India, July 11 -- Chinese authorities have forced up to 100,000 Tibetan children aged four to six years into a network of colonial boarding preschools, where they face abuse, neglect, indoctrination and identity erasure, according to a new report by a Tibetan think tank.

The report by the Tibet Action Institute, drawing on rare first-hand accounts, shows how the Chinese government is using Tibetan children as a "means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as a distinct people," the think tank said on Friday as the report's Hindi version was released in New Delhi as part of events marking the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama.

Ahead of the birthday, the Dalai Lama laid down the process for the continu...