{FORCED ASSIMILATION} THE REPORT SAID SUCH MEASURES CAUSE EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HARM Tibetan kids face abuse, indoctrination in Chinese preschools

Chinese authorities have forced up to 100,000 Tibetan children aged four to six years into a network of colonial boarding preschools, where they face abuse, neglect, indoctrination and identity erasure, according to a new report by a Tibetan think tank

- Rezaul H Laskar

The report by the Tibet Action Institute, drawing on rare firsthand accounts, shows how the Chinese government is using Tibetan children as a “means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as a distinct people”, the think tank said on Friday as the report's Hindi version was released in New Delhi as part of events marking the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama.

Ahead of the birthday, the Dalai Lama laid down the process for the continuation of the position of spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists after his death, and said only a trust created by him will be responsible for recognising his reincarnation. The remarks angered the Chinese government, which claimed it alone has the authority to approve the successor of the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since he fled Tibet dur-