Man identified as Tibetan activist by exile media dies after self-immolation at UN headquarters

China’s ethnic unity law takes effect two days before the protest

Video of the incident posted online shows a man dressed in robes holding a Tibetan flag on a pole, then igniting himself. Responders arrived with extinguishers more than a minute later and put out the fire, according to United Press International. The man had crumpled to the ground.

Rangzen was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police told the New York Post.

Gonpo Dhundup, a Tibetan exile parliamentarian, said in an online statement that Rangzen made “the ultimate sacrifice through self-immolation to protest China’s occupation of Tibet and its repression of the Tibetan people.”

The International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington, D.C.-based human rights group, called Rangzen “a tireless advocate for Tibet who devoted himself to peacefully raising awareness of the human crisis in Tibet.”

The organization said Rangzen had, in his final statement published to his Facebook account, warned that “China’s policies threaten the very survival of Tibetan identity, language and culture, and called on all Tibetans to be united in their fight for the cause of the Tibetan struggle.”

China has controlled Tibet since 1951 and considers the region an integral part of Chinese territory. The Chinese Communist Party classifies the Tibetan independence movement as one of the so-called Five Poisons that threaten its territorial claims, alongside Taiwanese independence and the Chinese democracy movement, according to UPI.

The self-immolation came two days after China’s Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law went into effect. Beijing has said the measure is designed to promote cohesion among the nation’s 56 ethnic groups.

Human rights advocates dispute that characterization. Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director Sarah Brooks said in a recent statement that “‘Unity’ in this context is not harmony between different communities — it is political and ideological alignment with the Chinese Communist Party.”

“Rather than protecting diversity and equality, the law requires conformity,” Brooks said.

She added that the law risks providing a stronger legal basis for exercising transnational repression against those peacefully advocating for minority rights in China.

“This law puts a national legal framework behind policies that have already devastated the rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans and other non-Han ethnic groups,” Brooks said. “We expect it to further institutionalize China’s policies of forced assimilation.”

According to the International Campaign for Tibet, 159 Tibetans have self-immolated in Tibet, China, and in exile since 2009. Self-immolation is not an unprecedented form of Tibetan protest, the organization said.