Roof of the World-Tibet in Context - Simon Cheng, Rahima Mahmut and Tenzin Kunga in conversation with Kate Saunders

Tibet in Context is a podcast series that gears in gaining a deeper understanding of Tibet through conversations with Tibetans, China Watchers, Tibetologists, Environmentalist and Security Experts.

In this episode, we engage with Simon Cheng, Rahima Mahmut and Tenzin Kunga on how their respective communities and councillors came together to prevent the establishment of a Super Chinese Embassy at Tower Hamlets, London.

This podcast brings together three campaigners who worked with local residents and councilors to achieve this major victory. We discuss the significance of this development in the context of reconfigured UK-China relations and what may happen next. Rahima Mahmut, UK director of the World Uyghur Congress and Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide; Simon Cheng, founder of the UK-wide diaspora group Hong Kongers in Britain and Tenzin Kunga, Chair of the Tibetan Community in Britain and Advocacy Officer for Free Tibet in London.

It discussed Beijing's plans to open a new super embassy at a historic site in London, received an unexpected blow when local councillors in the London borough of Tower Hamlets rejected plans for construction of the embassy opposite the Tower of London. It would have been the largest diplomatic base in Britain. The site where China planned to relocate falls within the Tower of London conservation area, and is the symbolic former site of the Royal Mint, which produced British currency.

In a tense meeting on 1 December, the Tower Hamlets council voted unanimously against the proposed development to move China’s current embassy to the new 2 hectare site. The vote was unanimous and crossed Party divides. Around 38% of residents of the London borough are Muslim, the highest proportion in the UK. Former local Labour councilor Rabina Khan said during the campaign: “People see the oppression of the Uyghurs, when they are thirsty, they are forced to drink alcohol though they are Muslim, forced sterilisation and rape - we condemn the atrocities. We stand with the Hong Kong people and let’s not forget the oppression of the Tibetan people.” Rabina added: “The East End has a rich heritage and history of standing together on the principles of humanity – of standing together to challenge oppressors and today we challenge the Chinese Communist Party.”

The podcast also discusses two more new developments:

1. A few days after the Tower Hamlets decision, on Human Rights Day, 10 December, the Biden administration sanctioned two Chinese officials over their abuse of Tibetans' human rights. The two senior officials sanctioned were Wu Yingjie, Tibet Autonomous Region Party Secretary between 2016 and 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, director of the TAR Public Security Bureau from 2018 to this year. Both were accused of 'serious human rights abuse' and under the sanctions the US freezes any property owned by the officials, and together with their families, they are barred from entering the country.

2. Our earlier Roof of the World podcast focused on China’s transnational policing (https://fnvaworld.org/chinas-transnat...) and how Hong Kong protester Bob Chan was beaten up by Chinese consular officials in Manchester. We report in this podcast about the outcome – that the Chinese diplomats involved have now left the UK.