One way out of Beijing

China gives Montreal activist Chris
Schwartzthe expected boot, but he
still considers himself lucky

OM MAN: Schwartz

by TRACEY LINDEMAN

Chris Schwartz looks a little sleep deprived but remarkably relaxed for a guy who was just deported from China. After a 30-hour flight, including layovers, from Hong Kong back to Montreal and an intense day of media interviews, Schwartz looks happy to be sipping coffee in St-Henri’s Café Joe’s.

The 24-year-old former West Islander has dedicated most of the last decade to the cause of Tibetan freedom, since his days at Loyola High School. His mother is from Ireland (giving him dual citizenship), and both his parents—with whom he lives in a Verdun condo—are supportive of his activism. He sits on SFT (Students for a Free Tibet) Canada’s national board of directors, and traveled to San Francisco earlier this year to protest the Olympic torch relay through Tibet. He went to Beijing because he felt speaking out there would resonate a little more loudly than doing so here. And he was voted ninth loudest activist by Mirror readers in 2007’s Best of Montreal poll—but next year, his chances at No. 1 are pretty good.

Dressed in a Superman-blue T-shirt featuring the Om symbol instead of a giant S, Schwartz talks about being detained for about six hours during which he was routinely interrogated, before being shipped from Beijing to Hong Kong, where he languished in a hotel room for five or so days. The Chinese government couldn’t wait to get rid of him—he says they drove him to the Beijing airport at over 140 km/h. He arrived at Pierre Elliott Trudeau last Friday night and was welcomed by a throng of journalists, friends and fellow pro-Tibetan activists.

But none of this really matters to him, he says. What really matters is why he was in China in the first place.

Tiananmen bust

The Aug. 9 protest in the historic, bloodstained Tiananmen Square was short-lived—men who appeared to be plainclothes officers quickly put a stop to the five-person demonstration—but it shone a light on China’s record in Tibet. When Schwartz entered China on his Irish passport (he was denied a visa as a Canadian), he knew he’d probably get arrested, but he also knew whatever happened to him would be nothing compared to what happens to Tibetans when they protest.

“When Tibetans speak out, they are thrown in prison, they are often times tortured and sometimes killed,” Schwartz says—which was largely the case last March, when thousands of Tibetans inside Tibet protested against China’s occupation. Schwartz says Tibetans have continuously protested since March 10, Tibetan Uprising Day, in efforts to bring attention to their struggle at a time when China is in the international spotlight.

Tibet was an independent state until 1949-1950, when communist China invaded and annexed it. In 1959, after a decade of violence, angry Tibetans in the capital of Lhasa revolted against China’s presence and were met with brute force, killing what the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, estimates at 87,000 people. However, the Chinese government maintains Tibet has been part of China for centuries, that the invasion was a peaceful liberation and that today, Tibetans are perfectly content being part of China.

Predictably, Schwartz doesn’t believe a word of what the Chinese government has to say about Tibet. He says the police and military have a large and unwavering presence in Tibet, which has only intensified since last March. In July, the Times of London reported that around 1,000 monks were preemptively arrested and shipped outside of Lhasa until the end of the Olympics to quell potential unrest—and embarrassment. “The monasteries in Lhasa are largely empty right now,” Schwartz says.

China’s empty promises

He’s quick to say SFT is not against the Beijing Olympics, but Schwartz thinks the International Olympic Committee has failed to hold China to promises it made when it was awarded the Games. Schwartz says one of the conditions the IOC laid out for China was to grant free and unfettered media access to the entire country; however, he says, most journalists aren’t allowed into Tibet. The Times also reported that a British journalist was beaten up and arrested for reporting on a pro-Tibet demonstration staged by foreigners in China.

Schwartz isn’t sure whether he’s banned from China for a month, a year or the rest of his life. While he recognizes holding a demonstration in Tiananmen Square will not free Tibet by the end of the Olympics, he’s planning on running with the momentum pro-Tibet forces have garnered to push onward for Tibetan freedom.

“This is such a critical moment for Tibet. They are yelling and screaming for people to speak up,” he says.