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.

News From Other Sites

China looks to squeeze Tibetan Buddhism even further

UCA News, 27 September 2017 While extremism and separatism are fears that the Chinese government often stokes in the country’s west and the Muslim-minority Xinjiang province, the State Council has passed new laws to tighten restrictions on the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. … Continued

Foreigners banned from travelling to Tibet

By Deutsche Welle. Read Original story here. Foreigner travel permits will not be issued in October, when the Communist Party will hold a high-level congress that only takes place once every five years. Foreigners as well as residents of Hong … Continued

China disrupts WhatsApp ahead of Communist Party meeting

BBC – 26 September 2017 The messaging service WhatsApp has been disrupted in China as the government steps up security ahead of a Communist Party meeting next month.   Users have faced problems with the app for more than a … Continued

Chen Quanguo: The Strongman Behind Beijing’s Securitization Strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang

Publication: China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 12 By Adrian Zenz, James Leibold – September 21, 2017 Age: 3 days Over the last year, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Party Secretary Chen Quanguo (陈全国) has dramatically increased the police presence in … Continued

Why Are People Fighting for the Rahul Collection at Patna Museum?

Throughout history, Bihar has been the epicentre of Buddhist teaching. The Rahul Collection commemorates this heritage. By Indian Cultural Forum, the Wire. Read original story here. The Rahul Collection, housed for the last 80 years in Patna Museum, has been in … Continued

Chinese influence is more than just ‘soft power’ and we need to call it out

By Nick Mckenzie, Sydney Morning Herald – 23 September 2017 On a warm Sunday summer evening a few years ago, two officials from the Chinese consulate in Sydney travelled to Melbourne to send a message. They were interested in a … Continued

China’s security boss planning to use AI to stop crime before it even happens

By Caroline Mortimer, The Independent – 22 September 2017 Meng Jianzhu says data analysis can predict patterns which could stop terror attacks of social unrest before they happen  China’s top security officer has revealed plans to use artificial intelligence to predict crime, … Continued

Africa prefers India’s non-interfering development model over China

By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury – Economic Times – 23 September 2017 NEW DELHI: India‘s non-prescriptive and non-interfering development partnership model is fast finding favour in resource-rich Africa, where China‘s push, ostensibly for capacity building, is receiving bad press for being … Continued

Thousands of huge, aggressive dogs are roaming Tibet after their rich Chinese owners abandoned them

  The Quartz. Read original story here, Tibet is full of unwanted dogs. Areas of the Tibetan plateau have become flooded with giant, fluffy unwanted Tibetan mastiffs, once the most sought after dogs in China, after a collapse in the … Continued

Ai Weiwei attacks latest Chinese crackdown on free speech and sees little hope Communist Party Congress will bring changes

South China Morning Post. Read original story here, Exiled dissident artist paints gloomy picture in speech at opening of Swiss exhibition and warns authorities still do not trust their own people Ai Weiwei denounced China’s crackdown on lawyers and free … Continued

Xi demands ‘strong hands’ to maintain stability ahead of Communist Party congress

South China Morning Post – 20 September 2017 President Xi Jinping’s comments come as government prepares for five-yearly meeting in Beijing next month that will oversee changes in country’s leadership Stability is an absolute principle that needs to be dealt … Continued

China’s realpolitik is losing its sheen

By Bhopinder Singh – Asian Age – 20 September 2017 This no-holds-barred approach of China won it immediate gratification in terms of low-hanging fruits in an increasingly polarised world. China is the ace practitioner of realpolitik, wherein sovereign emotions and morality invested in … Continued

China is retaliating against a US university for inviting the Dalai Lama to speak at graduation

By Josh Horowitz, Quartz.com Beijing has a lesson for overseas universities: Don’t invite speakers who oppose the Communist Party to big events. A branch of the Chinese government has barred Chinese scholars from receiving state funding to study at the … Continued

China opens dual-use highway to Nepal via Tibet

PTI, The Economic Times, Read original story here  BEIJING: China has opened a strategic highway in Tibet to the Nepal border which could be used for civilian and defence purposes, a move that Chinese experts say will enable Beijing to … Continued

What the World’s Emptiest International Airport Says About China’s Influence

By Brook Larmer – The New York Times 13 September 2017 The four-lane highway leading out of the Sri Lankan town of Hambantota gets so little traffic that it sometimes attracts more wild elephants than automobiles. The pachyderms are intelligent … Continued