China opens expressway in Tibet near border with India
October 2, 2017
Press Trust of India, October 1, 2017 – China today opened a 409-kilometre-long expressway linking Tibet’s provincial capital Lhasa with Nyingchi, which is close to the border with India in Arunachal Pradesh, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The toll-free expressway has linked the two major cities which are also tourist attractions in Tibet, it said.
The expressway that costs $5.8 billion to build cuts travel time between Lhasa and Nyingchi from eight to five hours, with a speed limit of 80 km per hour.
Most of the expressways in Tibet can be used to transport military equipment, providing an advantage for the Chinese military to move troops and hardware faster.
The massive infrastructure development in Tibet also prompted India to ramp up infrastructure development on its side.
Heavy trucks have been temporarily banned from running on the new Lhasa-Nyingchi expressway, Xinhua reported.
On 28 August, China and India agreed to end a lengthy standoff at Doklam plateau in Sikkim sector that began in June.
The tension began in June when Indian troops entered the plateau to stop China from building a new road which Delhi viewed as a serious security concern because of the access it provides to Beijing.

Doklam chill remains: India-China border meeting not held
October 2, 2017
By Rajat Pandit
Times of India, October 1, 2017 – The Indian and Chinese armies may have disengaged from their eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation on the Bhutanese territory of Doklam+ after hectic diplomatic parleys but the distinct chill between the rival troops remains on the ground over a month later.
The two armies did not hold their traditional border personnel meeting (BPM) at the five designated places along the 4,057-km long Line of Actual Control to mark China’s 68th national day on Sunday, as is the norm every year.
“The People’s Liberation Army did not send us an invite for the ceremonial meeting at the five BPM points (Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul in Ladakh, Bum La and Kibithu in Arunachal, and Nathu La in Sikkim) on October 1,” said a source.
There has also been “no forward movement” on the 7th edition of the annual “Hand-in-Hand” exercise between the Indian Army and PLA, which was to be held in China this month. “The exercise is unlikely this year,” he added.
Sources say the two armies continue to maintain their stepped-up force levels near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction+ even weeks after the troops disengaged from the stand-off site at Doklam, concluding 73 days of tense confrontation.
The face-off had seen both the sides move forward additional infantry battalions as well as armoured (tanks), artillery, missile and air defence units in a show of strength to back their small number of troops on the actual stand-off site, as reported by TOI earlier.
“The PLA did halt construction of its motorable road through the stand-off site towards the Jampheri Ridge (physically blocked by Indian soldiers after coming down from their adjacent Doka La post on June 16) but is maintaining its force-levels in the area,” said another source.
The assessment is that the ground situation will remain the same till the crucial 19th party congress of the Chinese Communist Party from October 18, with President Xi Jinping all set to win a second five-year term to further consolidate his power.

Lithuanian MPs meet Dalai Lama, establish Tibet friendship group
September 25, 2017
The Baltic Course, September 25, 2017 – “I believe we can all help here by simple contribution, belief or establishment of a Seimas group that would be intended for friendship with Tibet. We will definitely initiate this,” conservative MP Monika Navickiene told BNS on Monday.
The meeting with the Dalai Lama, a leader who resides in India, was also attended by politicians of Latvia and Estonia. Parliaments of these countries include groups for ties with Tibet.
Tibet lost its autonomy from China in 1951 after Beijing brought its army in the territory that had declared independence.
China maintains it then liberated Tibet, however, many local residents accuse the central administration of religious and cultural oppression, often protesting in the for of self-immolation.
Meanwhile, Beijing views the Dalai Lama as separatist who seeks to separate Tibet from China. It does not recognize the Tibetan government operating in exile and does not maintain any dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.
Navickiene, the Lithuanian MP, said the Tibetan leader spoke about the potential for the situation to improve, adding that “the people of Tibet indeed need support now.”
Another participant of the meeting, Liberal Movement’s MP Arunas Gelunas, emphasized Tibet did not seek political independence from China.
“The Dalai Lama said they did not seek political independence, they do not want to be a separate state, they would do just fine with religious, linguistic and cultural freedom, which is now restricted in a cruel manner,” said the politician.
“The words the Dalai Lama said were extremely reminiscent of the feeling when the people of Lithuania were also persecuted for beliefs and language not so long ago,” he added.
Decorative street signs in the Lithuanian and Tibetan languages were unveiled in the Tibet Square in Vilnius past summer.
Lithuania views the Tibet region in the Himalaya Mountains as part of China, however, joins the call by the European Union for peaceful regulation of the relations between the Chinese administration and Tibet.
Lithuania fell in China’s disfavor after President Dalia Grybauskaite met with Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Vilnius in 2013. Negotiations with China on various issued had stalled until Beijing issued a statement in February of 2015, stating its willingness to develop good ties.

China retaliates against US university for inviting H.H. Dalai Lama to speak at graduation
September 25, 2017
Quartz, September 19, 2017 – Beijing has a lesson for overseas universities: Don’t invite speakers who oppose the Communist Party to big events.
A branch of the Chinese government has barred Chinese scholars from receiving state funding to study at the University of California, San Diego, according to people at the school. The freeze highlights how Beijing is steadily placing pressure on overseas universities to suppress viewpoints that run counter to Communist Party orthodoxy.
In June, UCSD hosted the Dalai Lama to speak at its school-wide commencement ceremony for the 2016-2017 academic year. The invitation generated controversy among some members of school’s Chinese student population. The Chinese government strictly controls information within its borders about the Dalai Lama, who it views as a separatist and a symbol of China’s feudal past. Many Chinese citizens hold these same views.
In the months preceding commencement, members of UCSD’s Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA), a global network of Chinese students at overseas schools, met with the university’s chancellor to request that the Dalai Lama refrain from discussing politics at the speech. They also said that they informed the local Chinese embassy of the Dalai Lama’s scheduled appearance.
Now, the Chinese government has retaliated. On Sept. 16, UCSD professor Victor Shih tweeted that a colleague of his received notice that the China Scholarship Council, a branch of the government that funds overseas study for Chinese citizens, would no longer process applications to study at UCSD for scholars who had not already received a visa appointment from the US embassy.
The China Scholarship Council is a branch of China’s Ministry of Education. It typically provides scholarships for graduate students and professors at Chinese universities to travel to an overseas university as a visiting scholar. The CSC did not respond to Quartz’s email about the reported application freeze.
When asked for more details, a spokesperson for UCSD sent Quartz the following statement:
“UC San Diego has learned, unofficially, that the China Scholarship Council under the PRC Ministry of Education has apparently issued instructions that CSC-funded visiting scholars who do not yet have visas will not be allowed to study at UC San Diego. UC San Diego was not notified of this directly by the China Scholarship Council, and we are presently making inquiries to determine if this is the case.”
The application freeze does not bar undergraduates, graduate students, or other academics from attending UCSD—it merely prevents scholars from obtaining CSC funding to do so. As a result, these specific measures alone will likely do little to curb the school’s influx of Chinese students. In the fall of 2015, Chinese students made up 10.6% of UCSD’s student population and 55.7% of its international student population.
Yet the retaliatory action nevertheless shows that if universities invite speakers espousing views that the party hopes to suppress, Beijing might attempt to discourage academic exchanges with such schools. Inter-university exchanges between the US and China occur across all fields. Schools that invite controversial speakers could risk losing collaboration and funding opportunities with China.
Over the past year, various academic institutions have faced pressure to self-censor to appease either Chinese authorities or Chinese students themselves. In August, Cambridge University Press announced it had removed over 300 articles from the China-facing website for the China Quarterly, one of the leading academic publications for sinology, due to demands from the government. It later reinstated the articles due to uproar from the academic community. Meanwhile, in Australia, several professors recently found themselves shamed online and forced to apologize for making statements, some of them about international politics, that offended their Chinese students.

China holds on to Tibetan passports despite promises of return
September 25, 2017
Radio Free Asia, September 19, 2017 – Tibetan passports seized by authorities earlier this year in a bid to tighten control over travel outside China are still being held in spite of police promises that they would be quickly returned, Tibetan sources say.
The move affected hundreds of Tibetans traveling as pilgrims to India and Nepal and as tourists to other Asian countries, and came amid official concerns over Tibetans’ presence at a politically sensitive religious gathering led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in January.
“The rule was applied strictly to Tibetans who tried to attend the Dalai Lama’s Kalachakra teachings in Bodhgaya, India,” a Tibetan source in China told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Many of them were forced to return before the teachings started, and their passports were confiscated by authorities at airports in China,” RFA’s source said. “They have still not been given their passports back, even though they were told this would happen by March.”
“The Tibetans believe that they were deliberately tricked,” he said.

Families threatened
Kalachakra, which means Wheel of Time, is a ritual that prepares devotees to be reborn in Shambhala, a celestial kingdom which, it is said, will vanquish the forces of evil in a future cosmic battle.
The ceremony and teachings are often conducted outside Tibet by the Dalai Lama, who is widely reviled by Chinese leaders as a “splittist” seeking to separate Tibet, which was invaded by Communist China in 1950, from Beijing’s control.
Many of the Tibetans ordered home by China were told their families would be harmed if they failed to go back, sources told RFA in earlier reports.
And while the old passports, purchased at a cost of 5,000 yuan (U.S. $759) each and good for 10 years, have not been returned, no new passports are being issued, RFA’s source said.
“These discriminatory actions are confined not just to Tibetans but also affect members of the Uyghur nationality group,” the source said, adding that China’s constitution guarantees protection against discrimination based on ethnicity.
Turned away by hotel
A Tibetan traveling to Beijing this week was meanwhile refused a room at a hotel after showing identification, and was taken by police to a special facility set up to accommodate Tibetans under supervision as the city prepares for a major Communist Party Congress this month.
“The police questioned me about my reasons for visiting Beijing and how long I was planning to stay,” the man told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“They said I would need to report to them again before leaving,” he said.
“Earlier, I had heard that a Uyghur was harassed at the Beijing airport because he belonged to an ethnic minority group, and now I have experienced the same unfair treatment at the hands of the Chinese police,” he said.
Reported by Kunsang Tenzin for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee and Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Tibet under travel ban, foreigners evicted during CCP National Congress
September 25, 2017
By Mollie Lortie
Tibet Post International, September 25, 2017 – Chinese authorities have reportedly issued orders banning travel in to Tibet from October 18 to 28, a politically charged ten days during which the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China meets.
“During this period, it is not just foreigners but also Tibetans living in the Amdo region of Qinghai who are not allowed to travel in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” an anonymous source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
Because October is a popular month for tourists, the travel ban will deal a severe blow to the economy of the TAR, he said.
Though the Tibet Tourism Bureau has not released an official announcement, several local travel agencies report receiving the notice earlier this month.
During the sensitive, high-level talks, Tibet will close its borders to foreigners, while visitors traveling the country during that period will likewise be required to leave by October 17.

After border stand-off, China and India embroiled in water dispute
September 18, 2017
By Navin Singh Khadka
BBC World Service, September 17, 2017 – China and India may have defused a potential border conflict but the stand-off seems to have led to dispute over another contentious issue: water.
Delhi says it has not received any hydrological – the scientific study of the movement, distribution and quality of water – data for the Brahmaputra river from upstream China this monsoon season, despite an agreement.
One of Asia’s major rivers, the Brahmaputra, originates in Tibet and flows down to India before entering Bangladesh where it joins the Ganges and empties into the Bay of Bengal.
Beijing has said its hydrological stations are being upgraded which means it cannot share data.
But the BBC has found that China continues to share data for the same river with Bangladesh, the lowest downstream country in the Brahmaputra basin.
The river data issue between China and India comes after the two countries ended a tense stand-off over a disputed Himalayan border area that lasted more than two months.
The Brahmaputra gets severely flooded during monsoon season every year, causing huge losses in northeast India and Bangladesh.
The two countries have agreements with China that requires the upstream country to share hydrological data of the river during monsoon season between 15 May and 15 October.
The data is mainly of the water level of the river to alert downstream countries in case of floods.
“For this year…we have not received the hydrological data from the Chinese side beginning 15 May until now,” Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry said last month at a regular briefing.
“We don’t know the technical reasons behind this but there is an existing mechanism under which China is to provide hydrological data to us.”
The Chinese side last week said there was a technical problem.
“Last year, due to the needs for reconstruction after being damaged by the flood and out of such technological reasons as upgrading and renovation, the relevant hydrological stations in China do not have the conditions to collect relevant hydrological data now,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a press briefing last week.
Officials from Bangladesh, however, said they were still receiving water level and discharge level data of the Brahmaputra from China.
“We received data of water level of the Bramahaputra from China few days ago,” Mofazzal Hossain, a member of the joint rivers commission of Bangladesh told the BBC.
“We have been receiving such data from three hydrological stations in Tibet since 2002 and they have continued to share the figure with us even during this monsoon season”.
Uncertainty
Bangladesh’s water resources minister Anisul Islam Mohammad also confirmed to the BBC that his country was receiving hydrological data from China.
But for India, China has hinted at an uncertainty over resumption of sharing of data.
“As regards whether the providing of relevant hydrological data will be resumed, it depends on the progress of the above-mentioned work,” spokesperson Geng Shuang said.
India only recently secured the agreement with China on receiving monsoon data of the Brahmaputra river, after years of efforts.
Delhi has also asked for data for non-monsoonal flows of the river, because there are suspicions in India that China could divert the waters of the Brahmaputra to its parched regions during dry seasons.
Beijing has constructed several hydropower dams on the river, which is known as Yarlung Zangbo in Tibet.
It says they do not store or divert water and they will not be against the interest of downstream countries.
But in recent years, particularly in northeastern India, fears are also growing that China could suddenly release a huge amount of water.
Residents of Dibrugarh in Assam, where the river has one of its widest stretches, say they have witnessed the water levels of Brahmaputra sharply rise and fall in very short periods of time.
There have also been increasing incidents of landslides blocking rivers and unleashing sudden floods in the Himalayas.
Flood warnings
A recent study has in fact, shown Tibet topping the list of places across the globe that has experienced an increase in water. Experts say all these factors make early flood warnings from China even more crucial.
Officials with India’s water resources ministry say the recent developments have left them somewhat worried.
“We thought we would now be able to convince them to share the hydrological data of the non-monsoon season so that there is no suspicion that they would divert water during lean season,” an official, preferring anonymity, told the BBC.
“But now we are not getting even the monsoon flow information, this is a worrying sign and it also shows their [China’s] intention.”
A year ago, China blocked a tributary of the Yarlung Zangbo river in Tibet as part of its most expensive hydro project, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The news came just when Indian media were suggesting that Delhi could pull out of the Indus Water Treaty – signed with Pakistan – following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.
As an upstream country for Bangladesh and Pakistan, India too has time and again been accused by these downstream countries of ignoring their concerns.
Experts say these are compelling evidences that water is indeed emerging as a key issue in South Asia’s geopolitics.

China opens Tibet-Nepal highway, ready for military use if needed
September 18, 2017
NDTV, September 18, 2017 – China has opened a strategic highway in Tibet to the Nepal border which could be used for civilian and defence purposes, a move that Chinese experts say will enable Beijing to make forays into South Asia, according to a media report today.
The 40.4-kilometre highway in Tibet between Xigaze airport and Xigaze city centre officially opened to the public on Friday with a short section linking the national highway to the Nepal border.
The highway will shorten the journey from an hour to 30 minutes between the dual-use civil and military airport and Tibet’s second-largest city.
State-run ‘Global Times’ quoted experts as saying that the highway “will enable China to forge a route into South Asia in both economic and defence terms” and being a forerunner to a railway line connecting Nepal.
Geographically, any extension of the road and railway connectivity to South Asia is through India, Bhutan and to Bangladesh.
Chinese officials have said in the past that the projects are feasible and could become a trade corridor for India and China if New Delhi comes on board.
The new road runs parallel with the Xigaze-Lhasa railway and links the city’s ring roads with the 5,476-kilometre G318 highway from Shanghai to Zhangmu on the Nepal border, the report said.
As part of G318, the highway connects the border town of Zhangmu with Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. It can link with the future cross-border China-Nepal railway, said Zhao Gancheng, director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies.
The G318 with Xigaze in the middle connects to Nepal on one end and other end links to Nyingchi, the Tibetan town close to Arunachal Pradesh border. The highway runs very close to the border.
China has been stepping efforts to improve road connectivity between Tibet and Nepal while speeding up plans to build a railway line connecting to Nepal’s border after KP Sharma Oli, pro-China former Nepalese Prime Minister, signed a Transit Trade Treaty with Beijing last year during his tenure.
Mr Oli signed the treaty at the height of the Madhesi agitation and their blockade of Indian goods to provide a major opening for China to reduce Nepal’s dependence on India, even as the transportation of essentials through the Himalayan terrain of Tibet would entail heavy costs for Nepal.
However, since the fall of Mr Oli’s government, China’s plans to speed up its efforts to make forays into Nepal through infrastructure expansion slowed down even though Kathmandu signed up for Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative in May this year.
The 25-meter-wide highway between Xigaze peace airport and Xigaze has four double lanes and is classified a first-tier highway, the Tibet Financial Daily reported.
“Highways in China are of a high standard including the one in Tibet. It can be used by armoured vehicles and as a runway for planes to take off when it has to serve a military purpose,” Mr Zhao said.
“The road is Tibet’s first real highway. It is our gift toward the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,” Wei Qianggao, deputy head of the Tibet transportation department was quoted as saying by the Global Times.
As an important infrastructure programme in the 13th Five-Year Plan and a core section of Tibet highway network, the road will benefit the export-oriented economy of Xigaze and the complex traffic around Lhasa, Mr Wei said.
Over five years, the standard of highways in Tibet and the traffic network have been gradually improved, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Jinhe, another official from the Tibet transportation department, the report said.
The total highway mileage in Tibet reached more than 80,000 kilometres in 2016, increasing nearly 19,000 kilometres since 2011, Wang said.

China builds road to Nepal border, raises flag
September 11, 2017
Radio Free Asia, September 8, 2017 – Chinese soldiers and civilians building a road from southern Tibet to Nepal set up a banner and Chinese national flag at the border this week, inviting Nepalese citizens on the other side of the line to help them extend the road farther into Nepal, a local source said.
The group, which appeared on Sept. 1 at Nepal’s border with Kyirong county in the Tibet Autonomous Region, distributed food and clothing to the Nepalese, promising to help them with the roadwork and other construction projects in Nepal if permission can be obtained from government authorities in Kathmandu, a resident of the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“The Chinese began building a road from the Tibetan side of the border up to the Nepalese side about two years ago, and they have now finally finished that work,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Now, a group of Chinese military and civilian officials have appeared at the border, raising a banner and the Chinese national flag to win the hearts and minds of the people on the border,” he said.
The banner, which was written in both Chinese and Tibetan, urged loyalty to the Chinese “motherland” and called for “harmonious living,” the source said.
“This is a new development, and the local Nepali residents are concerned and have mixed feelings about China’s distribution to them of free goods,” the source said.
Reported by Lhuboom for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid ra’adAl Hussein, highlights Tibetan human rights defenders
September 11, 2017
[Note – This is an excerpt only. The High Commissioner highlights several countries in his statement which can be read in full at: https://www.unog.ch/unog/website/news_media.nsf/(httpNewsByYear_en)/D0BF0EABE559E1ADC12581980045720E?OpenDocument ]
UN Human Rights Council, September11, 2017- As I enter the final year of my current mandate – a year which I will discharge with vigour and determination – I wish to begin with a few short reflections drawn from the past three years.
Terrorists may attack us, but the intellectual authors of those crimes will then often sit back and watch as governments peel away at human rights protections; watch, as our societies gradually unravel, with many setting course toward authoritarianism and oppression – staging for us, not a century of achievement and pride, but a century that is small, bitter and deprived, for the vast majority of humans.
The second of my reflections focuses on States’ consistency – or lack of consistency – when it comes to human rights commitments: the so-called internal-external gap. Does it not disturb governments to defend the rights of humans elsewhere – in order to project themselves as global players – while at home they openly deny the rights of their own people? Do they not recognize the hypocrisy?
Third, does it not occur to the many Governments who engage in intimidation and bullying, and commit reprisals against human rights defenders and NGOs which work with the UN human rights mechanisms – do they not realise that this only confirms to us, and to the world, how much oppression and injustice they exercise in their own countries? This is not a shared future; it is the theft of their peoples’ inalienable rights.
China is currently drafting its first national law regarding detention centres, with the aim of improving standards of treatment, oversight and accountability. I welcome this and encourage the Government to ensure that the law grants access to independent legal counsel and family members, as well as addressing the ill-treatment in detention and deaths in custody noted by the Committee Against Torture in 2015. The recent death in custody of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo shocked many around the world, as did the deaths, also in custody, of Cao Shunli in 2014 and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche in 2015. Many more are in various forms of deprivation of liberty on questionable grounds, without any independent oversight mechanism, including Wang Quanzhang, Jiang Tianyong, Li Ming-che, Tashi Wangchuk and Liu Xia. I am particularly concerned about action taken against defence lawyers. I commend China’s emphasis on the contribution of development to the enjoyment of all human rights, and suggest it should include a greater focus on vulnerable groups, in particular among the Tibetan, Uyghur and other marginalised populations.
Mr President,
In the first three years of my current term, the world has grown darker and dangerous. My vision for the work of my Office has become more determined, drawing even more deeply on the lessons which come to us from our forbears: human rights principles are the only way to avoid global war and profound misery and deprivation.
In continuing to lead this Office I am inspired by movements of people standing up in many countries in defiance of the indefensible. They seek, not power or personal profit; what they seek is justice.
Thank you.