Hu killed Panchen: Chinese dissident March 16, 2011 15:02]

Dharamsala, March 16 - A prominent Chinese dissident has accused Chinese president Hu Jintao of masterminding the death of the 10th Panchen Lama who passed away in January 1989 at the age of 51. 

“Obviously, he (Panchen Lama) had died of poisoning. Hu Jintao, the then the secretary of the CCP Committee of Tibet was the culprit behind the plot to murder Panchen Lama,” Yuan Hong Bing, a prominent Chinese dissident and a writer based in Australia, said here at a press conference. 

Yuan said the reason for murdering the Panchen Lama was that the Tibetan Buddhist master and head of Tashi Lhunpo monastery had expressed his desire to invite the exile Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to Tibet. A forthcoming book by him, To the Summit of Firmament – Crossing the Himalayas will expose the truth behind the mysterious death of the Panchen Lama for the first time, said Yuan, who is a part of a delegation of overseas Chinese from Australia visiting the exile headquarters of the Tibetan government here. 

Yuan played down any possibility of Hu Jintao being a pacifist with kindness towards the Tibetans. “Some try to make people believe that Hu Jintao is a pacifist who holds kindness towards Tibetans, that’s another lie,” said Yuan, adding that Hu Jintao rose to the top position of CCP regime by stepping on the blood, bones and tears of the Tibetan people. “In March 1989, Hu Jintao, wearing a helmet and holding an automatic rifle, directly commanded soldiers to slaughter monks who were peacefully protesting in the streets of Lhasa,” he added. 

Yuan is a popular Chinese dissident, writer, philosopher and liberalism jurist who sought political asylum in Australia after being jailed for 6 months in 1994 for “attempting to overthrow the socialist system”. Yuan had authored several books that were critical of the communist regime in Beijing including Freedom in the sunset about atrocities against Mongolians during the Cultural Revolution. 

He has also authored a book on Tibet called Golden Holy Mountain and other books on Taiwan and academic papers that criticized the regime in Beijing. He has been living in Australia since 2004 after escaping with a group of tourists. 

In June 1989, Yuan founded the Beijing University Faculty Support Association, a political group in support of the 1989 student movement at Tiananmen Square.