The 70,000 Character Petition (; ) is a report, dated 18 May 1962, written by the Tenth Panchen Lama and addressed to the Chinese government, denouncing abusive policies and actions of the People's Republic of China in Tibet. It remains the "most detailed and informed attack on China's policies in Tibet that would ever be written."
For decades, the content of this report remained hidden from all but the very highest levels of the Chinese leadership, until one copy was obtained by the Tibet Information Network (TIN) in 1996. The report was based in part on research undertaken in Amdo by an assistant, the 6th Tseten Zhabdrung, Jigme Rigpai Lodro, after China's brutal retaliation and reforms which followed a massive anti-communist uprising in 1958.
In January 1998 upon the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the birth of the 10th Panchen Lama, a translation by Tibetologist Robert Barnett entitled A Poisoned Arrow: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama was published by Tibet Information Network.
The document was initially known as the Report on the sufferings of the masses in Tibet and other Tibetan regions and suggestions for future work to the central authorities through the respected Premier Zhou Enlai but took on the shorter sobriquet because of its length in Chinese characters. When published, its authenticity could not be independently confirmed and Chinese authorities refrained from commenting. Several months later, Ngabo Ngawang Jigme (a retired high-ranking government and military official who was in office in Tibet from the early 1950s to 1993), officially criticized the petition's comments on the famine without challenging its authenticity nor criticizing its publication.
Background
Following the departure into exile of the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in 1959, the 10th Panchen Lama was offered the presidency of the preparatory committee for the establishments of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In 1960, the Chinese named him vice-chairman of the National People's Congress in order that he act as the spokesperson for Chinese policy in Tibet. In this capacity, the 10th Panchen Lama visited several Chinese regions where "he saw nothing but misery and desolation." In 1962, he met with Westerners in Lhasa, the capital of the current Tibet Autonomous Region. He affirmed to them his desire to "fulfill his revolutionary duty towards the people" and to "live the life of a good Buddhist." The Panchen Lama returned to Beijing on Mao's orders. During the voyage, throngs of Tibetans begged him to "end all the deprivation and hardships we've suffered." In Beijing, he asked Mao directly to "put an end to the abuses committed against the Tibetan people, to increase their food rations, to provide adequate care for the aged and the infirm, and to respect religious liberty." Mao listened politely but no measures were undertaken.
The Panchen Lama was only 24 when he wrote the petition. His entourage tried to persuade him to soften the tone of his petition, but he refused.
So it was that in 1962 the Panchen Lama wrote the Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai a document known as the 70,000 Character Petition in which he denounced the draconian policies and actions of the Chinese People's Republic in Tibet. He criticized the Great Leap Forward and a multitude of "inept orders" on the part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which had caused chronic food shortages.
The report by the Panchen Rinpoche deals with the Tibetan situation in plain terms, taking his cues from Mao's project: "Even if on paper and in speeches there has been a great leap forward, it's not clear that this has translated to reality."
Writing the petition
The Panchen Lama began writing his petition in the monastery of Tashilhunpo in Shigatse, Tibet, continued in his residence in Lhasa, and finished it in Beijing. His stated objective in writing it was "to benefit the Party and the people."
The Panchen Lama wrote the work in Tibetan and chose the title Report on the sufferings of the masses in Tibet and other Tibetan regions and suggestions for future work to the central authorities through the respected Premier Zhou Enlai and runs to 123 pages in Chinese translation but as the Chinese version contained 70,000 characters, the document became known as the 70,000 Character Petition.
The Panchen Lama confided in Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Yi, one of Zhou Enlai's inner circle. Chen Yi reassured him in his denunciation of the Tibetan situation, and told him to "Tell everything you know and don't hold back."