Category Archives: Tibet

Mount Everest hikers describe ‘extreme’ conditions as huge rescue effort continues

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At least 200 people still stranded after unseasonally heavy snowfall during China’s Golden Week holiday

Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort.

Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border.

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Mount Everest rescue under way after snowstorm traps nearly 1,000 people

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Hundreds of trekkers stranded by blizzard on eastern face of mountain in Tibet already guided to safety by rescuers

Rescue efforts are under way on Mount Everest after a snowstorm trapped nearly 1,000 people in campsites on the eastern side of the mountain, according to Chinese state media.

Hundreds of trekkers stranded by a blizzard near the eastern face of the mountain in Tibet were guided to safety by rescuers on Sunday, as unusually heavy precipitation including rain pummelled the Himalayas.

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Arc’teryx fireworks display in Tibet prompts environmental outcry

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Outdoor brand says the Rising Dragon promotional event was out of line with its values after public criticism

The outdoor brand Arc’teryx has issued an apology after a promotional fireworks display in the Tibetan plateau led to an outcry over potential environmental damage.

The promotional Rising Dragon high-altitude show involved long stretches of choreographed pyrotechnics and coloured smoke along snow-topped Himalayan ridgelines in the Tibetan region of Shigatse. The Canadian company, part-owned by China’s Anta Group, had partnered with a Chinese artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, who oversaw similar shows for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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China starts building world’s biggest hydropower dam

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1.2tn yuan project has broken ground in Tibet, premier says, despite fears of downstream nations India and Bangladesh

Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”.

The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory.

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Hong Kong police tell people not to download ‘secessionist’ mobile game

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Players face possible arrest for downloading Taiwan-developed Reversed Front: Bonfire, which lets them ‘overthrow the communist regime’

Hong Kong police have warned people against downloading a Taiwan-developed mobile game which they say is “secessionist” and could lead to arrest.

The game, Reversed Front: Bonfire, allows users to “pledge allegiance” to various groups linked to locations that have been major flashpoints or targets for China including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Uyghurs, Kazakhs and Manchuria, in order to “overthrow the communist regime” known as the “People’s Republic”.

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Dalai Lama says his successor will be born outside China in the ‘free world’

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New book by spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism will raise the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of Tibet

The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.

Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in Voice for the Voiceless, which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.

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Genetics journal retracts 18 papers from China due to human rights concerns

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Researchers used samples from populations deemed by experts and campaigners to be vulnerable to exploitation, including Uyghurs and Tibetans

A genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher has retracted 18 papers from China, in what is thought to be the biggest mass retraction of academic research due to concerns about human rights.

The articles were published in Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine (MGGM), a genetics journal published by the US academic publishing company Wiley. The papers were retracted this week after an agreement between the journal’s editor in chief, Suzanne Hart, and the publishing company. In a review process that took over two years, investigators found “inconsistencies” between the research and the consent documentation provided by researchers.

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Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles

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China ‘threatens relatives in Tibet’ to exert control over activists in exile, with greater transnational repression at Tibetan new year

Thousands of Tibetans around the world have been subjected to spying, blackmail and threats against family members still living in Tibet, according to a new report.

The Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet continue to be documented, but the new report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is the first to investigate the widespread targeting of exiles in countries including the US, India, France, Australia and Canada, researchers say.

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Thermo Fisher stops sale of DNA kits in Tibet after activists raised fears of rights abuses

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Campaigners say testing is among methods used to surveil people in the tightly controlled region

The US biotech company Thermo Fisher has halted sales of its DNA identification kits in Tibet, nearly five years after it made a similar commitment about the sale of its products in the neighbouring western Chinese region of Xinjiang.

It decided to stop sales in Tibet after months of complaints from rights groups and investors that the technology may be used in a way that abuses human rights. The company said that the decision was made in the middle of 2023, but it was only revealed to investors late last month.

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China officials hit by US sanctions over ‘forced assimilation’ of children in Tibet

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Antony Blinken criticises China’s state boarding schools that ‘seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions’

The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials pursuing “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools, in the latest in a series of US moves on Beijing that comes despite a resumption of high-level dialogue.

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Satellite data sheds light on China’s detention facilities in Tibet

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Exclusive: China appears to have expanded use of high-security prisons as tool of repression in Tibet, researchers say

There has been a pattern of increased activity in recent years at high-security detention facilities in Tibet, according to a new study measuring night-time lighting usage, suggesting a potential rise in harsher imprisonments by Chinese authorities.

The report, by the Rand Europe research institute, said the findings added rare new clues about the Chinese government’s “stability maintenance” policies of control in the highly securitised Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which it described as an “information black hole”.

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Dalai Lama apologises after kissing boy and asking him to ‘suck my tongue’

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Interaction at temple in India seen in video that has gone viral condemned as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘scandalous’

The Dalai Lama has apologised after he faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour after kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck his tongue” at a public event in India.

The interaction, which took place in late February at the Dalai Lama’s temple in Dharamshala, was attended by about 100 young students who had just graduated from the Indian M3M Foundation.

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Australia vows to keep raising human rights concerns with China despite ambassador’s warning

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Xiao Qian implies resumption of dialogue conditional on Australia taking a ‘constructive attitude’ and not ‘trying to smear China’

The Australian government has vowed to keep raising human rights concerns “at the highest levels” after Beijing’s ambassador urged the country to avoid “trying to smear China”.

After a thaw in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries, China has signalled its openness to resuming a dedicated human rights-focused dialogue for the first time in nine years.

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China collecting DNA samples from across Tibet, says rights group

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Human Rights Watch claims new evidence of a systemic DNA collection drive across Tibet as part of a ‘crime detection’ program

Chinese authorities have been gathering DNA samples across Tibet, including from kindergarten children without the apparent consent of their parents, Human Rights Watch has said.

In a new report released on Monday, the rights organisation claimed new evidence showing a systematic DNA collection drive for entire populations across Tibet as part of a “crime detection” drive.

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Covid outbreak in Tibet leaves thousands of Chinese tourists stranded

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Travellers barred from sightseeing or returning home until confirmed clear of disease as authorities struggle to contain cases

Thousands of Chinese tourists have been left stranded in Tibet as authorities in the region struggle to contain a fresh Covid outbreak.

In recent months, at the same time as many cities went into lockdowns, Chinese tourists have flocked to scenic destinations such as the southern province of Hainan and the western region of Tibet.

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Tibet builds makeshift Covid hospitals amid China’s latest outbreak

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The move in Tibet, which has reported one Covid case since 2020, comes as 16 million people remain in lockdown in Shanghai

Authorities in Tibet are building massive Covid isolation and care facilities in anticipation of further outbreaks in China even though the remote territory has reported only one case during the pandemic.

Temporary hospitals – a key feature of China’s Covid response – with at least 1,000 beds each are being built in Lhasa and Shigatse by the Chinese firm Jiangsu Qi’an Construction Group. The firm said it had been tasked with building the hospitals in late March and given “less than half a month” to complete them. More than 400 personnel are working across three shifts to get the job done.

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‘We are so divided now’: how China controls thought and speech beyond its borders

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The arrest of a Tibetan New York city cop on spying charges plays into the community’s long-held suspicions that the People’s Republic is watching them

It was a pleasant, breezy day in late September 2020 when the FBI showed up outside the home of a man named Baimadajie Angwang. Angwang, who lived in Long Island with his wife and two-year-old daughter, was a community liaison officer with the New York police department, where his role was to build relations with the neighbourhood in the 111th precinct in Queens. He had arrived in the US in 2005, a 17-year-old asylum-seeker from a Tibetan enclave in China. He joined the marines in 2009 and served one tour in Afghanistan. And then, in 2019, he showed up at the Tibetan Community Center in Queens.

He wanted to be part of the community, Angwang told people. He was there to help Tibetan immigrant youth. He was also, according to the charges against him, in regular contact with two members of the Chinese consulate. “Let them know,” he had told a consular official in November 2018, “that you have recruited someone in the police department.”

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Man given death sentence for ex-wife’s livestream murder that shocked China

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Brutal death of social media star Lhamo has shone spotlight on domestic violence in the country

A Chinese man has been sentenced to death after a court found him guilty of killing his ex-wife while she was livestreaming on social media last year.

The intermediate people’s court of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang ethnic minority autonomous prefecture of Sichuan province said Tang Lu doused 30-year-old Lhamo with petrol and set her alight in September last year.

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Tibet and China clash over next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama

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The spiritual leader has mused that he may return as a woman. But his succession has turned into a political battle

A couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked them to look into his eyes. “Do you think it’s time now?” he asked.

It was a meeting that would end with the Tibetan leaders agreeing that the issue of reincarnation was one that would be decided only by the Dalai Lama himself. But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and has retained tight control over the region ever since, has other ideas. It insists that the choice of the next Dalai Lama lies only with China, and have even enshrined this right into Chinese law.

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping makes first visit to Tibet as president

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Visit comes as China tightens control over region’s Buddhist culture and invests heavily in infrastructure

The Chinese leader has made his first visit to Tibet as president as authorities tighten controls over the Himalayan region’s traditional Buddhist culture, accompanied by an accelerated drive for economic development and modernised infrastructure.

State media reported on Friday that Xi Jinping had visited sites in the capital, Lhasa, including the Drepung monastery, Barkhor Street and the public square at the base of the Potala Palace that was home to the Dalai Lamas, Tibet’s traditional spiritual and temporal leaders.

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