Contact is taking a holiday!

Contact is taking a break after 25 years of bringing you news of Tibet and Tibetan issues. We are celebrating our 25 years by bringing you the story of Contact and the people who have made it happen, and our archive is still there for you to access at any time, and below you can read the story of Contact, how it came into being and the wonderful reflections of the people who have made it happen over the years.

When and how Contact will re-emerge and evolve will be determined by those who become involved.

Budapest rejects Chinese university building site plans

May 21, 2021

By Vlagyiszlav Makszimov Euroactiv 18 May 2021 Budapest’s green mayor Gergely Karácsony, who recently announced his run for the prime ministerial post in the opposition primaries, has rejected the construction of the Fudan university on its planned site after talks with Innovation and Technology Minister László Palkovics on Monday. “We particularly read more →

China Cuts Hours for Tibetan Buddhists at Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple to Half That of Tourists

May 21, 2021

Radio Free Asia 18 May 2021 Chinese authorities in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa have sharply cut visiting hours to just three and a half hours for Buddhist devotees at the city’s Jokhang temple, while leaving the temple complex and major pilgrimage site open twice as long for tourists, according to read more →

Groups urge Beijing to offer details on Panchen Lama

May 20, 2021

By Chen Yu-fu and William Hetherington Taipei Times 19 May 2021 The Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan on Monday called on Beijing to provide details on the 11th Panchen Lama, who was kidnapped by the Chinese government 26 years ago. The 11th Panchen Lama, born Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, read more →

Human rights activists urge athletes to boycott Beijing Games

May 20, 2021

Reuters 19 May 2021 Human rights activists on Tuesday called for athletes to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in China and put pressure on the International Olympic Committee over the staging of the Games. Beijing is set to host the Olympics in February 2022, but the IOC has faced criticism read more →

Starting as a child, this Tibetan woman was forced to face 22 years of Chinese oppression

May 19, 2021

Thérèse Obrecht Hodler Scroll.in 18 May 2021 One day the Chinese occupying forces announced: “Children are allowed to work!” It was no longer a matter of collecting firewood or cow dung, but of proper work organised by the Chinese authorities. Tendöl was assigned to the Jokhang, the most sacred temple read more →

Censorship, Surveillance and Profits: A Hard Bargain for Apple in China

May 19, 2021

By Jack Nicas, Raymond Zhong and Daisuke Wakabayashi NY Times 17 May 2021 GUIYANG, China — On the outskirts of this city in a poor, mountainous province in southwestern China, men in hard hats recently put the finishing touches on a white building a quarter-mile long with few windows and a tall surrounding wall. read more →

Only an international effort can put an end to China’s crimes in Xinjiang

May 18, 2021

Jewher Ilham and Sophie Richardson for The Guardian China’s president, Xi Jinping, declared back in 2014 in a series of speeches delivered in private to officials that he intended to crack down harshly in Xinjiang, the north-western region of China where about 13 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims make up read more →

Why China’s Communist Party is inseparable from the state

May 18, 2021

Josephine Ma South China Mornin Post 17 May 2021 “Government, the military, society and schools, north, south, east and west – the party leads them all.” This was a line written into the Communist Party of China’s charter in 2017, reflecting President Xi Jinping’s philosophy that the party should lead read more →

Penpa Tsering to be next President of Tibetan government in exile; asks China to learn Buddhism

May 18, 2021

Sidhant Sibal WION 14 May 2021 Penpa Tsering will be the next President of the Tibetan govt in Exile (or Sikyong of Central Tibetan Administration) based out of Dharamshala. In his first comments after election victory to any media outlet, Penpa, speaking to WION diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal said he read more →

INTERVIEW | Tibet Seeks Japan, U.S. Help as China Continues Persecution

May 15, 2021

By Takao Harakawa, Sankei Shimbun Japan Forward 13 May 2021 A senior official at a Japan-based organization that represents Tibet’s government-in-exile has told the Sankei Shimbun about the harsh reality of China’s crackdown in Tibet. Arya Tsewang Gyalpo of the Liaison Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Japan & read more →