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

Chinese authorities increase pressure on foreign correspondents

  [FCCC] International journalists working in China complain that the Beijing authorities are making life difficult for them, sometimes making it impossible for them to do their work. Visas are being delayed or denied. Reporters are finding it increasingly difficult to conduct interviews because people who speak to them suffer from police read more →

US calls on China to release Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xia, pictured in 2012, has been under virtual house arrest since 2010. Her husband Liu Xiaobo was jailed in 2009. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP By Tania Branigan [The Guardian] Secretary of state John Kerry says Nobel prize winner should be freed and his wife released from house arrest The read more →

THE MEANING OF CHINA’S CRACKDOWN ON THE FOREIGN PRESS

By Evan Osnos [The New Yorker] The Chinese government is threatening to expel nearly two dozen foreign correspondents, working for the Times and Bloomberg News, in retaliation for investigations that exposed the private wealth of Chinese leaders. It is the Chinese government’s most dramatic attempt to insulate itself from scrutiny in the thirty-five years since China read more →

Biden decries China squeeze on US media

By Anthony Zurcher [BBC] China is putting the squeeze on the New York Times and Bloomberg News, and it could have severe consequences for press freedom. The nation has blocked internet access to the two organisations’ websites, denied access to key events, such as the recent meeting between British Prime read more →

Ngaba area completely cut off from Internet access

Behind China’s Cyber Curtain: Visiting the country’s far reaches, where the government shut down the Internet BY CHRISTOPHER BEAM The New Republic December 5, 2013 On the bus ride from Chengdu, the teeming capital of Sichuan Province, to Aba County in northern Sichuan, my cell phone signal flickered in and read more →

Human Rights Watch: Bishop must pressure the Chinese on human rights

  UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon listens as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop speaks during a Security Council meeting/AP file photo [Human Rights Watch] If Australia wants a healthy trade relationship it needs to go beyond ‘quiet diplomacy’. When Julie Bishop visits China for the first time as Australia’s Foreign Minister, will read more →

Dalai Lama sorry he missed meeting Mandela in 2011

By Vishal Gulati Dharamsala, Dec 6 (IANS) Two years ago, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama called off a trip to South Africa as it was “inconvenient” for that country’s government to grant him a visa and missed a chance to meet Nelson Mandela again. After cancelling his trip in October read more →

No one can feel secure in China: Top US official

(Times of India/PTI | Dec 5, 2013) WASHINGTON: A top Obama administration official has said that no one can feel secure in China as the country impose strict restrictions on the fundamental rights of its people. “The Chinese people are facing increasing restrictions, on their freedoms of expression, assembly and read more →

Hack Tibet: Welcome to Dharamsala, ground zero in China’s cyberwar

By Jonathan Kaiman [Foreign Policy] DHARAMSALA, India — Lobsang Gyatso Sither sits at the front of a Tibetan school auditorium, the bright rectangle of his PowerPoint presentation dimly illuminating the first few rows of students before him. “Never open attachments unless you are expecting them,” Sither says. The students nod. read more →

Chinese Functionary Rules Out Tibet Autonomy, Criticizes ‘Divisive Nature’ of Dalai Lama ‘Clique’

[Zurich Neue Zuercher Zeitung (Electronic Edition) in German 04 Nov 13] [Article by Beat U. Wieser on interview with Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the Subcommittee of Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, at Bern’s Bellevue Palace Hotel] Talking with Chinese functionaries is often like banging your head read more →

China needs to change view of Tibet

By Abanti Bhattacharya  [Asia Times Online] The source of the problem in India-China relations is not Tibet. The problem is rooted essentially in how China perceives Tibet. China’s flawed perception on Tibet both colors and distorts its relationship with India. For India, the intractable border dispute is the primary issue read more →

Tibet’s quiet militarization rings a loud bell across Asia

Chinese paramilitary police march during a flag raising ceremony near Potala Palace in Lhasa, capital of Tibet/AP Photo. OMER AZIZThe Globe and Mail (Canada) Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013  For the past two years, the Asia-Pacific region has been central to both the Obama administration and the Harper government’s Asia strategies. The read more →

Tibetan texts in gold, silver ink discovered

[The Times of India]   By Pranava K Chaudhary   PATNA: Rare Tibetan text written in gold and silver ink on black, thick handmade paper was discovered by the experts of Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, while cataloguing and classifying Tibetan texts kept here at the Bihar Research Society (BRS) a few days back. These Tibetan texts read more →

Desperation in Tibet

2011 file photo released by Boxun website shows lay Tibetans being forcibly taken away by Chinese police in a Tibetan area incorporated into China’s Sichuan Province [The New York Times] By THE EDITORIAL BOARD Published: November 29, 2013 On Nov. 11, Tsering Gyal, a 20-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, set himself on read more →

Tuberculosis Award Gets Caught In Politics

By Betsy McKay  (Wall Street Journal) Nov. 26, 2013 There are few prizes or awards in the field of tuberculosis treatment, where doctors can spend years trying to cure patients, only to watch many die. Tsetan Sadutshang appeared to be one of the chosen few when he was told in read more →