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.

China catalyzes the consolidation of the ‘Quad’

March 20, 2021

Brahma Chellaney Japan Times 18 March 2021 The “Quad,” as its recent virtual summit underscored, has come a long way in cementing a strategic coalition of the leading democracies of the Indo-Pacific region. Comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States, it has gradually sharpened its edges since 2019 in read more →

China’s Panchen Lama: ‘Anti-China Forces’ Hype Tibet For Political Gain

March 20, 2021

Reported by Lobsang Gelek for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney. Tibet’s Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama in a speech this month slammed what he called foreign interference in Tibetan affairs, saying that “anti-China forces” care nothing for the Tibetan people and only raise issues read more →

Bolstered by allies, Biden officials take blunt message to first China talks

March 19, 2021

Michael Martina, Yew Lun Tian, Humeyra Pamuk Reuters 17 March 2021 WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States will take an uncompromising stance in talks with China on Thursday in Alaska, officials have said, in the first face-to-face meetings between senior officials from the two rivals since U.S. President Joe Biden took office. read more →

Why is Britain standing up to China

March 19, 2021

WION 16 March 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged that China will pose a “great challenge” for the UK as he set out the findings of a major review of foreign policy. Addressing the British parliament, Johnson said that the UK has “led the international community in expressing our read more →

EU agrees China sanctions over Uighur crackdown

March 19, 2021

Economic Times 17 March 2021 EU member states have agreed to impose sanctions on four Chinese officials and one state-owned entity over Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur minority, European diplomats said Wednesday. Ambassadors from the 27 countries gave the green light for the measures as part of a package of read more →

US sanctions 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials

March 18, 2021

Washington Post 17 March 2021 HONG KONG — The U.S. sanctioned an additional 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, including a decision to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system. The sanctions announced Tuesday in Washington were introduced under the Hong read more →

Democracies Should Help Liberate Tibet – For All Humanity

March 18, 2021

Tsering Samphel for Taiwan Times. Sixty years ago, on March10, 1959, in Lhasa, the holy city, in the capital city of Tibet, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans formed a massive barricade around Norbulingka, the summer palace of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama to safeguard him and their country from falling read more →

Quad summit | Small cliques will destroy international order, says China

March 18, 2021

Ananth Krishnan | The Hindu | 15 March 2021  In a strong reaction to Friday’s first leaders’ summit of the Quad — India, the United States, Japan and Australia — and the upcoming visits this week of the U.S. Secretary of Defence to Japan, South Korea and India, China’s Foreign Ministry hit out read more →

‘Tibet Hill’ Proposed For Site Near New Chinese Embassy in London

March 18, 2021

Reported and translated by Tashi Wangchuk for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney. March 16, 2021. Diplomats working at a Chinese Embassy to be built in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London’s East End should be reminded each day of their government’s treatment of Tibetans and read more →

Encrypted messaging app Signal blocked in China

March 18, 2021

Washington Post | 16 March 2021 HONG KONG — Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been blocked in mainland China, the latest foreign social media service to cease working in a country where the government tightly controls the flow of information. As of Tuesday, users of the app within read more →