China has closed Tibet to foreign tourists ahead of next month’s highly sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, tour agencies and other industry people said on Tuesday.
“Authorities asked tour agents to stop organizing foreigners coming to Tibet for tour trips until April 1,” said an employee at a state-run travel agency in Lhasa who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.
A hotel in the Tibetan capital and three travel agencies in Chengdu that normally organize trips into Tibet confirmed the ban for foreigners during next month.
PHOTO: AP
Chinese authorities have reportedly increased security in Tibet ahead of March 10, which marks the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama fleeing his homeland.
The Dalai Lama called this week on Tibetans to skip festivities surrounding the Tibetan New Year, which began yesterday, saying they would be inappropriate after the Chinese government’s heavy-handed crackdown on the protests. Tibetans across the region say they are still in mourning.
Only a handful of pilgrims gathered in Xiahe last weekend at the historic Labrang monastery, normally bustling before the New Year.
“There was a war in Lhasa this year. Lots of Tibetans were killed,” one resident murmured, referring to the protests last March and government crackdown.
“There is no New Year festival for us,” the woman said.
The Dalai Lama also denounced Chinese-backed celebration plans as “provocations.”
The Chinese government has said that 22 people died in last year’s protests to commemorate the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, but Tibetan rights advocates say many more were killed and that monks, nuns and villagers were beaten, fined or jailed.
State media have said that 76 people were sentenced and more than 950 detained.
“This has not been a good year for the Tibetan people,” said a sun-wrinkled woman in the town of Zhuoni in Gansu Province. “No mass gatherings are allowed, people have been caught, things have been very strained.”
Last week, a Communist Party official in Tibet warned Buddhist clergy against political activity ahead of this year’s anniversary.
The Dalai Lama’s message on Tuesday called on Tibetans to skip this year’s festivities and instead dedicate good deeds to victims of the uprising.
“Since [Tibetans] faced immense difficulties and sufferings, the occasion of this New Year is certainly not a period when we can have the usual celebrations and gaiety,” he said.
State TV has shown footage of dancers in bright, traditional Tibetan garb performing under clear skies as the audience — with monks in the front row — applauded.
Women paraded with trays of dumplings and fruit as red lanterns with the Chinese character for “prosperity” bobbed in the breeze.
“The atmosphere welcoming the new year is deepening,” a Chinese state TV anchor said earlier this week. “Everyone is praising their happy lives.”
A posting on government-run ChinaTibetNews.com described how leaders of the local armed police visited monks at Drepung monastery in Lhasa “to celebrate the holiday with them.”
“High-profile celebration of the New Year is part of this strategy to show to the Tibetans, Chinese and the world that everything is normal in China’s Tibet,” said Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at London’s Westminster University.
“Contrary to what the Chinese government has been saying, Tibetans in many parts of China remain restive,” he said.
Last week, Tibetan rights groups said, a Buddhist monk shouted slogans outside a market in Lithang, Sichuan province, calling on people to boycott the festivities and praising the Dalai Lama.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
RSS