Genetics journal retracts 17 papers from China due to human rights concerns

A genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher has retracted 17 papers from China, in what is thought to be the biggest mass retraction of academic research due to concerns about human rights. The articles were published in Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine (MGGM), a genetics journal published by the US academic publishing company Wiley. The papers were retracted on 12 February after an agreement between the journal’s editor in chief, Suzanne Hart, and the publishing company. In a review process that took over two years, investigators found “inconsistencies” between…

Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles

Thousands of Tibetans around the world have been subjected to spying, blackmail and threats against family members still living in Tibet, according to a new report. The Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet continue to be documented, but the new report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is the first to investigate the widespread targeting of exiles in countries including the US, India, France, Australia and Canada, researchers say. China increasingly aims to stifle debate or criticism from Tibetans, Hongkongers and Uyghurs outside its borders in…

Thermo Fisher stops sale of DNA kits in Tibet after activists raised fears of rights abuses

The US biotech company Thermo Fisher has halted sales of its DNA identification kits in Tibet, nearly five years after it made a similar commitment about the sale of its products in the neighbouring western Chinese region of Xinjiang. It decided to stop sales in Tibet after months of complaints from rights groups and investors that the technology may be used in a way that abuses human rights. The company said that the decision was made in the middle of 2023, but it was only revealed to investors late last…

Tibet’s government-in-exile urges Australia not to ‘compromise’ on China’s human rights record

Australia must not compromise on human rights as it improves its relationship with China because “the truth must be told”, a minister from the Tibetan government in exile has said during a visit to Canberra. Norzin Dolma, a minister of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala in India, met Australian MPs from across the political spectrum on Thursday to warn against a “quiet diplomacy” approach to “gross human rights abuses” and “brutal suppression” in Tibet. She also urged the Australian government to use its new Magnitsky-style sanctions laws to…

Here’s What to Know About Tensions Over Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism has long been led by the Dalai Lama, the 88-year-old spiritual leader who fled Tibet in 1959 and has been living in exile in India ever since. Beijing considers the Dalai Lama a separatist and asserts that only the ruling Communist Party — an avowed atheist organization — can name his next incarnation and those of other high lamas. By seeking to control the religion’s leadership, China hopes it can all but erase the Dalai Lama’s influence in Tibet and any challenges to the party’s rule. As the…

China wants to erase Tibet. Will Britain stay quiet about this crime? | Simon Tisdall

Last week’s US sanctioning of Chinese officials involved in Beijing’s ongoing criminal efforts to erase Tibet as a separate political, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious entity showed America at its best. Few other governments give a hoot. Most cravenly look the other way. Citing a recent UN report on the “forced assimilation” of one million Tibetan children ordered into Mandarin-language state boarding schools far from their homes and families, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, demanded China stop trying to eradicate Tibet’s distinct identity. “We urge PRC [People’s Republic…

China officials hit by US sanctions over ‘forced assimilation’ of children in Tibet

The United States will impose visa sanctions on Chinese officials pursuing “forced assimilation” of children in Tibet, where UN experts say one million children have been separated from their families. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US would restrict visas to Chinese officials behind the policy of state boarding schools, in the latest in a series of US moves on Beijing that comes despite a resumption of high-level dialogue. “These coercive policies seek to eliminate Tibet’s distinct linguistic, cultural and religious traditions among younger generations of Tibetans,” Blinken said…

Satellite data sheds light on China’s detention facilities in Tibet

There has been a pattern of increased activity in recent years at high-security detention facilities in Tibet, according to a new study measuring night-time lighting usage, suggesting a potential rise in harsher imprisonments by Chinese authorities. The report, by the Rand Europe research institute, said the findings added rare new clues about the Chinese government’s “stability maintenance” policies of control in the highly securitised Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), which it described as an “information black hole”. “Using overhead satellite imagery analysis and night-time lighting data, this study sought to add…

An Exiled Publisher Creates a ‘Brotherhood Across Tibetans’

In the winter of 1982, Bhuchung Sonam left his home in Central Tibet. For five days, he trekked with his father across the Himalayas to the Nepali border. Only around 11 years old then, he knew little about what they were fleeing — China’s decades-long colonization of his homeland — and why. He also didn’t realize that he would never again see his homeland, his mother or his six siblings. After arriving in Nepal, Sonam and his father made a pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in neighboring India, the home of the…

President of Tibet’s government-in-exile: region is seeking autonomy not independence – video

Penpa Tsering, the president of the Tibetan government-in-exile, has told Australia’s National Press Club the region is seeking autonomy, not independence from China. ‘So one polarity is the status of Tibet, historical status as an independent state, and the other polarity is the present state of Tibet under the government of the PRC [People’s Republic of China],’ he said. ‘We are trying to seek a solution of an autonomous arrangement whereby Tibetans would have the freedom to practise its language, protect its environment, you know, and preserve its culture and…