Robert G Leary

CEO
TIAA Asset Management
via email
8 June 2016
Dear Mr Leary
I am the Director of Free Tibet, a London-based international organisation campaigning for
Tibetans to be able to determine their own future and for their human rights to be respected. I am
contacting you today to urge you to sell all stock owned by TIAA-CREF Asset Management in Tibet
Water Resources Ltd (TWRL). TWRL bottles and sells water from Tibet, a practice which is both
unethical and unsustainable. We note TIAAs commitment to sustainability and responsible,
competitive investment and I hope you will agree that this investment is not consistent with your
aims.
As the attached short report establishes, the bottled water industry in Tibet is fraught with
political, commercial, regulatory and environmental risks to which companies investing in it are
exposed. Fundamentally, Tibet is a global human rights blackspot and an occupied country whose
population does not recognise the legitimacy of its government. As the report establishes, Chinese
companies such as TWRL are only able to commercially exploit Tibets water resources because
China enforces its rule over Tibet through the absolute denial of political freedom and severe
repression.
In addition, Tibets environment and water resources are under severe threat from a range of
environmental factors, including pollution, climate change and the effects of massive damming
and diversion projects undertaken by Chinas government. Far from being a low-impact, green
business responsibly commercialising a renewable resource, water bottling in Tibet is contributing
to environmental destruction and has no long term future because, putting it simply, the water is
running out. Chinas government is increasingly aware both of the threats and the increasing anger
among Chinese and Tibetan people about its failures to deal with environmental and water
problems and there is a strong chance that regulation will curtail or even effectively end water
bottling as an industry.
TWRL as a company has particular problems associated with it, including its location in a region of
particular concern and its longstanding closeness to the Communist Party of China. It produces the
Tibet 5100 brand, which has been bottled inside the Tibet Autonomous Region since 2006. The
Tibet Autonomous Region was at the centre of the Tibetan uprising of 2008 and has been the most
intensely repressed part of Tibet ever since. According to Chinese dissident website Boxun, the
company has complicated origins with strong links to the Communist Party and the Chinese
government.i Relationships with both have been instrumental in its initial successes and more
recent setbacks. Just a year after launching, it became the official drinking water of the 2007
National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was granted the same honour at the 18 th

Free Tibet
28 Charles Square, London N1 6HT
Tel: 44 (0)20 7324 4605 E-mail: mail@freetibet.org Web: www.freetibet.org

Party Congress in 2012ii the venue for Xi Jinpings accession to the leadership of the Party, in
advance of his elevation to the presidency of China in 2013.
In 2007, Party connections were likely to have been helpful when Tibet 5100 signed a vital
strategic contract with China Railway Express, a state-owned transportation company affiliated
with the Ministry of Railways. By 2013, the company was buying 90% of Tibet 5100s output and
from 2008 to 2011 the companys revenues reportedly rose from 119 million RMB to 633 million iii.
TWRL listed on the Hong Kong stock market in 2011. However, in 2015 the railway relationship
ended abruptly, leading to a share price fall of more than 12%.iv While the official reason given by
the rail company was the availability of high quality potable water at stations making bottled
water unnecessary, Chinese news website Sina reported a different story. According to an
anonymous source quoted by Sina, halting the commercial partnership between 5100 and
Railway is an action carried out to limit the corruption within the railway system. [] In the current
atmosphere of repressing corruption in China, this kind of action was to be expected.v While Free
Tibet has no other information of any kind suggesting corruption on the part of TWRL as a
company, Xi Jinpings corruption clampdown has changed the landscape significantly for
companies reliant on partnerships with the Communist Party, government and state-owned
enterprises.
As our report details, there is an increasing global awareness of environmental threats in Tibet,
driven in part by the Dalai Lama, for whom this has become a talismanic issue. At the same time,
the sustained and intense repression in Tibet continues to draw condemnation from governments,
global institutions and the public. Investment in Chinese companies exploiting Tibets environment
is unwise. More than this, far from offering support to Tibets beleaguered people, this kind of
commercial development exacerbates the grave problems they face. I hope you will recognise the
importance of withdrawing support from this business and I again urge you to sell all stock in Tibet
Water Resources Ltd.
Free Tibet has recently launched a public campaign regarding the bottled water industry in Tibet vi
and we have recently contacted other institutional shareholders, one of which has already
confirmed that it has sold its shares. I am contacting you at this point in private, however, and I
look forward to your early response. If you consider it helpful, I would be very happy to discuss
this with you or members of your team at your convenience. I can be contacted at the address
below or at Eleanor@freetibet.org. Thank you very much for your consideration of this matter.
Yours sincerely

Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren
Director
i

http://www.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2015/07/201507290207.shtml#.Vua5pfmLTcs
Tibet 5100 History 2016 http://twr1115.net/pages/our_history
iii
SEO http://www.szjsem.com/hot/5100kuangquanshui
iv
Tibet Water Resources Holdings Ltd. Report 2015
http://www.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2011/0630/LTN20110630586.PDF
v
http://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/gsnews/20150727/105822799679.shtml
vi
http://www.freetibet.org/news-media/na/protest-launches-new-campaign-save-tibets-water
ii

Free Tibet
28 Charles Square, London N1 6HT
Tel: 44 (0)20 7324 4605 E-mail: mail@freetibet.org Web: www.freetibet.org