the elevation of Xi Jinping and China’s 5th generation leaders in 2012 brought no positive changes in human rights, rather the reverse. During the past two years the Chinese government has been increasingly hostile towards human rights defenders, unleashing a harsh crackdown on civil society, especially in Tibet. In July 2015, these policies resulted in the prison death of prominent Tibetan buddhist leader, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who had been persecuted and incarcerated for life on trumped up criminal charges