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…
Tag: Tibet
China Says U.S. Flew Balloons Over Xinjiang and Tibet
China accused the United States on Wednesday of flying high-altitude balloons over the western Chinese regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, pointing the finger at Washington amid growing scrutiny over Beijing’s global surveillance efforts. China’s claim comes two days after it first accused the United States of illegally flying balloons in its airspace, saying American airships had flown over China more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022. The United States denied the claim. In another apparent tit-for-tat move, China said it would “take countermeasures” against “relevant American entities” in…
Can a Police Officer Accused of Spying for China Ever Clear His Name?
Now that he is no longer accused of being a secret agent for China, Baimadajie Angwang can start asking hard questions. The hardest: How could he — a naturalized U.S. citizen, New York City police officer and Marine Corps veteran — have been jailed for months over what he says were misunderstood phone calls and classified evidence that not even his lawyer could see in full? When federal authorities arrested Officer Angwang in September 2020, they accused him of reporting on other Tibetans to a handler at the Chinese consulate…
US Asks to Drop Case Accusing NYPD Officer of Spying for China
He came to the United States at 17 on a cultural exchange visa and later applied for, and was granted, political asylum, court filings show. He joined the Marines in 2009, spent seven months in Afghanistan, became a U.S. citizen in 2010, was honorably discharged in 2014 and then enlisted in the Army reserves, court records show. In 2016, Officer Angwang joined the Police Department, where he was a patrol officer and, at the time of his arrest in September 2020, a community affairs officer with the 111th Precinct in…
‘At the Breaking Point’: Tibetans, Under Lockdown, Make Rare Cries for Help
BEIJING — Infected patients quarantined alongside those who tested negative. No food for hours, despite repeated requests. Lines of buses, loaded with people, waiting late into the night to drop them off at makeshift isolation centers. These are the scenes described by residents of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, who have been locked down for one month as officials try to contain a coronavirus outbreak. Lockdowns, including of entire cities, have become almost commonplace in China, which remains bent on eliminating the coronavirus even as the rest of the world…
China’s Covid Lockdowns Strand Tourists
A few days into a two-week tour through the island province of Hainan — known as the Hawaii of China — Nicole Chan received a message from local authorities that no traveler in the country wants to see in the pandemic. On Aug. 3, a day after officials reported 11 cases of Covid-19 in Sanya, a city of more than one million in Hainan, Ms. Chan was identified by the authorities as at risk because she had been in the area that day. She was told to quarantine right away…
Tibet builds makeshift Covid hospitals amid China’s latest outbreak
Authorities in Tibet are building massive Covid isolation and care facilities in anticipation of further outbreaks in China even though the remote territory has reported only one case during the pandemic. Temporary hospitals – a key feature of China’s Covid response – with at least 1,000 beds each are being built in Lhasa and Shigatse by the Chinese firm Jiangsu Qi’an Construction Group. The firm said it had been tasked with building the hospitals in late March and given “less than half a month” to complete them. More than 400…
‘We are so divided now’: how China controls thought and speech beyond its borders – podcast
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China pushes adoption of language, cultural symbols in Tibet
BEIJING (AP) — A top Chinese official said Thursday that “all-round efforts” are needed to ensure Tibetans speak standard spoken and written Chinese and share the “cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation.” Wang Yang made the remarks before a handpicked audience in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the home of Tibet’s traditional Buddhist leaders, at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of the vast Himalayan region. China’s ruling Communist Party says it “peacefully liberated” Tibetan peasants from an oppressive theocracy and restored…