Even after losing no chance in the last more than six decades to defile and defame the Dalai Lama through a series of smear campaign against the Tibetan spiritual leader, China seems to be rattled by an English-language film ‘Four Rivers and Six Ranges,’ as it portrays the story of the ‘Chushi Gangdruk,’ a Tibetan resistance group formed in 1958 to oppose the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

The film, based on the book ‘Flight at the Cuckoo’s Behest,’ premiered at the prestigious 54th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on February 1 in the Netherlands. It reverberates with valour and courage of Tibetan men, who led by Gonpo Tashi, a prominent resistance fighter and leader of the ‘Chushi Gangdruk,’ fought bravely against China’s People’s Liberation Army when it was sweeping over Tibet, slaughtering monks, and crushing dissent in the 1950s.

Because it drew huge crowds, China was unnerved by its screening at the prestigious film festivals like IFFR. China’s state-backed CGTN termed the film as a platform for “separatism.” In its attempt to show that the film was “nothing more than an unfounded and ill-conceived narrative,” the Beijing-based English language news channel, which is controlled by members of the Chinese Communist Party, appeared to have lost the plot in debunking the truth on China’s forced occupation of Tibet.

Meanwhile, an ITV documentary titled ‘Inside China: The Battle for Tibet’ has also became a headache for the authorities in Beijing. The documentary not only showcases the plight of over seven million Tibetans living under Beijing’s oppressive policies but also exposes Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continuous interference and surveillance over religious affairs of Tibetans. 
The aforesaid documentary revealed the tragic life of Tibetan children, who are being forced to study in state-run boarding schools, whose main focus is to eliminate the very essence of Tibetan religious, cultural and linguistic identities of these children as they are being forced to drop religious curriculums and are being taught in Mandarin only. ‘Loyalty’ to party and state remains the key focus and child abuse by the school administration the way of discipline.  

 
As usual, Beijing dismissed the claims made in the documentary, calling it biased and filled with false accusations. Despite clarifications from Chinese side, the fact remains that Tibetans have long been suppressed under the rule of CCP.      
In fact, over the years, Beijing has claimed Tibet as part of its sovereignty, often referring to its absorption into China during the Yuan dynasty around 800 years ago. However, in the process of presenting its arguments about Tibet, it has yet to convince the world regarding what compelled it to invade the territory in the 1950s.

Even today, not a single day passes when many corners of the world do not reverberate with the international community’s concerns about human rights abuses and restrictions on religious freedom of Tibetans living in the region. But for China, under its authoritarian regime, the primary objective lies in denying any allegations of human rights abuses against Tibetans.
It knows once it admits such abuses then it would lead to undermining its claim of peaceful governance in Tibet. And with this, questions will start being raised about its legitimacy in Tibet—both domestically and internationally. Therefore, to forestall the emergence of such situations, it resorts to anti-Dalai Lama propaganda and uses every means at its disposal to deny the truth of the Tibetan narrative on the invasion.

This motive of Beijing was evident when it facilitated the screening of the film ‘Serfs,’ made in the 1960s, at the IFFR. The screening took place just a few days after ‘Four Rivers and Six Ranges,’ was premiered at the international film festival in the Netherlands this February, highlighting Beijing’s promptness in contradicting Tibetans’ narrative about their fight against Chinese rule.

A work of overt propaganda, ‘Serfs,’ the film conceals a dark history of PLA-led bloodshed in Tibet in the 1950s and it was presented at the IFFR with a view to discredit a perspective of historical events shown by ‘Four Rivers and Six Ranges.’
However, despite its hard try, ‘Serf’ failed to meet Chinese expectations in terms of drawing crowds. This demonstrated people’s disinterest in subscribing to China’s propaganda on Tibet, which has undergone brutal transformations over the past six decades since it was forcefully annexed by Beijing.

This was the reason why China-backed film ‘Serfs,’ screened at the 54th IFFR, failed to draw crowds, while exile Tibetans-backed English-language film ‘Four Rivers and Six Ranges,’ not only attracted large audiences to its premier in the Netherlands but also succeeded in highlighting the perspective on China’s bloody invasion of Tibet in the 1950s.