a score, and this score changes depending on your behaviour and the everyday decision you make - what you drink you buy, what food you eat. Whatever the party deems as desired or undesired behaviour, the score is increased or decreased.
I will probably do that. But do you realize that the first app she opens isn't from the state? It's sesame credit from alibaba/alipay. It's a private bonus credit thing/loyalty program from a private company. It has nothing to do with the state. If you go on a shopping spree in their apps then your credit rises and you may get a few gifts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhima_Credit
Dude, each single app she has on her phone is from a private company. The state doesn't even have an app, and it doesn't need one.
To paraphrase what the documentary says: The private companies are creating the apps, but the Chinese party-state makes the recipes. And the state has access to every single piece of information. The state decides what happens with the data, and what 'features' are added. The party gets what it wants.
That's what the documentary explains explicitly.
It's an Orwellian nightmare.
I see
the UK and Australian Governments imprison climate change protestors for years...
it's intrinsic in all governments to be authoritarian, they own the monopoly on violence