Statement of the International Campaign for Tibet
As part of the 70th anniversary of its founding on October 1, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is touting “70 years of progress” in Tibet. However, the truth is that it has been 70 years of subjugation and oppression for the Tibetan people, and after all that, China still lacks legitimacy in its rule over Tibet.
Both the provisional constitution called the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference adopted in September 1949 and the subsequent Constitution of PRC boast of providing communities like the Tibetans the freedom to preserve or reform their own ways and customs, use and develop their own spoken and written languages. The Common Program even committed “to preserve or reform their traditions, customs and religious beliefs.”
Following the establishment of PRC, Beijing announced its intention to takeover Tibet. Subsequently, in 1951, it forced the Tibetan side to sign the 17-Point Agreement that established a new framework of Tibetan-Chinese relationship. Despite its controversial signing, the agreement did specify that the then Tibetan government’s decision-making over religion, language and political institutions would remain intact in exchange for its acceptance of Chinese sovereignty. Nevertheless, China itself violated this agreement in subsequent years culminating in the Tibetan National Uprising in March 1959, and the Dalai Lama was forced to seek refuge in India in 1959.
As early as March 10, 1961, the Dalai Lama said in a statement on the second anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day, “The Communists are today forcing what they call reforms down the throats of our people. I have given careful consideration to these so-called reforms and I have come to the conclusion that at the end of the reforms the Tibetan people will be reduced to the state of mental and economic serfdom.”
Today, the conditions of Tibet and the Tibetan people have become as predicted in 1961 by the Dalai Lama. Destruction has been unleashed on Tibet’s monastic and cultural institutes and environment. The Tibetan people’s traditions, culture and religion have been destroyed, and their human rights are consistently violated. Since China’s invasion and occupation of Tibet began, successive Chinese leaders have failed to understand and address the underlying grievances of the Tibetan people.
If China really wants to show maturity and become a responsible member of the international community, it should have the courage to address the political problems in Tibet and respond positively to the Dalai Lama’s offer for a mutually beneficial negotiated settlement through the Middle Way Approach.
Since the mid-1970s, the Dalai Lama has been promoting this approach, which takes into consideration the interests of both Tibetans and Chinese, and calling for a resolution of the Tibetan issue within the framework of the PRC. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping had said in 1979 that other than the independence of Tibet, any other issue could be discussed and resolved. In addition, during the short periods of dialogue between Tibetan and Chinese officials over the past four decades, the Tibetan side even presented a Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People. However, Chinese leaders are not sticking to the commitment made by Deng and have rejected the Tibetan proposals.
The International Campaign for Tibet’s message to the PRC on its 70th anniversary is this: The Dalai Lama is the solution and not the problem for Tibet.

Exclusive: Australia concluded China was behind hack on parliament, political parties – sources   
Colin Packham
7 Min Read
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian intelligence determined China was responsible for a cyber-attack on its national parliament and three largest political parties before the general election in May, five people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
Australia’s cyber intelligence agency – the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) – concluded in March that China’s Ministry of State Security was responsible for the attack, the five people with direct knowledge of the findings of the investigation told Reuters.
The five sources declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Reuters has not reviewed the classified report.
The report, which also included input from the Department of Foreign Affairs, recommended keeping the findings secret in order to avoid disrupting trade relations with Beijing, two of the people said. The Australian government has not disclosed who it believes was behind the attack or any details of the report.
In response to questions posed by Reuters, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office declined to comment on the attack, the report’s findings or whether Australia had privately raised the hack with China. The ASD also declined to comment.
China’s Foreign Ministry denied involvement in any sort of hacking attacks and said the internet was full of theories that were hard to trace.
“When investigating and determining the nature of online incidents there must be full proof of the facts, otherwise it’s just creating rumors and smearing others, pinning labels on people indiscriminately. We would like to stress that China is also a victim of internet attacks,” the Ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters.
“China hopes that Australia can meet China halfway, and do more to benefit mutual trust and cooperation between the two countries.”
China is Australia’s largest trading partner, dominating the purchase of Australian iron ore, coal and agricultural goods, buying more than one-third of the country’s total exports and sending more than a million tourists and students there each year.
Australian authorities felt there was a “very real prospect of damaging the economy” if it were to publicly accuse China over the attack, one of the people said.
UNHINDERED ACCESS
Australia in February revealed hackers had breached the network of the Australian national parliament. Morrison said at the time that the attack was “sophisticated” and probably carried out by a foreign government. He did not name any government suspected of being involved.
When the hack was discovered, Australian lawmakers and their staff were told by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate to urgently change their passwords, according to a parliamentary statement at the time.
The ASD investigation quickly established that the hackers had also accessed the networks of the ruling Liberal party, its coalition partner the rural-based Nationals, and the opposition Labor party, two of the sources said.
The Labor Party did not respond to a request for comment. One person close to the party said it was informed of the findings, without providing details.
The timing of the attack, three months ahead of Australia’s election, and coming after the cyber-attack on the U.S. Democratic Party ahead of the 2016 U.S. election, had raised concerns of election interference, but there was no indication that information gathered by the hackers was used in any way, one of the sources said.
Morrison and his Liberal-National coalition defied polls to narrowly win the May election, a result Morrison described as a “miracle”.
The attack on the political parties gave the perpetrators access to policy papers on topics such as tax and foreign policy, and private email correspondence between lawmakers, their staff and other citizens, two sources said.
Independent members of parliament and other political parties were not affected, one of those sources said.
Australian investigators found the attacker used code and techniques known to have been used by China in the past, according to the two sources.
Australian intelligence also determined that the country’s political parties were a target of Beijing spying, they added, without specifying any other incidents.
The people declined to specify how the attackers breached network security and said it was unclear when the attack had begun or how long the hackers had access to the networks.
The attackers used sophisticated techniques to try to conceal their access and their identity, one of the people said, without providing details.
The findings were also shared with at least two allies, the United States and the United Kingdom, said four people familiar with the investigation.
The UK sent a small team of cyber experts to Canberra to help investigate the attack, three of those people said.
The United States and the United Kingdom both declined to comment.
CHINA TIES
Australia has in recent years intensified efforts to address China’s growing influence in Australia, policies that have seen trade with China suffer.
For instance, in 2017, Canberra banned political donations from overseas and required lobbyists to register any links to foreign governments. A year later, the ASD led Australia’s risk assessment of new 5G technology, which prompted Canberra to effectively ban Chinese telecoms firm Huawei from its nascent 5G network.
While some U.S. officials and diplomats have welcomed such steps by Australia and praise the countries’ strong intelligence relationship, others have been frustrated by Australia’s reluctance to more publicly confront China, according to two U.S. diplomatic sources.
On a visit to Sydney last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered thinly veiled criticism of Australia’s approach after Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Canberra would make decisions toward China in based on “our national interest”.
Pompeo said countries could not separate trade and economic issues from national security.
“You can sell your soul for a pile of soybeans, or you can protect your people,” he told reporters at a joint appearance with Payne in Sydney.
Morrison’s office declined to comment on whether the United States had expressed any frustration at Australia for not publicly challenging China over the attack. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Colin Packham in SYDNEY; Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs and Guy Faulconbridge in LONDON, Christopher Bing in WASHINGTON and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Lincoln Feast and John Mair.
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

China Raises Reward for Informants in Tibet
2019-08-08
Chinese authorities in Tibet are offering large cash rewards to informants in a bid to stamp out online activities considered threatening to Beijing’s control over the restive Himalayan region, with amounts paid out now tripled over amounts offered last year, sources say.
Rewards of 300,000 yuan (U.S. $42,582) are now being promised for information leading to the arrests of social-media users deemed disloyal to China, according to a notice issued on Feb. 28 by three government departments of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
Behaviors specified as illegal include online activities aimed at “attempting to overthrow [China’s] socialist system,” “advocating extremism,” “destabilizing national security,” and “defaming the People’s Republic of China,” according to the document, a copy of which was obtained by RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Also banned are online expressions of support for exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way Policy,” which calls for greater autonomy for Tibet while acknowledging Beijing’s sovereignty over Tibetan areas now part of China.
Attempts to send information on conditions in Tibet to foreign contacts will also be severely punished, the document says.
Authorities in Tibetan areas of China frequently monitor online discussions and search cellphones for what they consider politically sensitive content, and foreign news broadcasts are heavily restricted.
‘No space left for anyone’
“Under these new regulations, the Chinese government is basically curbing the free flow of online information from within Tibet,” Tsering Tsomo, director of the Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), told RFA in an interview.
“And though [the authorities] have linked these regulations to the protection of cybersecurity and national security, in fact they are just another way to keep people uninformed and to bar them from expressing their views,” Tsomo said.
“Raising the amount of the reward to informants from 100,000 yuan in 2018 to 300,000 yuan this year is a threat to citizens who are simply exercising their freedom of expression,” Tsomo said.
Also speaking to RFA, Sonam Topgyal, a researcher at the Dharamsala-based Tibet Watch, said that similar restrictions on internet activities have already been in force in Tibetan areas of China “for a long time.”
“These laws have even been implemented in elementary schools in Tibet,” Topgyal said, adding, “The Chinese government has left no space for anyone to criticize the government in any way, and has deployed informants within different parts of the Tibetan community.”
China’s roll-out in February of the raised reward amount comes amid the launch of a separate Tibet-wide campaign against organized crime and “black and evil forces” that sources in the region say is being used as an excuse to crack down on Tibetans and has led to mistrust within local communities.
The campaign has resulted in the “detention, arrest, and torture of human rights and environmental activists and of ordinary Tibetans promoting the use of the Tibetan language,” TCHRD said in a report released in May.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibetan Monk Sentenced, Two Others Missing in Detention
2019-08-14
A Tibetan monk enrolled in Sichuan’s restive Kirti monastery has been sentenced to four years in prison, with his present whereabouts and the charges made against him still unknown, Tibetan sources in exile say.
Lobsang Thamke, age about 37, was sentenced on July 30 after being arrested last year, Kanyag Tsering—a monk living at Kirti’s branch monastery in Dharamsala, India—told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Wednesday.
“But other than that, no details are available regarding what he was charged with and where he is now imprisoned,” Tsering said, citing sources in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) county, a part of Tibet’s historical eastern region of Kham.
Thamke, a son of Lhade Gongme Lokho, had previously graduated from the Buddhist Youth School formerly attached to Ngaba’s Kirti monastery but later closed by Chinese authorities, added Lobsang Yeshi, also a monk at Kirti’s branch in India.
“They said they would not allow the school to operate as a part of Kirti, and they transferred it to the county’s jurisdiction. But after having a lot of difficulty it was finally closed at the end of 2002,” Yeshi said.
Missing in detention
Two other monks from Ngaba have meanwhile gone missing after being taken into custody by Chinese police, Tsering and Yeshi said.
Lobsang Dorje, age about 36 and also a monk at Kirti, was arrested sometime around August 2018, with his present whereabouts unknown. And Thubpa, 32, was taken by Chinese police at night from Ngaba’s Trotsik monastery sometime toward the end of 2017.
“His whereabouts are also unknown,” Tsering and Yeshi said.
Thubpa had previously been arrested for shouting political slogans and burning the Chinese flag during a period of widespread protests in 2008, and his father Kalsang was arrested and jailed for shouting slogans on March 16, 2011 against China’s rule in Tibetan areas, Tsering and Yeshi said.
Ngaba’s main town and nearby Kirti monastery have been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests in recent years by monks, former monks, and other Tibetans calling for Tibetan freedom and the return of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Owing to strict clampdowns on communications by authorities in Tibetan areas of China, news of protests and arrests is frequently delayed in reaching foreign news outlets and other outside contacts.
Reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Benpa Topgyal. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Jailed Tibetan Language Rights Advocate is Refused Visits From His Lawyers
2019-08-02
Jailed Tibetan language rights advocate Tashi Wangchuk was denied a visit from his lawyers this week, with Chinese prison officials saying Wangchuk is being punished for being “uncooperative” in prison, one of his lawyers said.
Wangchuk’s lawyers Liang Xiaojun and Lin Qilei were barred from Donchuan prison in northwestern China’s Qinghai province on Aug. 1 despite presenting “all relevant paperwork” needed to permit the visit, attorney Liang told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Friday.
“The prison officials accepted our documents and left the office, and then returned about 30 minutes later to say that what he had given them was not enough, and that we needed a letter from the Ministry of Justice in Beijing,” Liang said.
After reminding prison officials that the Justice Ministry had no mandate to authorize visits, the officials replied that “we would not be allowed to meet with Tashi Wangchuk in any case,” Liang said.
Liang and Lin then went to Qinghai’s Bureau of Prison Administration, where a junior official told them that Wangchuk had never accepted that he had committed a crime, and was uncooperative in prison.
“Given his attitude toward his sentence, you will not be allowed to meet with him,” the official told them, adding that because Wangchuk’s case was “sensitive,” his lawyers should act carefully or risk damage to their careers, Liang said.
“Tashi Wangchuk does not accept his guilty verdict and has told us again to file an appeal, so that’s why we came to see him,” Liang told RFA. “But without meeting him in person, we can’t accomplish many of the tasks required for the appeal.”
Third year behind bars
Wangchuk has now marked his third year behind bars after being convicted on a charge of separatism for promoting the use of his native language in Tibetan areas of China.
He was sentenced on Jan. 4, 2018 by a court in Qinghai’s Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture following a controversial trial in which the prosecution based its case on a video report by the New York Times documenting the activist’s work.
Wangchuk  was arrested on Jan. 27, 2016, two months after the Times ran its report, and was handed a five-year prison term on Jan. 4, 2018 by a court in Qinghai’s Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
His sentence of five years will include his time already spent in detention.
In the video, Wangchuk is seen traveling to Beijing to press his case for the wider use of the Tibetan language in Tibetan schools. Prosecutors used this as evidence at his trial, despite his repeated disavowals of separatism and his stated intention to use China’s own laws to protect the Tibetan language.
Writers, singers and artists promoting Tibetan national identity and culture have frequently been detained by Chinese authorities, with many handed long jail terms, following region-wide protests against Chinese rule that swept Tibetan areas of China in 2008.
Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.
Reported by Sonam Lhamo for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.

“As long as China is relevant, Tibet issue is relevant” : CTA President at Parul University, Vadodara
August 7, 2019
Published By Tenzin Choetso
Vadodara, Gujarat: President of Central Tibetan Administration Dr Lobsang Sangay as a part of the official tour to Gujarat visited Parul University in Vadodara, Gujarat. President Sangay was warmly escorted to the dais of the university auditorium.
The moderator of the event delivered a welcome speech and gave a brief bio-data of the President for the general audience and guests in the hall.
Dr Devanshu Patel, President of Parul University presented a book of Mahatma Gandhi who is an epitome of non-violence to the Sikyong as a token of welcome.
President Dr Lobsang Sangay addressed the Students, faculty members and guests gathered in the auditorium.
In his address, President expressed gratitude to the government and people of India for the love and kindness they have shown not only by hosting the Tibetans for the last 60 years but doing the most they could for the Tibetan freedom struggle. President Sangay called it a law of karma which has bounded India and Tibet over time and still persists to bound together. President Dr Lobsang Sangay reflected back to the 7th and 8th century when Tibetan scholars came to India and learned Sanskrit language and brought back Buddhism to Tibet.
President further noted that India has given birth to great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi who was a consequential advocate of non-violence and said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one great admirer and follower of the principles laid out by Mahatma Gandhi.
“We Tibetans also follow Non-violence (Ahimsa) as our path to seek our basic freedom,” said President Sangay while admitting the unique connection of spiritually, environmentally, historically and geographically between India and Tibet.
President asserted that though India is the guru and the Tibetans are its Chela (student) in this equation but for India, there is no better student like the Tibetans as they have successfully preserved the ancient knowledge of Buddhism.
As for the relationship concerning the environment, the President commented on the major river that flows down from Tibet into Asia and where India draws its major source of livelihood from these major rivers as Tibet is known as the third pole or water tower of Asia.
Speaking on the situation inside Tibet, President Sangay pointed out that Freedom House Index report lists Tibet as the second least free country in the world for three consecutive years after Syria.
He further spoke about monasteries and nunneries in Tibet that were destroyed in the 1950s and 60s by the Chinese Communists, Monks, and Nuns that were disrobed. At a time when Tibet was dealing with the depraved situation, the kind help of India came into Tibet’s rescue. Gradually, monasteries and nunneries were built brick by brick in India, Nepal, and Bhutan due to which Buddhism civilisation revived all through the Himalaya belt. President, therefore, expressed gratitude towards India for their generosity.
“Although China has destroyed and demolished monasteries in Tibet, Tibetans practices Buddhism in their private space and social space so Buddhism still remains strong in Tibet”, informed President Sangay.
President further proclaimed that just as India prevailed against the Britishers under the leadership of Gandhi, Tibet too shall prevail and succeed under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He then urged the support and cooperation of India.
President Sangay concluded by thanking and lauding the President of Parul University, Dr Devanshu Patel and his family for investing in education.
Followed by a series of questions from the audience. Dr Sangay answered all the questions enthusiastically.
In his answers, President talked about the importance of culture in the preservation of one’s identity. He further advocated the need for education of heart with modern education to become successful in one’s life.
President Sangay noted that education is the number one priority of the Central Tibetan Administration and asserted that education is the foundation of any nation. He further spoke about China’s policy in various countries which is leading to the same situation as what has happened to Tibetans.
“As long as China is relevant, Tibet is relevant,” said, President Sangay
Since India and Tibet are very much connected, President urged to work and grow together as a team.
Finally, Dr Devanshu Patel, President of Parul University delivered a vote of thanks and lauded Dr Sangay for being an exuberant leader and promised to help and extend help to Tibetan students or any other help that they can provide.
Dr Devanshu Patel felicitated President Dr Lobsang Sangay with Symbol of Peacock, National bird of India which signifies prosperity and divinity.
After the event, while addressing the local media of Vadodara, Dr. Sangay expressed his sadness and offered his condolences on the demise of former External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj Ji.
-Filed by Tenzin Seldon

Do business with China, but be careful — Tibetan President Lobsang Sangay advises India
August 8, 2019
By Nayanima Basu, Read the original article here.
Lobsang Sangay, President of the Tibetan government-in exile, says we are never against doing business with China or against having diplomatic relationship with it.
New Delhi: Lobsang Sangay, President of the Tibetan government-in exile, has said that India should be careful and study the “Tibetan blueprint” before doing business with China.
“Be careful. Study Tibet. Look at the blueprint of Tibet. How it all started. Then you started Australia. You start with trade and then it become politics and then it becomes security then it becomes social and it becomes academic and it becomes everything,” Sangay told ThePrint when asked about the ongoing talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) pact — an inter-sessional ministerial meeting among 16 countries to negotiate a mega free trade agreement.
Speaking at an event organised by the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents (IAFAC) in Delhi, Sangay said India should be able to create a “balance” and understand if it is bringing China into the international fold or “becoming more like” the latter.
According to Sangay, China has now completely taken over Australia in business and has good cultural ties with it too.
He, however, also added that they should do more trade and business with China.
“We are never against doing business with China. We are never against having diplomatic relationship with it. You must have a relationship with China. It cannot be isolated,” added Sangay.
His remarks come at a time when Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal avoided attending the last round of ministerial meeting of RCEP that took place in Beijing last week. Goyal, instead, had sent Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan for the meet.
While all member countries are keen to sign the proposed mega trade agreement by December this year, India has said it will not be able to continue the talks in its present form.
Indian industry and farming community has asked the government not to move ahead with the RCEP talks since it will open “floodgates for Chinese goods”.
The RCEP is a proposed mega free trade agreement (FTA) that is presently being negotiated between 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members — Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — and their six trading partners India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Selection of next Dalai Lama
On the issue of the recent controversy surrounding China’s claim that Beijing and not New Delhi will select a successor to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, Sangay only said, “It is Dalai Lama’s business how and in what form his reincarnation will happen.
“If the Communist Party of China decides on the next Dalai Lama, who will follow their own Dalai Lama? It is China’s plan to have two Dalai Lamas, like what they did with Panchen Lama.”
He also said that Tibet has already won the struggle “spiritually”, which it has been waging against China.
On the issue of conferring the Bharat Ratna to the Dalai Lama, Sangay said while the spiritual leader received several accolades around the world, he has never been given any award by India.
“This has been our wish. We will be happy if he gets it. We will also not have complaints if he is not conferred the award.”
Kashmir an internal matter
“As a guest of India, I will not comment on the internal matters of India,” Sangay said on the issue of scrapping Article 370 and proposing to turn Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh into Union Territories.
He added that Tibetans only want to achieve genuine autonomy within China peacefully through dialogues.

UK Lawmaker Proposes Bill For Reciprocal Access to Tibet
2019-07-24
A British lawmaker submitted a bill to the House of Commons this week that would bar entry to the UK for any Chinese officials found to block freedom of travel to Tibet by British citizens.
The bill submitted by Conservative Party MP Tim Loughton on Tuesday mirrors a similar bill now passed into law in the U.S., and requires that a report be made to Parliament each year, listing instances where British politicians, diplomats, and other travelers have been denied entry to Tibet.
“My Bill would emulate in the UK what the US has done,” Loughton, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet, said on a video clip posted on Facebook on Tuesday, citing concerns over what he called China’s “horrendous human rights abuses” in the Himalayan region.
“To say to China: You need to open up, we need to expose these human rights abuses. You need to treat Tibetans fairly around the world and within China itself, and if you don’t, don’t expect the people responsible for that to be able to come to the UK,” he said.
“It may seem like a remote issue, but it’s an important principle for human rights of minorities throughout the world,” Loughton said. “And the Tibetans have suffered for far too long.”
Details on when Loughton’s bill will come up for debate in the Parliament were not immediately available.
‘A positive move’
Speaking on Wednesday to RFA’s Tibetan Service, London-based Free Tibet campaign advocacy manager John Jones welcomed the submission of Loughton’s bill to the UK Parliament.
“We think it is a positive move. We were excited when the Reciprocal Access bill had success in the U.S., and we thought it was good for other countries to replicate that, to send a message to the Chinese government,” Jones said.
“If they are going to impose travel restrictions on people from the UK to Tibet, then those people imposing the restrictions need to be held accountable themselves.”
In a move pushing for greater U.S. access to Tibet, now largely closed by China to American diplomats and journalists, President Donald Trump on Dec. 20, 2018 signed into law a bill denying visas to Chinese officials responsible for blocking entry to the Beijing-ruled Himalayan region.
The Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 requires the U.S. Secretary of State to identify Chinese officials responsible for excluding U.S. citizens, including Americans of Tibetan ethnic origin, from China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and then ban them from entering the United States.
The law also requires the State Department to provide to the Congress each year a list of U.S. citizens blocked from entry to Tibet.
‘Wrong signals’
Meanwhile, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying slammed Trump’s signing of the bill into law, saying the new law sends “seriously wrong signals” of support to what she called forces working to separate Tibet from Chinese rule.
“If the United States implements this law, it will cause serious harm to China-U.S. relations and to the cooperation in important areas between the two countries,” she said.
A formerly independent nation, Tibet was taken over and incorporated into China by force nearly 70 years ago, following which Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled into exile in India.
Chinese authorities now maintain a tight grip on the region, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and peaceful expression of ethnic and religious identities, and subjecting Tibetans to persecution, torture, imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.
Reported by Guru Choegyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.

China’s white paper on national defense; a sugar-coated sabre
July 26, 2019
Published By Tenzin Saldon
by T. G. Arya*
Amidst the growing turmoil in Hong Kong Island and the surging voice for independence in Taiwan; the repression and cultural genocide in Tibet and Uighur, and the escalating US trade war, China has on 24th July, issued a white paper titled “China’s National Defense in the New Era”. Faithful commentaries and justifications followed immediately in their official mouthpiece, Xinhua News and the Global Times.
The fifty-one paged English translation of the white paper has some six chapters justifying the need for China to build a fortified national defense and a strong military. The purpose of the white paper, it says, “To expound on China’s defensive national defense policy and explain the practice, purposes, and significance of China’s efforts to build a fortified national defense and a strong military, with a view to helping the international community better understand China’s national defense.”
It says “Peace is a common aspiration of people around the world”. The white paper has many things about peace, cooperation and development to justify the activity of the Chinese military and the role of the People Liberation Army (PLA). Along with this, it has issued a stern warning to Taiwan and noted Tibet and Uighur as a national security risk. Hong Kong has been left out deliberately, the tacit immediate target.
It is a piece of welcome news that China has said that “it will never seek hegemony, expansion, and sphere of influence” in the white paper, how we all wish if this could be true. Unfortunately, given the factual and historical distortion that China has deliberately made in the white papers issued on Tibet in the past, China observers and the International community will not take this statement at its face value.
It talks about China not seeking hegemony, but what about the regions already under its illegal occupation, like Tibet. What about those 12 developing nations whose ports, media, economy and civil authority that China has taken over through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)’s debt trap. [“Chinese Malign Influence and the Corrosion of Democracy” International Republican Institute (IRI) 2019 Report]
The paper says, “No matter how it might develop, China will never threaten any other country or seek any sphere of influence.”
Chinese interference in Nepal to keep the Tibetans leashed, dumb, immobile and out of the country has crossed the limit of sphere of influence. The recent deportation of a Tibetan-American with a similar name with the former Speaker [PenpaTsering] of Tibetan Parliament in exile by Nepal immigration has demonstrated the extent of Chinese dictatorial authority in the civil administration of the land.
China will never threaten – Just recently, China threatened India by warning that it should stand by the dictates of communist China about the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama.
The white paper says, “Since its founding 70 years ago, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never started any war or conflict.”
Was Tibet not illegally occupied in the 1950s, and what caused the death of 1.2 million Tibetans and the flight of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibetans into exile? What about the unprovoked Chinese aggression against India in 1962, the so-called Sino-Indian war, and the numerous border intrusions that India has experienced, the most recent being the Doklam standoff in 2017.
Now, the important question is: what prompted the communist regime to issue a white paper on national defense at this time? If we analyse the fact surrounding the current situation, it betrays China’s plan to use military and its PLA army in containing civil unrest, Hong Kong people should be wary of it. While it warns Taiwan on its independence drive in a belligerent tone, Tibet and Uighur are just shown as a threat to China’s national security and social stability.
It has openly challenged and attacked the US for its unilateral policies. It criticised Trump administration for its increased activity based on the so-called freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea. But China should reflect what has caused this increased activity? Who initially disturbed the peace in this otherwise peaceful South and the East China Sea? What country in the regions is not in loggerheads with China?
What is dreadful about the white paper is how explicitly its purpose is explained in the Global Times, it said, “The white paper also for the first time defined that PLA’s missions and tasks are to provide strategic support to consolidate the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the socialist system, safeguard national sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, protect China’s overseas interests, and promote world peace and development.”
The above statement forebodes bad times ahead for those in odd with the communist regime. Tibet and Uighur, although totally under the military control, it warns further repression involving the PLA army is in the offing. There is already news of Uighur type of detention centers or gulags coming up in Tibet. The immediate target of the white paper in Hong Kong and Taiwan and China is indirectly seeking international approbation to the military action about to happen in the regions. It is a clear message from China to notify the international community that very soon it’s military and People Liberation Army (PLA) would be in the Hong Kong Street, and later in Taiwan.
* T.G. Arya is the Information Secretary of Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR), Central Tibetan Administration. Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own.

Climate emergency in Tibet
Michael Buckley
| 19th July 2019
Tibet Climate Action
The Tibetan Plateau, or ‘third pole’, is the forgotten part of the climate crisis conversation.
By some calculations, the planet has twelve years left. By other calculations, just seven years left. And according to Prince Charles, we have just eighteen months left. What’s at stake here is how long we have before climate crisis is irreversible.
England declared a Climate Emergency in 2019. Followed by Ireland. The Pope declared a Climate Emergency. Some 7,000 universities and colleges around the world have united to declare a Climate Emergency.
China and India have not indicated any leanings to join in, as both nations are sitting on economies that depend on copious numbers of coal-fired power-plants. Neither nation has any intention of weaning-off coal. Both nations mention vague figures like reducing coal consumption by 2030 – far too late.
Third pole
Lying between the world’s most populous nations, China and India, sits Tibet—an occupied region, under China’s iron-fisted rule since 1950. Tibet is the forgotten part of the climate crisis conversation.
There is a lot of press about Arctic melting and Antarctic melting, but precious little about meltdown at ‘the Third Pole’, meaning the Tibetan Plateau.
This vast region does what the other two poles cannot—it supplies a dozen nations downstream with freshwater. In fact, the rivers sourced in Tibet supply freshwater to over 1.5 billion people downstream–which represents a fifth of the entire global population.
That supply of water starts with dripping glaciers in Tibet. Which are melting twice as fast as originally thought, according to recent research that compares spy satellite mapping from the 1970s with satellite mapping from today.
Tibet sits on the largest area of permafrost outside of the Arctic and Antarctic–and that is rapidly thawing too, which could release large amounts of methane–a greenhouse gas that is 30 times more potent than CO2. Tibet’s vast swathes of grassland are highly effective carbon sinks–and these grasslands are under attack from rampant Chinese mining ventures–which have accelerated since the arrival of the train in Lhasa in 2006. This has led to encroaching desert taking over grasslands.
Melting glaciers
Why does this matter? In the short run, rapidly melting glaciers do not pose a threat, except from major flooding. In the long run, melting glaciers pose a threat that has never been seen before—never in thousands of years.
If the glaciers vanish, the rivers of Tibet will run dry, only fed by monsoon rainwater. And the dozens of China’s megadams on the rivers of Tibet will cease to operate. Billions will be without river water.
China and India have groundwater supplies, but these have been tapped to the point where precious little remains.
Some scientific surveys say that fifty percent of meltdown of Himalayan glaciers is caused by CO2 emissions, with China responsible for around thirty percent of the global total for emissions of this deadly greenhouse gas, and India responsible for around seven percent.
The other 50 percent of meltdown could be due to the rain of black soot on the Himalayas, from both sides—from the Chinese side and the Indian side.
Black Soot, aka Black Carbon, is not a greenhouse gas, it is a rain of minute particles from the burning of fossil fuels like coal, wood, and from sources like diesel engines. Minute black particles, the PM2.5 particles, are highly hazardous to human health because they can get into the lungs—and stay there. Deadly for humans–and deadly for glaciers.
Black soot
Glaciers are adversely affected by the same particles, whether PM2.5 or PM10 versions. Black soot lands on the glaciers and stays there—which then attracts the sun. The ice and snow of glaciers reflect the sun, but the black particles absorb the sun, leading to more rapid meltdown.
Black soot is a totally solvable issue. If the burning of fossil fuels in both China and India were to stop, black soot would disappear. Improved cookstoves, for instance, can greatly reduce the impact of billions of people in China and India using wood, charcoal and coal for cooking.
But neither China nor India has taken any substantial steps to even reduce the output of black carbon from coal-fired power plants—despite both nations making pledges at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
On this basis alone, it is time to declare a Climate Emergency in Tibet. China has never participated in any mass demonstrations targeting the Climate Crisis, such as those sweeping Europe via school strikes for global action and Extinction Rebellion.
India has participated in such protest, with a number of NGOs involved. But a lot more needs to be done to galvanize politicians and leaders into action to solve the issue of meltdown in Tibet.
Otherwise, the planet faces a stark choice: our very survival is at stake. Across Asia, disasters like flooding and cyclones are becoming more frequent, resulting in hundreds of thousands of climate refugees on the move.
What happens in Tibet is much more than an Asian problem: it will have major impact for the entire planet. We no longer have the luxury of procrastination: the time to act is now.
This Author
Michael Buckley is author of Meltdown in Tibet and the digital photobook Tibet, Disrupted. He has long researched environment issues in the Himalayan region.