Xiangba Qupei shared the thoughts of the Dalai Lama on WeChat, the Chinese messaging app. For this criminal activity he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
As is common in China when people are incarcerated for no good reason, the authorities took their time about advising Xiangba’s family of his situation and even threatened them for making inquiries. On October 4, 2024, Bitter Winter reported that only a week earlier did his family finally learn that he “had been sentenced to 18 months of jail last August. The family had not been previously informed of the trial, nor of the decision.”
Xiangba (shown above) has been in prison since March 22.
This isn’t the first time he’s been noticed by the Chinese thug-authorities. Bitter Winter reports that he has been “monitored by Chinese Communist Party authorities for years, especially around Tibetan Uprising Day.”
Tibetan Uprising Day, March 10, commemorates the March 10, 1959 revolt against the Chinese occupation. The Chinese Communist Party responded with a brutal crackdown, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile.
One of the Dalai Lama’s thoughts, expressed in the book The Art of Happiness, written with Howard Cutler: “I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we are all seeking something better in life…. I believe that happiness can be achieved through training the mind.”