Meeting the new Chinese President
By Tenzin Younten / April 18, 2013
China and the exile Tibetan government have held a number of dialogues to address the issue of Tibet but have so far produced no concrete results. The last talk was held in January 2010. Now in 2013, with constant hope of change made even greater with the change in Chinese leadership, read more →
Chinese Media Censorship: the Facts
By Sune Petersen / April 18, 2013
Chinese journalists and editors have long been the subject of severe censorship by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But one particular incident in January sparked nation-wide protests against the government’s practice of blatantly suppressing freedom of speech: the rewriting and replacing of a politically charged New Year editorial of the Southern read more →
Mining Disaster in Tibet – Natural or Man Made?
By Palden Choeden / April 17, 2013
On March 29, Chinese state media reported that 83 miners, including two Tibetans, were buried under a massive landslide at Gyama, 68 kilometers from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. On April 4, it was reported that 66 bodies had been found, with 17 people reported missing, believed dead. The tragic read more →
Extinction of the Black Tent
By Dave Wood / April 16, 2013
Among the popular global portrayals of Tibetans, it is probably the image of a nomadic yak herdsman standing amongst his livestock beside traditional black tents which is most resonant. It is estimated that twenty five percent of Tibetans are nomads, relying on livestock and the land to thrive in some read more →
Giving in to Chinese pressure? – the question of welcoming the Dalai Lama
By Sune Petersen / April 15, 2013
When deciding whether to officially meet the Dalai Lama or not, world leaders often face a tough dilemma. On the one hand, the spiritual head of the Tibetan people enjoys massive popular support, and meeting him can be beneficial for domestic endorsement while rejecting him can cause resentment. However, the read more →
‘Constructing Reality’ – the Tibetan landslide and Chinese media censorship
By Sune Petersen / April 12, 2013
Chinese media censorship is hardly a new, or a surprising aspect of the hard-line domestic policies of the Chinese Communist Party. For years, the government has, mainly through the Central Propaganda Department (CPD), controlled what stories the various state-owned news agencies could report to the public. However, growing discontent with read more →
China’s long arm of oppression: Nepal turns its back on Tibetan Exiles (updated)
By Contact Staff / March 31, 2013
THE past few weeks have seen serious crackdowns on the basic freedoms of Tibetans in Nepal. These seem to indicate a worrying trend of Kathmandu distancing itself from the exile community in order to appease its powerful neighbour. In a classic case of cheque-book diplomacy, Beijing has upped its investment read more →
Statements from around the World
By Contact Staff / March 31, 2013
UK: Baroness Warsi Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office “[…] I have real concern about the tragic cases of self-immolation. Tragically, those who die do so at great loss to their communities and families, but those who survive end up read more →
Another month of injustice in Tibet
By Contact Staff / March 31, 2013
As March passes, there is no sign of any lessening of the civil unrest within Chinese-occupied Tibet as this month has seen a number of arrests. March is considered a sensitive period by the Chinese government, due to both National Uprising Day on March 10, and March 14, which marks read more →
Uyghur leader gives Chinese diplomats a history lesson
By Jenny James / March 31, 2013
Heated debates arose during a Human Rights in China meeting organised in Geneva by the UN. The meeting was attended by Chinese diplomats as well as representatives of the occupied territories of East Turkestan, Inner Mongolia and Tibet who gave examples of oppression, persecution and human rights violations under Chinese read more →