Tibet Solidarity Network

BEIJING, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Envoys of the Dalai Lama fly to Beijing on Thursday for closed-door, fence-mending talks, two sources with knowledge of the meeting said, days after he expressed dismay at China's attitude about Tibet's future.

The talks, the eighth round since 2002 and the first after Beijing hosted the Olympics in August, come amid growing concern about the Dalai Lama's health and the diminishing possibility of a meaningful settlement.

The exiled Nobel Peace Prize laureate, revered by Buddhists in Tibet and elsewhere, has said he wants a high level of autonomy for Tibet, but not outright independence. China considers him a trouble-making separatist.
30/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

Chinese authorities are to arrange fresh talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama "in the near future", the Chinese state news agency Xinhua has said.

The agency quoted an unnamed government official as saying the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet should "treasure this opportunity" and respond positively.

Last weekend, the Dalai Lama said he was losing hope that dialogue with China would achieve any settlement.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Anti-China protests that erupted in March in Tibet - the worst in two decades - were crushed by Chinese security forces.

In the aftermath, China promised fresh talks over the disputed territory, but the Dalai Lama recently suggested such gestures were insincere.
29/October/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will arrange new talks with Dalai Lama's envoys in the near future, state media said on Wednesday, days after the exiled Tibetan leader said he was downcast about negotiations with Beijing.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who fled to India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, has said he wants a high level of autonomy for Tibet, but not outright independence. China brands him a separatist.

"Relevant departments of the Central Authorities of China will arrange another round of contacts and negotiation with private representatives of the Dalai Lama in the near future at the request of the Dalai Lama side," the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief English-language story.
29/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that Tibetans have long been pursuing a path to find a solution to the issue of Tibet that would be mutually acceptable to Tibetans and Chinese. This has received widespread appreciation from the international community, governments included. More importantly, it has gained the support of many Chinese intellectuals.

His Holiness went on to say that, unfortunately, the Chinese leadership has so far not responded positively to our overtures and does not seem interested in addressing the issue in a realistic way. Beginning in March this year, a series of protests and demonstrations erupted in Lhasa and in many other traditional Tibetan areas. These were clearly a spontaneous expression of the Tibetan people’s deep-seated resentment and dissatisfaction over more than five decades of repressive Chinese communist rule.

... Therefore, on 11 September His Holiness called a special meeting of Tibetans from all parts of our community in exile to engage in wide-ranging discussions with the aim of identifying realistic and non-violent options for the future course of our struggle. His Holiness concluded that when all is said and done it is for the Tibetan people themselves to decide about their collective future.
28/October/2008 Copyright © The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. All rights reserved

DHARAMSHALA — The Dalai Lama has opened the door to a tougher China policy following a complete lack of progress in talks on Tibetan autonomy with Beijing, aides and exiled Tibetan leaders said Monday.

The future course of the Tibetan movement, including the possibility of a historic switch from demanding autonomy to a demand for full independence, will be the focus of a special meeting next month of around 300 delegates representing the worldwide exiled Tibetan community.

"The only non-negotiable aspect is that the movement will still be non-violent. Everyone is agreed on that," the Dalai Lama's spokesman Tenzin Taklha told AFP.

In his first public address since undergoing surgery for gallstones, the Dalai Lama said at the weekend that he had given up on extracting any concessions from Beijing after seven rounds of talks between Tibetan envoys and Chinese officials.

"He's lost hope in trying to reach a solution with the present Chinese leadership which is simply not willing to address the issues," Taklha said.
27/October/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

Why are we asking this now?

Over the weekend, his Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists and the man who has been at the centre of efforts to highlight the Tibetan cause for decades, explained that he "had given up" his struggle. "I have been sincerely pursuing the middle-way approach in dealing with China for a long time now, but there hasn't been any positive response from the Chinese side," the 73-year-old told an audience at Dharamsala, the Indian Himalayan town that is the headquarters of the so-called Tibetan government-in-exile. "As far as I'm concerned, I have given up."

Does that mean the Dalai Lama is retiring?

Karma Choephel, the speaker of the parliament in-exile, told reporters that the Dalai Lama used to say that he was semi-retired and that now he believed he was was almost completely retired. However, a senior aide to the Nobel laureate last night dismissed speculation that he would start taking a back seat in Tibet's affairs. "Because of the lack of response from the Chinese we have to be realistic. There is no hope," said Tenzin Taklha. "His holiness does not want to become a hindrance to the Tibetan issue, and therefore has sent a letter to the parliament regarding what options he has."

Is there a possibility that he may continue his work?

Talk of retirement may be a little misleading. Last year, Tenzin Gyatso, who is the 14th Dalai Lama, made clear that he wished to reduce some of his political duties and have the elected Tibetan parliament-in-exile take a more active role. However, when a crisis broke out this spring – as the Chinese authorities cracked down aggressively on a number of uprisings across Tibet – the Dalai Lama placed himself at the centre of efforts urging restraint from both sides. He even offered to personally travel to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese leadership over the issue. One position from which he cannot retire is his role as a living god. Having been anointed the 14th Dalai Lama when he was just two years old, he will retain that position until death.

How have the Chinese authorities responded to the Dalai Lama?

In short, pretty badly. Either directly or else via their proxies, Beijing has routinely dismissed and demonised the Tibetan spiritual leader and his supporters. In the spring, during the worst crisis in Tibet for two decades, the head of Tibet's hardline Communist Party, Zhang Qingli, said of the Nobel laureate: "The Dalai is a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast. We are now engaged in a fierce blood-and-fire battle with the Dalai clique, a life-and-death battle between us and the enemy." At the time, the Dalai Lama insisted that the uprisings that broke out across the Tibetan plateau had not been orchestrated or organised from Dharamsala. He urged a peaceful solution to the problem.

This weekend the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told his followers he had lost hope of reaching agreement with China about the future of his homeland. The BBC's Asia analyst Jill McGivering assesses what this means.

For decades, the Dalai Lama's approach to China has been cheerfully patient and optimistic.

So the announcement he is giving up attempts to persuade China to grant greater autonomy to Tibet will come as a shock to many.

He has expressed frustration before - and threatened to go into political retirement. But the key question now is what implications this announcement will have.

Will it lead, for example, to a hardening of position by the Tibetan government-in-exile, if the Dalai Lama's middle ground of modest autonomy within China is abandoned?

And does it also mean that the Dalai Lama wants to extract himself personally from the political fray? That too is unclear.
27/October/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

NEW DELHI, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama has lost hope of reaching an agreement with Beijing over Tibetan autonomy under Chinese rule, but is not going into retirement, a senior aide said on Sunday.

"Because of lack of response from Chinese we have to be realistic, there is no hope", Tenzin Taklha told Reuters.

"His holiness does not want to become a hindrance to the Tibetan issue, and therefore has sent a letter to the parliament regarding what options he has".

The Tibetan spiritual leader has called for a special meeting of Tibetan exiles in the second week of November to discuss the future of the Tibetan movement.
26/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - A rare condition still haunts the poorest villagers on the Tibetan plateau but improvements in nutrition and grain handling could help eradicate it, the head of a Belgian group fighting Kashin-Beck disease said on Tuesday.

The poorest farmers tend to be most susceptible to the disease, which causes painful swelling in joints and retards limb growth, resulting in dwarfism in the most severe cases.

China's Ministry of Health estimates about 2 million people have it, out of the 30 million who live in areas where it is endemic.
21/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

China has extended some of the rules that gave foreign reporters greater freedom during the Beijing Olympics. The BBC asked a range of reporters in China what difference the rules have made to their working lives.

"It was mainly a psychological difference, we had been widely flouting the rules before, leaving Beijing to report in the provinces without seeking advance approval as was officially required.

"So when the new regulations were introduced, we were still travelling just as much but without the fear of the knock on the door by the police, without the need to change from hotel to hotel to remain under the radar screen.

"But we were still frequently encountering local officials who either didn't know or said they didn't know about the new Olympic regulations or were determined to ignore them.

... I've encountered the same kind of difficulties as before the regulations. A few days ago, I was out in the western region of Xinjiang, and was detained for several hours by local police.

"There are key parts in the country that remain very difficult to get into, and the most obvious one is Tibet. Tibet wasn't mentioned specifically in the Olympic regulations, in theory they apply to the whole of China, but orally Chinese officials said Tibet remained excluded and we still had to seek permission."
17/October/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

SHANGHAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Western Mining Co (601168.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), China's seventh-largest copper miner, said on Wednesday it will launch trial production on Friday at a smelter at its Yulong copper mine, the country's largest copper deposit in Tibet.

The plant will produce at most 2,000 tonnes of refined copper by the end of the year if the trial run is successful, according to a company statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

By 2010, the plant is expected to have production capacity of 20,000 tonnes, the company said.
15/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - China closed schools in Tibet's capital for safety reasons on Tuesday, the day after a huge earthquake killed at least nine and a teenager died in a crush of evacuating high school students.

Most victims of the 6.6 magnitude Tibet earthquake were women, children and the elderly, because it struck in the afternoon when men were out cutting and storing hay, the official Xinhua agency said quoting a farmer from the worst-hit village.
7/October/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

Two quakes which struck the Himalayan region of Tibet have killed at least 30 people, Chinese state media report.

The earthquakes struck about 16km (10 miles) and 15 minutes apart in a sparsely populated area about 84km (50 miles) west of Tibet's capital, Lhasa.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude of the first quake was 6.6 and that of the second - 5.1.

Many houses collapsed near the epicentre in Damxung county, China's Xinhua news agency says.
6/October/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police in the restive mountainous region of Tibet beat up to 50 monks who had tried to complain about the beating of one of their colleagues, a rights group said.

Four of the monks had to be hospitalised, the Free Tibet Campaign said in an emailed statement of an incident which happened earlier this week at the Kirti monastery, citing an unnamed source.

"The monk had left the monastery earlier that day, having obtained the relevant permission from the monastery authorities. As the monk returned to the monastery a short time before dark, he was stopped by Chinese armed police," the group said.

"According to the source, the returning monk was beaten so badly by the armed police that he was bleeding when he managed to return to the monastery."

When other monks went to the police station to demand an explanation, they too were beaten up, the statement added.
26/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, not the Dalai Lama, is the real guardian of Tibet's culture, the government said on Thursday, rejecting criticism that its rule in the restive mountain region amounts to cultural annihilation.

Beijing laid out its case in a "white paper" issued on Thursday, amassing statistics about literacy, education and religion to argue that Tibet has enjoyed a cultural revival since the Chinese Communist Party took control from 1950.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has said China may be perpetrating "cultural genocide" in his homeland, is the real source of cultural destruction, the paper says.
25/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

DHARAMSALA, India, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The Tibetan government-in-exile said on Sunday it would make a final decision on whether to continue dialogue with China to ease tension in Tibet after their next encounter ends in October.

"I think the talks may go on, but these talks will only be about talks. They (China) will not really give us anything, concede anything," Karma Chophel, speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said in Dharamsala, a north Indian town where the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is based.

The proposed eighth round of talks on easing tension in Tibet had been scheduled for October, officials said.
14/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama has called a special meeting of Tibetan exiles in November or December to discuss political unrest in Tibet this year and the future of the Tibetan movement, officials said on Friday.

Karma Chophel, speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told Reuters that officials would meet on Monday to discuss the details of the special session ordered by their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

The special meeting, the opening session of which would be addressed by the Dalai Lama, would be attended by Tibetan leaders, intellectuals and non-government organisations chosen by the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
12/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist-led government will deport Tibetan exiles living illegally in the country, an official said on Thursday, a move likely aimed at stopping regular protests against its influential neighbour China.

More than 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal. Thousands fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
11/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama's brother, a Buddhist monk-turned-CIA translator who helped train Tibetan resistance fighters in a guerrilla war against Chinese rule, has died at his U.S. home. He was 86.

The death of Taktser Rinpoche marked more than the passing of a major figure from the heyday of the Tibetan independence movement because it comes amid growing concern about the Dalai Lama's health, and the diminishing possibility of any negotiated settlement of the Tibet issue.

"His death is likely to add a much-needed sense of urgency and seriousness to the dialogue process between China and the exiles," said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at Columbia University in New York.
6/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese aluminium and copper giant Aluminum Corp of China, or Chinalco, has set up a unit to explore for minerals in Tibet, the company said on its website.

The unit will engage in exploration, metals smelting and sales, Chinalco said.

"Chinalco Tibet Mining Ltd was established under the blue skies and white clouds of Lhasa," Chinalco, parent of listed Chalco (601600.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) said in the announcement posted on www.chalco.com.cn.
4/September/2008 Copyright © Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved

The Dalai Lama has been discharged from the hospital in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) where he was admitted with stomach pains last Thursday.

He is in good condition but has been advised to rest, a spokesman said.

The 73-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader has cancelled all his international trips, saying he is suffering from exhaustion.

... "He is feeling good and he will be resting for the next few days," his aide Chhime Chhoekyapa was quoted by news agency Reuters as saying.
1/September/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Dharamsala, August 29: There is absolutely “no cause for concern” over His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s health, and that he will join in the 12-hour fasting and prayers for peace and freedom from Mumbai, according to a latest statement from his office.

After undergoing “some medical tests” since arriving in Mumbai yesterday afternoon, His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in a "stable" condition and there is absolutely "no cause for concern" over his health now.

Doctors looking after him at the Lilavati hospital, where the Tibetan leader is being admitted, have, however, advised he needed “good rest".
29/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

Kathmandu, 28 August - Today over 120 Tibetan protesters were arrested on Hattisar road, close to the Consulate of the 'People's' Republic of China. Most of the protesters arrived in a hired bus, pulling out swathes of Tibetan flags as they walked towards the Consulate. However, the Nepalese police were already waiting. The protesters, joined by others who were waiting in the area threw paper signs with slogans such as 'Free Tibet', 'Tibet is not part of China' and 'Allow free press in Tibet' into the air, whilst others brandished TCHRD posters with pictures of victims of China's bloody crackdown in Tibet. Some protesters staged a die in, symbolic of the suffering of their brethren in Tibet. The protesters chanted various slogans including 'Hu Jintao, liar, liar!' and 'UNO wake up, wake up!' whilst UN 'observers' stood by. The protesters demands were that Hu Jintao meets the Dalai Lama face to face to resolve the ongoing Tibet issue, and guarantee the safety and freedoms of Tibetans in all of 'historic' Tibet- Amdo, Kham and Ü-Tsang.
28/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

A British Free Tibet protester held by the Chinese authorities for three days without charge today said she was "elated" to be back in the country.

Mother-of-two Amanda 'Mandie' McKeown, 41, from Bristol, was arrested in Beijing on Thursday for taking photographs of three protesters as they unfurled a Free Tibet banner.

... She said: "We were arrested and taken to a university for questioning. We were held for nearly 24-hours without any sleep and having interrogation of up to about eight hours. Then we were moved to a detention centre and before we were allowed any sleep we had another 12 hours of interrogation."
25/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

BEIJING - The United States says it is disappointed the Olympics has not brought more "openness and tolerance" in China and pressed for the immediate release of eight American protesters as the games ended.

The New York-based group Students for a Free Tibet said the eight Americans were deported during the Olympics closing ceremony but there was no immediate confirmation from US or Chinese officials.
25/August/2008 Copyright © APN Holdings NZ Limited. All rights reserved

The BBC television series that this book accompanies has caused a fair amount of controversy in print and online in Britain. On a number of blogs, pro-Tibetan independence campaigners and pro-Chinese writers have used the five-part documentary as a starting point for arguments around the big questions of Tibetan autonomy and Chinese oppression. Those on the side of the Tibetans accuse the programme makers and the BBC of failing to address the subjugation of Tibetans by China. There has been a lot of anger about the programme's treatment of the Panchen Lama, a high-level Tibetan spiritual leader - second only to the Dalai Lama - who, many Tibetans believe, is a Chinese proxy for the Dalai Lama's own choice, a six-year-old child who disappeared with his family in 1995.
25/August/2008 Copyright © APN Holdings NZ Limited. All rights reserved

A British mother-of-two faces a 10-day detention in China after taking part in a Free Tibet demonstration.

Mandy McKeown, 41, from Bristol, was arrested in Beijing on Thursday and will be deported on 31 August.

Mrs McKeown was detained along with two Americans and a German following the protest which took place near the site of the Olympic Games.
23/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Gordon Brown today urged China's leaders to continue with the greater press freedoms opened up for the Beijing Olympics after the Games are over.

At a meeting with President Hu Jintao, the Prime Minister said that it would be in China's own interest to make the easing of restrictions on journalists permanent.

Mr Brown arrived in Beijing for the final days of the Games, including the formal handover to London for the 2012 Olympics at the closing ceremony on Sunday.
22/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy took another big step towards her goal of becoming France’s Jackie Kennedy yesterday when she braved pouring rain and the scorn of her husband’s critics to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader at a fairy-tale Buddhist temple on a hill in Languedoc. The former supermodel accepted the long white shawl of welcome from the Dalai Lama and posed for the cameras with pride.

The supermodel-turned-pop star-turned-first lady followed a procession of chanting and trumpet-playing monks around the temple before slipping off her sandals and stepping inside to watch the Tibetan spiritual leader prostrate himself before a giant golden statue of the Buddha. Her husband Nicolas sent his greetings, she told the Dalai Lama, but could not make it in person.
22/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

ON BOARD FLIGHT TO BEIJING - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged China on Wednesday to make more progress on human rights, saying the issue needed to be addressed not only during the Olympic Games.

Brown, who will attend the Olympics closing ceremony, said he would raise the matter with China's leaders when he meets them in Beijing.

"I firmly believe that allowing China's citizens to enjoy freedom of expression and association; to worship how and where they wish; and to live in confidence that the rule of law will be applied consistently and impartially is not only the right thing to do but will also benefit China's future stability and prosperity, which is in all our interests," he wrote.
21/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

BEIJING, AUgust 21 - Two elderly Chinese women who applied to hold a protest during the Olympics were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday. Police later squelched a pro-Tibet demonstration.

The women were still at home three days after being officially notified they would have to serve a yearlong term of reeducation through labor, but were under surveillance by a government-backed neighborhood group, said Li Xuehui, the son of one of the women.

Li said no cause was given for the order to imprison his 79-year-old mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77.

"Wang Xiuying is almost blind and disabled. What sort of re-education through labor can she serve?" Li said in a telephone interview. "But they can also be taken away at any time."
21/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

Beijing, August 20 - Beijing's foreign ministry on Wednesday sharply criticized plans by French government ministers to meet with the Dalai Lama. Ministry spokesman Qin Gang demanded more "consideration" for the Sino-French bilateral ties.

"We hope the French side respects China's concerns and will deal carefully with the important and sensitive issues," Quin said in Beijing.

French Human Rights Minister Rama Yade announced plans to meet with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who is currently on a 12-day visit to France, on Friday.
20/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

Access to Apple's online iTunes Store has been blocked in China after it emerged that Olympic athletes have been downloading and possibly listening to a pro-Tibetan music album in a subtle act of protest against China's rule over the province.

The album, called 'Songs for Tibet', was produced by an a group called The Art of Peace Foundation, and features 20 tracks from well-known singers and songwriters including Sting, Moby, Suzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette.
20/August/2008 Copyright © Phayul. All rights reserved

Beijing – Five pro-Tibet activists unfurled a banner spelling out “Free Tibet” in English and Chinese in bright blue LED “throwie” lights in Beijing’s Olympic Park tonight. The five were detained by security personnel after displaying the banner for about 20 seconds at 11:48 pm August 19th. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

Read all of the official press release here.
20/August/2008 Copyright © Free Tibet 2008. All rights reserved

The local authorities promised a commitment to "free expression" (away from the venues) during the Games, and it's good to see the hard data on how they're faring. The Chinese government said last month that anyone wanting to stage a legal protest could simply make a request five days in advance, give details of the protest and provide basic details of the participants. Three parks were earmarked for demos.

Figures just released show that 77 applications have been lodged to stage protests during the Games so far, involving 149 people, some of them foreign. As Mo Yuchuan, the director of the Research Centre for Constitutional and Administrative Law of Renmin University, says: "It offers a new channel for the protesters to better express their opinions by attracting the attention of tourists, reporters and officials during the Games."
20/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

BEIJING — In their latest confrontation with pro-Tibetan protesters during the Olympics, Chinese authorities arrested five Americans on Tuesday after they spelled out “Free Tibet” with blue L.E.D. lights near the National Stadium. Three other people, including a New York artist who fashions giant displays with lasers on buildings, were detained for a separate protest.

Since Aug. 8, members of the organization have staged seven protests involving 37 people. All of those who were detained were promptly deported.

On Tuesday, five protesters hoisted a banner near the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, around 11 p.m. and projected their message in Chinese and English using blue lights. The display lasted just 20 seconds before the police intervened, organizers said. The arrested protesters were Amy Johnson, 33, Sam Corbin, 24, Liza Smith, 31, Jacob Blumenfeld, 26, and Lauren Valle, 21.
19/August/2008 Copyright © The New York Times Company. All rights reserved

China has vigorously defended itself against accusations that it has not fulfilled promises it made when it bid for the Olympic Games.

Top Beijing Olympic official Wang Wei said the Olympics would allow China to open up further to the outside world.

He was responding to criticism about China's pledges on issues such as human rights and media freedom.

International Olympic officials have voiced disapproval over the detention of a UK journalist covering a protest.
15/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

A British man has been held by police in China after unfurling a pro-Tibet banner on a building in Beijing.

Philip Kirk, 24, of St Albans, Herts, and Australian-Canadian Nicole Rycroft, 41, scaled the Central Television building to make their protest.

The pair, from the group Students for a Free Tibet, and three other supporting protesters were detained on Friday.
15/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Chinese police knock-ed a British journalist to the ground and dragged him away from a pro-Tibet protest yesterday, in an incident that is sure to reopen the debate about interference with media freedom at the Beijing Olympics.

Police hauled John Ray, ITN's China correspondent, from a park less than a mile from the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium to a nearby restaurant, where they threw his shoes in the corner and sat on his arms, shortly after foreign protesters unfurled a pro-Tibet banner. The reporter said after his release: "I wonder how this fits in with their solemn promise of free and unrestricted reporting... it was a wrestling match.
14/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

WELLINGTON mother Kate MacIntyre spoke out on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics reminding people there is another side to the glory that China is presenting.

“I’m not against the Olympics, but feel that giving them to China has diluted the reality around the human rights abuses that exist and condones what is happening in Tibet,” said Ms MacIntyre who, with her son, attended the vigil organised by the Tibet Solidarity Network.

The event at Civic Square was one of thousands around the world aimed at keeping Tibet on the agenda as the Olympics began.
12/August/2008 Copyright © NewsWire.co.nz. All rights reserved

The exiled spiritual Tibetan leader will spend most of the duration of the Olympics in France.

Plans to meet President Nicolas Sarkozy were dropped, though the Dalai Lama will meet lawmakers on Wednesday.

Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of stirring up unrest in Tibet and warned Mr Sarkozy of "serious consequences" if he met him.
12/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Last week we suggested that billeting a number of British journalists in the Hotel Tibet was a mischievous move by the Chinese. Seems it might have been rather more sinister. Apparently the hotel is owned by the puppet regime in Tibet, who receive the profits. Copies of the propaganda-packed house magazine 'China's Tibet', which condemns the "politically disrupting influence of demonstrations" during the Torch Run ascent of Mount Everest and terms the Dalai Lama "a hypocrite whose principle of peace is bogus" are in every room. What was that about not politicising the Games?
10/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

Ladakh, 7 August: The Tibetan Freedom Torch that started from Olympia, Greece, has finally reached its final leg. It reached Leh-Ladakh this morning. The torch received blessings from Tsona Rinpoche from Tawang in Delhi on the 6 August before leaving for Ladakh. Upon reaching Ladakh this early morning, the torch has been taken straight to Spituk Monastery where it was welcomed and blessed by Rha Rinpoche, Jangtse Choejhe, who will be the next Gaden Tripa, the highest post of the Gelukpa sects of Tibetan Buddhism. He hails from Ladakh.
For detail log on to: www.TibetanFreedomTorch.org
8/August/2008 Copyright © International Tibet Support Network. All rights reserved

So America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists. We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labour rights not to antagonise China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its potential. We press for openness and justice not to impose our beliefs, but to allow the Chinese people to express theirs. As Chinese scientist Xu Liangying has said: "Human nature is universal and needs to pursue freedom and equality."
USA President George W Bush
8/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

Two British activists arrested in Beijing earlier this week for hanging pro-Tibet banners outside the Olympic stadium have returned home to a hero's welcome.

Lucy Fairbrother, 23, and Iain Thom, 24, both campaigners with Students for a Free Tibet, were cheered and garlanded with traditional Tibetan silk scarves as they walked through the arrivals hall at London City Airport following more than 12 hours in Chinese custody.
8/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

An anti-China protester set himself on fire outside the Chinese Embassy in the Turkish capital and demonstrators raised the Tibetan flag today in defiance in London in protests worldwide timed to coincide with the start of the Beijing Olympics.

In Ankara, a demonstrator suffered second-degree burns after setting himself on fire during a rally by several hundred ethnic Uighurs, officials said. He was identified as a 35-year-old from Turkey's local Uighur community, an ethnic minority in China seeking independence or greater autonomy.

In Katmandu, Nepal's capital, thousands of Tibetan exiles demonstrated at the Chinese Embassy, shouting, "China, thief: Leave our country. Stop killing in Tibet."
8/August/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

A reader wrote in to say he had heard that Microsoft was not letting people choose usernames with the word “Tibet” in them when signing up for its online services. This turns out to be true, technically speaking. If you try to select such a name you get an error message.

This problem tripped up the Australian author of a book on Tibet, who declared the whole thing “a bit suss.”

Big American tech companies have given us plenty of reasons to be cynical about how far they will go to keep China’s leaders happy and keep their fingers in the Chinese market. And China’s leaders would prefer that everyone just not mention those unruly Tibetans, especially with the Olympics on the way. But would the Chinese regime really feel threatened by the creation of, say, ILoveTibet@hotmail.com? And even if it did, would Microsoft really agree to help perpetuate that insecurity?
7/August/2008 Copyright © The New York Times Company. All rights reserved

Hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested in Nepal's capital during a protest against Chinese policy on the eve of the opening of the Olympics in Beijing.

Around 2,000 Tibetans, including monks and nuns, gathered in Kathmandu to highlight what they said was religious repression in Tibet.
7/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Four people have been arrested after a man scaled Tower Bridge in a protest about Tibet.

James Murray, who belongs to Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), climbed suspension cables reaching a height of 100ft above the River Thames.

He unfurled Tibetan national flags and a 37 sq ft banner declaring the message "Free Tibet", before coming down.
6/August/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Sweeping new measures introduced in Kardze to purge monasteries of monks and restrict religious practice in the wake of protests across the plateau reveal a systematic new attack on Tibetan Buddhism that is reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution. The new measures, which will apply to hundreds of monasteries, strike at the heart of Tibetan religious identity at a time of unprecedented tension on the plateau and are likely to create further resentment among the Tibetan people.

According to the new measures, specified in an official document from Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province (the Tibetan area of Kham):

• Monks who express dissent or refuse to 'conform' can be expelled and their residence demolished
• Tulkus (reincarnate lamas) could be 'stripped of the right to hold the incarnation lineage' if they communicate with foreigners or engage in protests against the Chinese authorities - a measure that is consistent with an earlier ruling that all reincarnate lamas must have the approval of the Chinese government
• Buddhist practice will be suspended in monasteries where a specific percentage of monks have engaged in protest or dissent
• Senior religious teachers could face public 'rectification' or imprisonment if they are shown to have even 'tolerated' peaceful protest activity

Candle for Tibet, the biggest single action in the world for a free Tibet, --Scheduled to begin on eve of Olympics opening ceremony-- Is now officially supported by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the Dalai Lama acknowledged today the importance of the Candle for Tibet (CFT) campaign for Freedom in Tibet and for all mankind.
"We hope your Candle for Tibet campaign will inspire the Chinese authorities to appreciate the value of freedom of all mankind and the importance of the Tibetan Buddhist culture that is benefiting millions of people and has the potential to serve humanity as a whole, including the Chinese people," said Tsering Tashi representative of HH the Dalai Lama.
The CFT action, called "The Greatest Light Protest on Earth," will start on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 9:00 p.m., when at least 100 million people all over the world are expected to light a candle in public, with friends, or at their homes.
29/July/2008 Copyright © Candle for Tibet. All rights reserved

Ten days before the Olympics, China has sent a delegation to New Zealand to put its view on the crackdown in Tibet that prompted global protests and threatened to disrupt preparations for the Games.
The visit by three "Tibetologists" coincides with reports from Beijing that the Chinese Government is planning a purge of Tibetan monasteries, aiming at monks accused of inciting subversion in protests and by flying Tibetan flags.
The Beijing officials arrived in Wellington yesterday and are scheduled to meet MPs, Foreign Affairs Ministry officials and academics today.
...
Green MP Keith Locke, who has agreed to meet the delegation, said the buildup to the Olympics had brought a worsening of human rights in Tibet. He planned to express his concern at the persecution of Tibetans who wanted to control their affairs in what was supposed to be a semi-autonomous territory.
29/July/2008 Copyright © Fairfax New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved

Entertainers from outside China who have attended events that "threaten national sovereignty" will be banned from the country, its government says.
Any artists who "whip up ethnic hatred" during performances would also be banned, the ministry of culture said.
The announcement comes after Bjork shouted "Tibet, Tibet" at a Shanghai concert in March.
Talk of Tibetan independence is considered taboo in China, which has ruled the territory since 1951.
17/July/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

After months of media speculation about whether President Bush would skip the splashy opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics to signal his dissatisfaction over China's human rights, the White House announced earlier this month that the President would indeed attend China's coming-out party on August 8. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda quickly followed suit, as did most European leaders — including Nicolas Sarkozy (current holder of the rotating European Union presidency) despite months of pleas from activists that he stay away to protest China's crackdown in Tibet, and its close ties with the regimes of Sudan and Zimbabwe.
... Sure, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have both claimed that they would have boycotted the ceremony if they were in the White House, but empty China-bashing has long been a bipartisan staple on the U.S. presidential campaign trail.
16/July/2008 Copyright © Time Inc. All rights reserved

A campaign group in Australia is offering Olympics athletes and supporters a protest kit to highlight their concerns over Tibet.

The pack includes a T-shirt bearing the words "I support human rights" in English and Chinese, badges, stickers and temporary tattoos of Tibet's flag.

The T-shirt slogan was specially chosen to avoid making explicit reference to Tibet and contravening Olympic rules.
14/July/2008 Copyright © BBC. All rights reserved

Internal Communist party documents have revealed that China is planning a programme of harsh political repression in Tibet despite a public show of moderation to win over world opinion before the Olympic Games next month.
A campaign of “re-education” has been outlined in confidential speeches to meetings of Communist party members by Zhang Qingli, the hardline party secretary of Tibet.
13/July/2008 Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved

More than 1,000 Buddhist monks are still locked up under armed guard in monasteries around Lhasa, four months after anti-Chinese riots, while the authorities implement their harshest crackdown on religion in decades.
Eyewitnesses confirm that People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops have sealed off Drepung, the largest monastery in Tibet. Nobody may go in or out. Photography is banned and passers-by are shooed away.
13/July/2008 Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved

If a coach or athlete makes a “T” sign with their hands at the Olympic Games in Bejing next month, it will probably indicate their support for Tibet rather than a request for a refreshing cuppa at the finish line. With four weeks to go until the start of the first Olympics to be held in China, human rights activists are calling on competitors and spectators to show their concern for the situation in the Himalayan region by forming a “T for Tibet” with both hands.
11/July/2008 Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved

After a botched response to bloody riots in Tibet in March, the Chinese authorities have ruthlessly restored order. But anti-Chinese resentment is deep-seated
As Beijing prepares to host the Olympic games in August, the authorities are trying, unconvincingly, to reassure the world that calm has returned to Tibet and ethnic-Tibetan parts of neighbouring provinces, such as Qinghai, to which Rongwo belongs, and much of which is considered by Tibetans part of their historical territory.
10/July/2008 Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved

Wellington's mayor has assured pro-Tibet campaigners she will tackle Chinese leaders over human rights when she travels to sister-city Beijing for the Olympics later this year.
... Ms Prendergast now says she's aware many Wellingtonians are concerned about human rights issues in Tibet and wants to hear what they have to say.
26/June/2008 Copyright © The Wellingtonian. All rights reserved

The absolutism of China's stance has stifled debate; but Tibetan culture produces its own leadership
Dibyesh Anand argues that there are two related parts to the Tibetan problem, one political, the other imaginative. The first has arisen from the “forceful interpretation of Sino-Tibetan relations in the language of nation states and sovereignty”. This is the language of the Westphalian international order, a set of European concepts exported to the East with European imperialism and sustained by the continuing Eurocentrism of international relations discourse. In response to a century of aggressive Western encroachment, China under Mao finally succeeded in making the tortuous leap from an imperial order to an unambiguously sovereign nation on the Western model. Whereas in the past China’s subjects were considered before territory – power extended over people more than over land – and the imperial centre exercised a loose and often only nominal overlordship over the political elites of its peripheries (Tibet being the loosest and most inaccessible of such peripheries), in the modern zero-sum nation state paradigm, boundaries became of primary importance.
26/June/2008 Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved

China reopened Tibet to foreign tourists yesterday, declaring the Himalayan region stable and safe as it lifted a ban imposed after a crackdown on anti-Chinese unrest three months ago.
The reopening of Tibet appeared to be designed to restore a level of normality to the region less than seven weeks before tens of thousands of foreigners arrive in China for the Olympics. But it will also bring relief to the local tourist industry — a mainstay of Tibet’s economy — which has lost millions of pounds since Chinese and foreign tourists were ordered out on May 15.
26/June/2008 Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved

Chinese Olympic pride reached new peaks yesterday as mountaineers held the Olympic flame aloft on the summit of Everest, the most spectacular moment yet in a global torch relay dogged by Tibetan independence protests.
There were ecstatic reactions in Beijing, which will host the Olympic Games in August, as the group of climbers celebrated China's first major Olympic victory at 29,030ft atop the mountain the Chinese call Qomolangma. The sight of the flame reaching the summit is the first piece of good news for the organisers of the Olympics for weeks ...
9/May/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

Radiohead used the opening show of their world tour last night (May 5th) to send an obvious message about China’s political and humanitarian actions in Tibet.
The stage for the band’s show at the Cruzan Amphitheatre in Florida was decorated with two Tibetan flags.
6/May/2008 Copyright © Gigwise

A Tibetan woman in Ngaba County died after being subjected to brutal torture by the Chinese prison guards, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) ...
5/May/2008 Copyright © Tibet Centre for Human Rights. All rights reserved

Chinese Communist Party cadres and envoys of the Dalai Lama held landmark talks yesterday on resolving the Tibetan crisis, even as the national media continued to condemn the exiled Buddhist leader, raising the question of whether the meeting was just a public relations stunt to soothe international concerns ahead of the Olympics ...
5/May/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

... Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has lifted 350 million people out of poverty. It has overseen the mass metamorphosis of peasants into the world's biggest middle class. It has performed the world's biggest economic miracle. You can sort of see the reason for the pride.
Of course it's wrong to oppress the people of Tibet. Of course it's wrong to imprison people who speak out. Of course it's wrong to control the press (wrong in Italy, and wrong in China). And of course it's right to say so.
But sometimes if you want to wag your finger, you have to take it out of the pie.
3/May/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush on Thursday urged China to address "the deep and legitimate concerns" of Tibet's people in what he said must be "substantive" talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives ...
"It's important that there be a renewed dialogue -- and that dialogue must be substantive so we can address, in a real way, the deep and legitimate concerns of the Tibetan people," the US president said ...
2/May/2008 Copyright © AFP. All rights reserved

As the Olympic torch heads up Everest on the next phase of its troubled journey next week, it is almost certain to attract more protests as it gets closer to Tibet.
But peaceful demonstrations must go ahead: what's becoming clear is that the real opportunity to protest against the Chinese government's treatment of its people will be from outside the country. The authorities are gradually strangling dissent within China to ensure that the Games in August go off without any embarrassing protests ...
1/May/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved

1/May/2008 Copyright © independent.co.uk. All rights reserved