Chinese Authorities Establish Racist Policy in Lhasa’s Hotels

By Shikha Gautam / May 16, 2014;

Tourists in Barkhor, Lhasa’s old town, Tibet.
photo: rfa/Nonstop

A new Chinese policy requires hotels in Lhasa to report their Tibetan guests to the police within fifteen minutes of their arrival. The policy applies particularly to Tibetan guests from “politically sensitive” areas, but makes no requirement for the reporting of Han Chinese guests.

The policy was made public when a copy of a police order distributed to Lhasa’s hotels was leaked and spread via Twitter in December 2013. An updated order allegedly dispatched by Chinese authorities at the Lhasa Old Town Command Center in October requires hotels to report in particular on guests from Nagchu Prefecture’s Sog, Driru, and Drachen Counties – areas that have seen increased protest and been subject to tough security crackdowns in recent years.

According to the police orders, Tibetan guests from areas tagged as “politically sensitive” are required to wait for the completion of investigations and for stay permission from local authorities. Any hotel that refuses to follow the orders is liable to have its staff members arrested. As a result of this policy, local Chinese authorities will be able to maintain a close watch on Tibetan guests in Lhasa.

A number of Western hotel companies operate in Lhasa, including the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), Wyndham Worldwide (Super 8), and Starwood (the St. Regis and Four Points Sheraton). Because the policy explicitly applies only to ethnic Tibetans, hotels in Lhasa risk participating not only in racial profiling but also in an abuse of Tibetan human rights.

Free Tibet’s Director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren’s comments on the Intercontinental Hotel in Lhasa articulate the moral dilemma that Lhasa hotels now face: “[The] Intercontinental will either have to comply with a racist policy directly implicating the company in the abuse of Tibetans’ human rights, or it will have to defy the Chinese authorities in Tibet, putting its employees in Lhasa at risk of arrest. Every hotel in Lhasa must address this very serious issue.”

International protests and appeals by supporters of Tibet have resulted in no response from the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) or other hotels in the region.