China Experts Gather for Conference in Dharamsala

By Contact Staff / December 31, 2012;

Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay and
Kalon Dicki Chhoyang

Experts on China from around the world have just concluded a 3-day conference on Leadership Transition in China: Implications for the Chinese, Tibetans and Others. Organised by the Tibet Policy Institute, the conference took place from 28 to 30 December in Dharamsala.

Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay opened the conference by welcoming the world’s experts on China saying, “The recent change in the Chinese leadership will have global implications, regional as well as on India and the Tibetan people. And your much sought after expertise will help us prepare and think through as to how we should move forward in the comings months and years.”

Kalon Dicki Chhoyang of the Department of Information and International Relations spoke about the Tibet Policy Institute, a new initiative by the administration to conduct research and advise on policy. “The Tibet Policy Institute was initiated because we had a strong need for a think-tank. We want this institute to reach international standards in terms of intellectual vigor and objectivity. What we don’t want is an equivalent of Chinese propaganda machinery on the Tibetan side,” she said.

Speakers at the conference included Dr Gordon Chang, noted lawyer and author of The Coming Collapse of China; Prof Micheal van Walt van Praag, visiting professor at Princeton and the author of Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law; Prof Chong-Pin Lin, former deputy defense minister of Taiwan and professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.
Other noted speakers included Prof Madhu Bhalla of Department of East Asian Studies, Delhi University; Dr Abanti Bhattacharya, Department of East Asian Studies of University of Delhi; former special envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama Kasur Lodi Gyari; His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Representative in Taiwan Mr Dawa Tsering; His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Secretary Mr Tsegyam; and writer Zhu Rui who was born in China, worked in Tibet, and now lives in Canada and writes extensively on the issue of Tibet in various Chinese language journals and websites.