Whole Resistance – China’s military conquest of Tibet is not a done deal

Tibet Awareness – Military conquest of Tibet is not a done deal

**Tibet Awareness – Annexation of Tibet by China. It’s Not a Done Deal. In fact, there is no deal between Tibet and China on the border issue.**

The Border called the McMahon Line between India and Tibet is not my primary concern. In 1913-14, Tibet and China had the opportunity to negotiate a deal to determine and demarcate the border between China and Tibet. They failed to do so. In fact, there is no deal between Tibet and China on the border issue.

Representatives of Tibet, Great Britain, and China at Simla Accord 1914. Front row, from left: an assistant to Ivan Chen; Sekyong Trulku, Prince of Sikkim; Ivan Chen, Chinese plenipotentiary; Sir Henry McMahon, British Plenipotentiary; Lonchen Shatra, Tibetan Plenipotentiary; Teji Trimon, assistant; Nedon Khanchung, Secretary.

I contest the occupation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China since 1950. In my analysis, annexation of Tibet by China is not a done deal. Tibetans have never agreed to submit their territory to be ruled over by the Communist Party of China. Tibet is never a part of China. In fact, there is no deal between China and Tibet on the demarcation of their border.

BOOK EXCERPT

How the McMahon Line came to be the border between India and Tibet (and, later, China)

Tibet Awareness – Annexation of Tibet by China. It’s Not a Done Deal. In fact, there is no deal between Tibet and China on the border issue. Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute, Maroof Raza, Westland Non-Fiction.

An excerpt from ‘Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute’, by Maroof Raza.

Maroof Raza

Tibet Awareness – Annexation of Tibet by China. It’s Not a Done Deal. In fact, there is no deal between Tibet and China on the border issue. The original draft of the MacMohan Line in 1914: West (left) and East (right)

Lt Col Arthur Henry McMahon was formally nominated to represent the British government at the Simla Conference. With the rank of “secretary” in the foreign department of the British Government of India, McMahon was “empowered to sign any Convention, Agreement or Treaty, which may be concluded at the Conference”.

As a young captain, he had spent two years demarcating the Durand Line that separates Pakistan from Afghanistan today. He was moulded “in the furnace of responsibility and the anvil of self-reliance and relished the creation and laying down of boundaries.” His task at the Simla Conference, however, was neither enjoyable nor easy.

…China, wary of a Britain-Tibet deal, took a while to announce their representative or plenipotentiary for the Simla Conference. Eventually, when they did so, the Chinese first stated that Ivan Chen, an experienced diplomat, and Hu Hanmin would be their representatives. However, China decreed that they would be called pacificators, and would carry “no territorial powers.”

The British objected. It was only after threats and prodding that a Chinese presidential order was signed appointing Ivan Chen as their plenipotentiary and authorizing him “to sign articles that may be agreed upon in order that all difficulties which have existed in the past may be dissolved.” He just about made it in time for the opening convention of the conference.

In contrast, the Dalai Lama was decisive and swift in appointing Lonchen Shatra Paljor Dorje, his Prime Minister who later impressed everybody with his quiet dignity, as his choice for the tripartite talks. Shatra was described as “a man of great ability and patriotism.” Moreover, an official statement from the Grand Lama stated “the Chief Minister Shatra Paljor Dorje is hereby authorized to decide on all questions which may benefit Tibet and to seal all documents relating thereto.”

Both sides made their positions known in the very first meeting held at Simla on 13 October 1913. With the Chinese defeated and evicted from Tibet, Lhasa made it known that it had an “independent” status and placed a document to this effect. But the Chinese still insisted that Tibet formed an integral part of the Chinese territory and no attempts shall be made by Tibet or by Great Britain to interrupt the continuity of this territorial integrity.

For China, unlike the British Government of India, Tibet’s precise boundaries weren’t important. The British hosting the conference wanted a defined boundary for Tibet, not just with India, but also with China. This was the primary reason for the Simla Conference to have dragged on for over six months, with contestable results.

The Chinese also made a range of ridiculous claims over Tibet, most notably over its territories from the Kunlun Mountains, southeast and south of the River Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) on to the River N’Maikha in Burma (now Myanmar). Even though McMahon was prepared for some surprises, he didn’t expect this cartographic aggression based on inconsistent and vague historical assertions.

However, there were factors that restrained McMahon from defining the boundaries. For one, a draft prepared by officials at Britain’s India Office had only envisaged a two-party meeting between representatives of Peking and Delhi. With Tibet’s entry in the deliberations, McMahon had to put up appearances to hide his limitations.

In reality, in the absence of clarity about the southern limits of Tibet, McMahon was awaiting some survey reports from the expeditions along the Himalayas, particularly from India’s northeast and the tri-junction between India, Tibet and Bhutan. This region had many unsurveyed “grey areas” along a frontier of over 1,000 kilometres and was often covered with mist or clouds with many snow-covered mountains that couldn’t be easily accessed from the Indian side. This prevented McMahon from presenting a clear proposal to the conference plenipotentiaries on this part of the boundary.

Thereafter, he conveyed to both the Chinese and the Tibetans that without an agreement on the “limits of Tibet”, further progress was not possible. China’s Chen first said he’d have to refer the matter to Peking and then he took to bed after the meeting, claiming he was ill! Thus, with no hope of an immediate headway and with the winter in Simla bringing life to a virtual standstill, the conference venue was shifted to Delhi. It was over subsequent meetings in Delhi, both formal and informal, that there was some movement forward.

The Tibetans brought to these meetings more than ninety records and documents and backed their boundary claims with historical records in their original form, including fifty-six different registers, with numbers of monasteries and details of families, “where the writ of the Dalai Lama was unquestioned”. The Chinese, on the other hand, made historically refutable claims based on scanty evidence.

Moreover, the Tibetans’ statements were extremely critical of the “scorched earth” policies of the Chinese, especially its military commander Zhao Erfeng, who had destroyed many of their temples and villages and massacred hundreds of lamas and people. Erfeng was known to have made paper shoe soles from the leaves of Buddhist scriptures containing the teachings of Lord Buddha!

The Tibetans were thus unwilling to accept Chinese claims based on the ruthless military campaigns by Erfeng, stating that “Chao Erh-feng had been guilty of such glaring misdeeds and that even if he had a hundred lives he should forfeit every one of them to the law…”

Thus, the hotly contested territorial claims of the Chinese and Tibetans put McMahon in a spot in his attempts to find common ground, to end their “state of war” and to move the conference towards its conclusion. However, given his vast experience in map-making, McMahon proposed the division of Tibet into two zones – with the approval of Whitehall in London – by drawing lines on a map to mark: Inner (by a blue line) and Outer (by a red line) Tibet.

But the Chinese were unwilling to accept the concept of Inner or Outer Tibet. Even then, McMahon was hopeful of a settlement at the fifth conference in Delhi that was to be held on 11 March 1914. At the fifth conference, McMahon, apprehensive that China–Tibet hostilities would stall his best efforts, warned both parties that any attempts to change the ground realities to attain a favourable deal at the conference would have grave consequences. He demanded instead statesmanship from Ivan Chen and Lochen Shatra.

There was, however, a quiet spoiler lurking on the sidelines. Lu Hsing Chi was a Chinese spy at the conference, who set alarm bells ringing in China about a possible outcome that would put China at a disadvantage vis-à-vis Tibet, and thus, Peking virtually rejected the entire draft that McMahon and his team had painfully put together, demanding a better deal. Sensing that the conference might collapse, McMahon threatened to present proposals that were more stringent. This kept the Chinese team on board until the conference shifted back to Simla in April 1914, when McMahon had a private chat with Chen.

McMahon warned that if Chen failed to initial the documents in the final meetings, it would be withdrawn. Deep inside he was also prepared for the conference to end without any results even though McMahon had hoped that this was to be a decisive phase of the conference. Thus, he resorted to theatricals.

He began with a summary of earlier conference proceedings and when he ran into resistance by the Chinese and then by the Tibetans, his patience ran out. As a shocker to those in attendance, he ordered the withdrawal of the convention “with as much ceremony as possible”, as recorded by observers, to drive home his frustration with the negotiations.

This unnerved Ivan Chen, the Chinese plenipotentiary in Simla. However, in one last attempt, the conference was reconvened the next day, to give them a final chance to reconsider their positions. Facing the distinct possibility of China being left out of the border arrangements, Chen made up his mind to initial the draft and the map and, much to the relief of all, proceeded with the formalities.

However, Chen announced that he was still “bound to await definite authority from his government in Peking before the convention was formally signed and sealed.” Even as it appeared that matters had finally come to a successful conclusion, this was not to be. Chen informed McMahon’s office that his government had refused to accept – “repudiated” – his signing of the convention! McMahon was disappointed, given his multiple attempts to accept Chinese demands.

It soon became known that the man who influenced Peking to put the brakes was Lu Hsing, their Calcutta-based spy, who was elevated to an official position to negotiate with Lhasa. London was brought into these talks and soon Chinese officials suggested that Chen had been forced to agree to the terms of the convention, whereby its venue should be shifted to Peking or London. There is a view that this process reflects a conflict of interest as McMahon was both the arbitrator and the interested party here.

On the brighter side, however, the conference yielded another outcome. After Peking and Lhasa had presented enough documentation to back their conflicting territorial claims on the Sino-Tibetan frontiers, which had led to no agreement, the focus of the conference shifted to the Indo-Tibetan boundary. On this, the Chinese delegate opted to stay out, as he claimed he wasn’t authorised to discuss it.

Thus, McMahon and the Tibetan delegate agreed on an Indo-Tibet boundary on 24-25 March 1914. To that effect, McMahon drew a line on a small-scale map and this line came to be known as the McMahon Line. This boundary was marked in red ink along the crest of the Himalayas—the watershed that gave northeast India a defined boundary with Tibet. This was a major outcome after many months of negotiations, even though this was a secondary objective of the Simla Conference.

China’s Population Transfer Policy. The Chinese Settlers outnumber the Native Population of Tibet, Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The Sinicization of Occupied territories.

In his 5 point peace plan the Dalai Lama called to stop Chinese colonization of Tibet and described the past and present situation.
When the newly formed People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet in 1949/50, it created a new source of conflict.

TIBET NOT PART OF CHINA – INDIA SHARES NO BORDER WITH CHINA. China’s Population Transfer Policy. The Chinese Settlers outnumber the Native Population of Tibet, Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and East Turkestan. The Sinicization of Occupied territories.

“When the newly formed People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet in 1949/50, it created a new source of conflict.

“This was highlighted when, following the Tibetan national uprising against the Chinese and my flight to India in 1959, tensions between China and India escalated into the border war in 1962.

“Today large numbers of troops are again massed on both sides of the Himalayan border and tension is once more dangerously high.

“The real issue, of course, is not the Indo-Tibetan border demarcation.

“It is China’s illegal occupation of Tibet, which has given it direct access to the Indian sub-continent.

“The Chinese authorities have attempted to confuse the issue by claiming that Tibet has always been a part of China.

“This is untrue. Tibet was a fully independent state when the People’s Liberation Army invaded the country in 1949/50.

“Since Tibetan emperors unified Tibet, over a thousand years ago, our country was able to maintain its independence until the middle of this century.

“At times Tibet extended its influence over neighbouring countries and peoples and, in other periods, came itself under the influence of powerful foreign rulers – the Mongol Khans, the Gorkhas of Nepal, the Manchu Emperors and the British in India.

“It is, of course, not uncommon for states to be subjected to foreign influence or interference.

“Although so-called satellite relationships are perhaps the clearest examples of this, most major powers exert influence over less powerful allies or neighbours.

“As the most authoritative legal studies have shown, in Tibet’s case, the country’s occasional subjection to foreign influence never entailed a loss of independence.

” And there can be no doubt that when Peking’s communist armies entered Tibet, Tibet was in all respects an independent state…

“Human rights violations in Tibet are among the most serious in the world.

“Discrimination is practiced in Tibet under a policy of ‘apartheid’ which the Chinese call ‘segregation and assimilation’.

“Tibetans are, at best, second class citizens in their own country.

“Deprived of all basic democratic rights and freedoms, they exist under a colonial administration in which all real power is wielded by Chinese officials of the Communist Party and the army.

“Although the Chinese government allows Tibetans to rebuild some Buddhist monasteries and to worship in them, it still forbids serious study and teaching of religion.

“Only a small number of people, approved by the Communist Party, are permitted to join the monasteries.

“While Tibetans in exile exercise their democratic rights under a constitution promulgated by me in 1963, thousands of our countrymen suffer in prisons and labour camps in Tibet for their religious or political convictions…

“The massive transfer of Chinese civilians into Tibet in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a distinct people.

“In the eastern parts of our country, the Chinese now greatly outnumber Tibetans.

“In the Amdo province, for example, where I was born, there are, according to the Chinese statistics, 2.5 million Chinese and only 750,000 Tibetans. Even in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (i.e., central and western Tibet), Chinese government sources now confirm that Chinese outnumber Tibetans.

“The Chinese population transfer policy is not new. It has been systematically applied to other areas before.

“Earlier in this century, the Manchus were a distinct race with their own culture and traditions.

“Today only two to three million Manchurians are left in Manchuria, where 75 million Chinese have settled.

“In Eastern Turkestan, which the Chinese now call Sinkiang, the Chinese population has grown from 200,000 in 1949 to 7 million, more than half of the total population of 13 million. In the wake of the Chinese colonization of Inner Mongolia, Chinese number 8.5 million, Mongols 2.5 million.

“Today, in the whole of Tibet 7.5 million Chinese settlers have already been sent, outnumbering the Tibetan population of 6 million.

“In central and western Tibet, now referred to by the Chinese as the “Tibet Autonomous Region”, Chinese sources admit the 1.9 million Tibetans already constitute a minority of the region’s population.

“These numbers do not take the estimated 300,000-500,000 troops in Tibet into account – 250,000 of them in so-called Tibet Autonomous Region.

“For the Tibetans to survive as a people, it is imperative that the population transfer is stopped and Chinese settlers return to China.

“Otherwise, Tibetans will soon be no more than a tourist attraction and relic of a noble past. ”

RELOCATION AND REHOUSING OF TIBETAN HERDERS.THE TIBETAN RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMS OF OCCUPIED TIBET

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 in the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River, shows new houses built for herders migrating from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, Tibet. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Tibetans who practically enjoyed full independence in their living styles are getting regrouped using mass relocation and rehousing programs making the Tibetan herders to live in resettlement camps in occupied Tibet.

Since 2006, the Chinese government has implemented large-scale programs to “rehouse”—through renovation of existing houses or construction of new ones—a majority of the rural population of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) under a policy called “Comfortable Housing.” In parallel, the government has accelerated the relocation and sedentarization of nomadic herders in the eastern part of the Tibetan plateau, mostly in Qinghai province, and laid the ground for similar policies in other parts of the plateau. Both policies are a component of the government’s effort to “Build a New Socialist Countryside” in Tibetan areas, which the government says is designed to rapidly increase the living standards of rural Tibetans and boost the local economy.

There are host of common issues associated with the New Socialist Villages policy. These common issues include:

The involuntary character of many relocation and rehousing programs;
The absence of genuine prior consultation with affected communities;
The lack of meaningful avenues for challenging or seeking remedies for wrongful eviction orders;
Inadequate and opaque compensation mechanisms;
Problems with the quality of houses in which communities are resettled or rehoused;
Increased financial burdens and indebtedness resulting from relocation and/or reconstruction of housing; and
The loss of tangible and intangible assets and dissolution of communities.

An 80-year-old herder (C) migrated from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City,Tibet, stands in front of her new home with relatives on Dec. 23, 2019. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 shows a fleet of buses carrying herders migrating from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, Tibet. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 shows a fleet of trucks carrying belongings of herders migrating from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, Tibet. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019 shows herders of Shuanghu County, Nagchu City, Tibet, on their migration trip. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

Photo taken on Dec. 23, 2019, shows a 7-month-old baby from Shuanghu County, Nagchu City,Tibet, on the migration trip. A total of 2,900 residents from three villages of Shuanghu County, have recently left their hometown with an average altitude of 5,000 meters above sea level and travelled nearly 1,000 kilometers to resettle in Konggar County, which, at a relatively low altitude, is located to the south bank of the Yarlung Zangbo River in southern Tibet. (Xinhua/Chogo)

The report by Human Rights Watch describes the Chinese government’s relocation of Tibetans as “forcible”, not because they have evidence that officials are using physical force to remove residents from their old homes, but because they are offering them no alternatives. Under international law, the term “forced eviction” does not require the physical removal of residents from their homes. It also applies to evictions that lack meaningful consultation and compensation, or in which no alternatives to relocation have been presented. Chinese government relocation and rehousing policies and practices effectively compel communities to follow government orders or—in the case of nomadic communities—to move into fixed settlements through policies that are presented as having the force of law.

**The Resettlement Programs of Occupied Tibet.**

LIVING TIBETAN SPIRITS PRAY FOR THE RESURRECTION OF AMERICAN VALUES

The Resurrection of American Values to reject the power of Evil.

On behalf of the Living Tibetan Spirits, I pray for the Resurrection of American Values, the foundational values that define America as a nation. My concern is not about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. The United States must overcome fear to expose evil actions of People’s Republic of China to occupy Tibet through acts of military aggression.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force-Establishment N0. 22-Vikas Regiment

**Living Tibetan Spirits Pray for the Resurrection of American Values.**

US Wants UN To Take Up Dalai Lama Succession: Envoy

The United States wants the United Nations to take up the Dalai Lama’s succession in an intensifying bid to stop China from trying to handpick his successor, an envoy said after meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader.

Sam Brownback, the US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said he spoke at length about the succession issue with the 84-year-old Dalai Lama last week in the monk’s home-in-exile of Dharamsala, India.

Brownback said he told the Dalai Lama that the United States would seek to build global support for the principle that the choice of the next spiritual chief “belongs to the Tibetan Buddhists and not the Chinese government.”

The Dalai Lama arrives for prayers wishing him a long life at the Tsuglagkhang temple in McLeod Ganj, India in September 2019 — the US wants the UN to look at the issue of who will succeed him Photo: AFP / Lobsang Wangyal

“I would hope that the UN would take the issue up,” Brownback told AFP after returning to Washington.

He acknowledged that China, with its veto power on the Security Council, would work strenuously to block any action, but he hoped countries could at least raise their voices at the United Nations.

“I think it’s really important to have an early global conversation because this is a global figure with a global impact,” he said.

“That’s the big thing that we’re really after now, to stir this before we’re right in the middle of it — if something happens to the Dalai Lama, that there has been this robust discussion globally about it ahead of time,” he said.

US religious freedom envoy Sam Brownback, seen here at a July 2019 ministerial meeting in Washington, is raising pressure over the Dalai Lama’s succession Photo: AFP / MANDEL NGAN

“My estimation undoubtedly is that the (Chinese) communist party has thought a lot about this. So they’ve got a plan and I think we have to be equally aggressive with a plan.”

The Dalai Lama once traveled incessantly, drawing huge Western audiences with his good-humored lectures on compassion and happiness.

But the Nobel Peace Prize winner has slowed down and earlier this year suffered a chest infection, although he is not known to have serious health issues.

Brownback said he found the Dalai Lama “quite jovial” and that the monk had told him, “‘Look, I’m going to live another 15, 20 years; I’m going to outlast the Chinese government.'”

A Tibetan-in-exile carries a photograph of the Dalai Lama during celebrations marking the Lunar New Year in Kathmandu in February 2018 Photo: AFP / PRAKASH MATHEMA

But Beijing has indicated it is waiting out the Dalai Lama, believing his campaign for greater Tibetan autonomy will end with him.

China, which argues that it has brought modernization and development to the Himalayan region, has increasingly hinted that it could name the next Dalai Lama, who would presumably be groomed to support Chinese rule.

In 1995, the officially atheist government selected its own Panchen Lama and detained a six-year-old identified for the influential Buddhist position — whom rights groups called the world’s youngest political prisoner.

Indian police detain Tibetan students as they protest against the visit of China’s President Xi Jinping in Chennai in October 2019 Photo: AFP / STR

Mindful of Beijing’s plans, the 14th Dalai Lama has mused about breaking with the centuries-old tradition in which wandering monks look for signs that a young boy is a reincarnation.

He has said that he could pick his own successor, possibly a girl, or even declare himself the final Dalai Lama.

The US Congress has also stepped up efforts, including by mandating visa denials by the end of the year for Chinese officials unless Beijing eases restrictions on US diplomats, journalists and ordinary people seeking to visit Tibet.

Brownback said he would like access to Tibet, “but I want it unfettered.”

He said he similarly hoped to visit the western region of Xinjiang, which has drawn intense US scrutiny over the incarceration of one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims.

“It is part of the same war on faith,” Brownback said of Tibet and Xinjiang.

Brownback also visited Nepal, historically the gateway for Tibetans fleeing to India but which has increasingly clamped down under pressure from its giant northern neighbor.

Brownback said he raised fears for Tibetans with Nepal’s foreign minister, Pradeep Gyawali.

But he acknowledged Nepal’s difficult situation and said: “I would hate to be very harsh on the Nepalese because they’ve been so good over so many years to help the Tibetans.”

Brownback said that the burden was ultimately with China to allow freedom of movement — and not to interfere in Tibetan Buddhism.

“A government doesn’t own a religion,” he said. “A religion runs itself.”

“We hope we’ll get a number of other communities around the world to express similar positions and concerns.”

THE ROOF OF THE WORLD NEEDS PROTECTION FROM THE INVADING RED DRAGON

Tibet puts environmental protection at top of agenda

Liang Kaiyan, China Daily

Dubbed “the earth’s third pole”, Tibet boasts one of the most pristine natural environments in the world — Natural beauty: dubbed “the earth’s third pole”, Tibet boasts one of the most pristine natural environments in the world CREDIT: PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

24 SEPTEMBER 2019 • 1:15PM

Occupied Tibet is one of Red China’s most important green protection zones

Dubbed the “roof of the world”, “the Earth’s third pole” and “the water tower of Asia”, the Occupied Tibet is one of Red China’s key environmental protection zones, and the Occupied Region’s government has put its shoulder to the wheel to ensure its land is protected.

“Tibet boasts tremendous assets and advantages in the environment,” said Luo Jie, head of the Occupied Region’s department of ecological environment. “Its ecology is a name card for the region and is the impetus to promote green development.”Tibet is used as a regulating zone for climate change in Asia and the Eastern Hemisphere

According to the department’s 2018 report, 98.2 percent of days that year were classified as “good” in terms of air quality, up 0.7 percentage points from 2017. Tibet’s capital city Lhasa ranked No 4 of 168 cities in Red China in terms of environmental quality.

As a main part of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, Tibet is used as a regulating zone for climate change in Asia and the Eastern Hemisphere.

The Occupied Region plays an irreplaceable role in keeping China’s climate stable, it’s freshwater safe and the country’s ecological diversity, according to environmental officials in Tibet.

Red China’s central government has required the Occupied Region to attach special importance to ecological protection and the improvement of social welfare.

It also called on the Occupied Region to protect the environment with the strictest measures and compensation policies.

Sheep grazing in grasslands on the Tibetan plateau — The Roof of the world: more than 11.26 million acres of natural grasslands are under strict protection

Tibetan people have the tradition of respecting and protecting the natural environment, and have actively participated in environmental protection, Luo said.

“The beauty and sound ecology of Tibet and its achievements in ecological construction have helped boost locals’ livelihoods,” Luo said.

In January, Qizhala, chairman of the Occupied Region’s government, said in a government report that the region has continued to improve ecological compensation.

The government has provided up to 667,000 ecology-related jobs and an ecology-related subsidy for residents of 3,500 yuan (£404) per capita in 2018.

The Occupied Region’s government completed all of its annual tasks for environmental governance, according to the report.

In 2009, the State Council approved the Occupied Region’s ecological protection and construction plan for 2008-30 which promotes the construction of 10 important environmental protection projects.

By the end of 2018, the Occupied Region had invested 10.7 billion yuan in constructing these projects.

Last year, the Occupied Region built seven county-level ecological zones, 40 ecological towns, and 449 ecological villages, with a particular focus on atmospheric, water and soil pollution.

Rural buildings dotted among cultivated fields at the foot of mountains in Tibet — Man and nature: Tibet’s natural environment is highly sensitive so protection is critical CREDIT: PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

The Occupied Region has also improved its governance in industry, agriculture, finding the sources of pollution on the water ecosystem. It has carried out environmental management and evaluations in 825 villages in rural areas.

In response to Red China’s afforestation initiative, Tibet has implemented a number of greening programs.

Trees have been planted in 863 villages that used to have none, and forest coverage has increased to 12.14 percent of the lofty region’s landmass.

In 2018, trees were planted across 185,250 acres, and 37,709 acres of farmland was reclassified as forest.

At present about 560,690 acres of forests, 10.65 million acres of wetlands and more than 11.26 million acres of natural grasslands are under strict protection.

As one of the areas with the most biological diversity in the world, Tibet is also a crucial gene bank.

The Occupied Region has 47 natural reserves, including 11 at the national level. The reserves account for 34.35 percent of the region’s land area and rank Tibet first in the country.

A total of 125 rare species of wild animals and 39 rare species of wild plants are protected in the reserves.

Trees line a lake beside a village in Tibet — Sustainable development: Tibet plays an irreplaceable role in keeping Red China’s climate stable CREDIT: PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Tibet has one of the purest landscapes on the planet, according to a white paper from the State Council.

“At present, as Tibet has entered a phase of high-speed growth, the courses of environmental protection and ecological construction are not without their risks,” Luo said, adding that environmental protection should be prioritized during development.

Compared with other regions in Red China, the ecology in Tibet is more sensitive, so environmental protection is more critical, he said.

“Ecological protection should be further enhanced through laws and regulations and strengthened supervision for law enforcement,” Luo added.

In his government report, Qizhala said the Occupied Region would continue to promote environmental protection, improve standards for energy consumption and carbon emissions, to ensure that more than 95 percent of the year would have good air quality.

Tibet will continue to push forward efforts in building itself into an ecologically sound region through sustained measures, strict supervision and public participation, according to a local plan.

THE TIBETAN GOD OF SNOW INSULTED BY THE MILITARY OCCUPATION OF TIBET

In my analysis, the Tibetan God of Snow, Khawa Karpo is insulted by the military occupation of Tibet. The eviction of the military occupier of Tibet is the only solution to save “The Third Pole” of the world.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Special Frontier Force

The world has the third pole – and it’s melting quickly

Gaia Vince

Many moons ago in Tibet, the Second Buddha transformed a fierce nyen (a malevolent mountain demon) into a neri (the holiest protective warrior god) called Khawa Karpo, who took up residence in the sacred mountain bearing his name. Khawa Karpo is the tallest of the Meili mountain range, piercing the sky at 6,740 meters (22,112ft) above sea level. Local Tibetan communities believe that conquering Khawa Karpo is an act of sacrilege and would cause the deity to abandon his mountain home. Nevertheless, there have been several failed attempts by outsiders – the best known by an international team of 17, all of whom died in an avalanche during their ascent on 3 January 1991. After much local petitioning, in 2001 Beijing passed a law banning mountaineering there.

However, Khawa Karpo continues to be affronted more insidiously. Over the past two decades, the Mingyong glacier at the foot of the mountain has dramatically receded. Villagers blame disrespectful human behavior, including the inadequacy of prayer, greater material greed and an increase in pollution from tourism. People have started to avoid eating garlic and onions, burning meat, breaking vows or fighting for fear of unleashing the wrath of the deity. Mingyong is one of the world’s fastest shrinking glaciers, but locals cannot believe it will die because their own existence is intertwined with it. Yet its disappearance is almost inevitable.

Khawa Karpo lies at the world’s “third pole”. This is how glaciologists refer to the Tibetan plateau, home to the vast Hindu Kush-Himalaya ice sheet because it contains the largest amount of snow and ice after the Arctic and Antarctic – about 15% of the global total. However, a quarter of its ice has been lost since 1970. This month, in a long-awaited special report on the cryosphere by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists will warn that up to two-thirds of the region’s remaining glaciers are on track to disappear by the end of the century. It is expected a third of the ice will be lost in that time even if the internationally agreed target of limiting global warming by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is adhered to.

Whether we are Buddhists or not, our lives affect, and are affected by, these tropical glaciers that span eight countries. This frozen “water tower of Asia” is the source of 10 of the world’s largest rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yellow, Mekong and Indus, whose flows support at least 1.6 billion people directly – in drinking water, agriculture, hydropower and livelihoods – and many more indirectly, in buying a T-shirt made from cotton grown in China, for example, or rice from India.

Joseph Shea, a glaciologist at the University of Northern British Columbia, calls the loss “depressing and fear-inducing. It changes the nature of the mountains in a very visible and profound way.”

Yet the fast-changing conditions at the third pole have not received the same attention as those at the north and south poles. The IPCC’s fourth assessment report in 2007 contained the erroneous prediction that all Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035. This statement turned out to have been based on anecdote rather than scientific evidence and, perhaps out of embarrassment, the third pole has been given less attention in subsequent IPCC reports.

There is also a dearth of research compared to the other poles, and what hydrological data exists has been jealously guarded by the Indian government and other interested parties. The Tibetan plateau is a vast and impractical place for glaciologists to work in and confounding factors make measurements hard to obtain. Scientists are forbidden by locals, for instance, to step out on to the Mingyong glacier, meaning they have had to use repeat photography to measure the ice retreat.

One reason for the rapid ice loss is that the Tibetan plateau, like the other two poles, is warming at a rate up to three times as fast as the global average, by 0.3C per decade. In the case of the third pole, this is because of its elevation, which means it absorbs energy from rising, warm, moisture-laden air. Even if average global temperatures stay below 1.5C, the region will experience more than 2C of warming; if emissions are not reduced, the rise will be 5C, according to a report released earlier this year by more than 200 scientists for the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Winter snowfall is already decreasing and there are, on average, four fewer cold nights and seven more warm nights per year than 40 years ago. Models also indicate a strengthening of the south-east monsoon, with heavy and unpredictable downpours. “This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of,” said ICIMOD’s chief scientist, Philippus Wester.

There is another culprit besides our CO2 emissions in this warming story, and it’s all too evident on the dirty surface of the Mingyong glacier: black carbon or soot. A 2013 study found that black carbon is responsible for 1.1 watts per square meter of the Earth’s surface of extra energy being stored in the atmosphere (CO2 is responsible for an estimated 1.56 watts per square meter). Black carbon has multiple climate effects, changing clouds and monsoon circulation as well as accelerating ice melt. Air pollution from the Indo-Gangetic Plains – one of the world’s most polluted regions – deposits this black dust on glaciers, darkening their surface and hastening melt. While soot landing on the dark rock has little effect on its temperature, snow and glaciers are particularly vulnerable because they are so white and reflective. As glaciers melt, the surrounding rock crumbles in landslides, covering the ice with dark material that speeds melt in a runaway cycle. The Everest base camp, for instance, at 5,300 meters, is now rubble and debris as the Khumbu glacier has retreated to the icefall.

The immense upland of the third pole is one of the most ecologically diverse and vulnerable regions on Earth. People have only attempted to conquer these mountains in the last century, yet in that time humans have subdued the glaciers and changed the face of this wilderness with pollution and other activities. Researchers are now beginning to understand the scale of human effects on the region – some have experienced it directly: many of the 300 IPCC cryosphere report authors meeting in the Nepalese capital in July were forced to take shelter or divert to other airports because of a freak monsoon.

But aside from such inconveniences, what do these changes mean for the 240 million people living in the mountains? Well, in many areas, it has been welcomed. Warmer, more pleasant winters have made life easier. The higher temperatures have boosted agriculture – people can grow a greater variety of crops and benefit from more than one harvest per year, and that improves livelihoods. This may be responsible for the so-called Karakoram anomaly, in which a few glaciers in the Pakistani Karakoram range are advancing in opposition to the general trend. Climatologists believe that the sudden and massive growth of irrigated agriculture in the local area, coupled with unusual topographical features, has produced an increase in snowfall on the glaciers which currently more than compensates for their melting.

Elsewhere, any increase in precipitation is not enough to counter the rate of ice melt and places that are wholly reliant on meltwater for irrigation are feeling the effects soonest. “Springs have dried drastically in the past 10 years without meltwater and because infrastructure has cut off discharge,” says Aditi Mukherji, one of the authors of the IPCC report.

Known as high-altitude deserts, places such as Ladakh in north-eastern India and parts of Tibet have already lost many of their lower-altitude glaciers and with them their seasonal irrigation flows, which is affecting agriculture and electricity production from hydroelectric dams. In some places, communities are trying to geoengineer artificial glaciers that divert runoff from higher glaciers towards shaded, protected locations where it can freeze over winter to provide meltwater for irrigation in the spring.

Only a few of the major Asian rivers are heavily reliant on glacial runoff – the Yangtze and Yellow rivers are showing reduced water levels because of diminished meltwater and the Indus (40% glacier-fed) and Yarkand (60% glacier-fed) are particularly vulnerable. So although mountain communities are suffering from glacial disappearance, those downstream are currently less affected because rainfall makes a much larger contribution to rivers such as the Ganges and Mekong as they descend into populated basins. Upstream-downstream conflict over extractions, dam-building, and diversions has so far largely been averted through water-sharing treaties between nations, but as the climate becomes less predictable and scarcity increases, the risk of unrest within – let alone between – nations grows.

Towards the end of this century, pre-monsoon water-flow levels in all these rivers will drastically reduce without glacier buffers, affecting agricultural output as well as hydropower generation, and these stresses will be compounded by an increase in the number and severity of devastating flash floods. “The impact on local water resources will be huge, especially in the Indus Valley. We expect to see migration out of dry, high-altitude areas first but populations across the region will be affected,” says Shea, also an author on the ICIMOD report.

As the third pole’s vast frozen reserves of freshwater make their way down to the oceans, they are contributing to sea-level rise that is already making life difficult in the heavily populated low-lying deltas and bays of Asia, from Bangladesh to Vietnam. What is more, they are releasing dangerous pollutants. Glaciers are time capsules, built snowflake by snowflake from the skies of the past and, as they melt, they deliver back into circulation the constituents of that archived air. Dangerous pesticides such as DDT (widely used for three decades before being banned in 1972) and perfluoroalkyl acids are now being washed downstream in meltwater and accumulating in sediments and in the food chain.

Ultimately the future of this vast region, its people, ice sheets and arteries depends – just as Khawa Karpo’s devotees believe – on us: on reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. As Mukherji says, many of the glaciers that haven’t yet melted have effectively “disappeared because, in the dense air pollution, you can no longer see them”.

**The Tibetan God of Snow insulted by the military occupation of Tibet.** © tupianlingang/iStock/Getty Images Meili(Meri) Snow Mountains. The photo is the Kawagebo peak in Meili(Meri) Snow Mountains. The glacier in the photo was called Mingyong glacier.

THE COSMOS FLOWERS OF LHASA WELCOME FREEDOM

The scenery of blooming cosmos flowers in Nyemo County of Lhasa, Tibet.

**The photo was taken on Sept 13, 2019, shows blooming cosmos flowers in Nyemo County of Lhasa, Tibet. Photo: Xinhua**

Whole Trouble – The Blessings of Peace and Justice in Occupied Tibet

Tibet in Trouble – Peace and Justice will prevail in Occupied Tibet with the Blessings of Palden Lhamo

Palden Lhamo – The Protector of Dharma

Palden Lhamo, Shri Devi (Sanskrit), is a protecting Dharmapala of the teachings of Gautama Buddha in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. She is also called Remati. She is the wrathful deity considered to be the principal Protectress of Tibet.
Palden Lhamo is the consort of Mahakala and has been described as “the tutelary deity of Tibet and its government”, and as “celebrated all over Tibet and Mongolia, and the potent protector of the Dalai and Panchen Lamas and Lhasa.”
She is said to reside in a lake within Tibet, called Lhamo Latso. The lake is charged with spiritual energy and is said to bestow visions of the future. One of the methods to search for a new incarnation of the Dalai Lama, the search party will meditate and propitiate Palden Lhamo by this lake.

I will live to be 110 years: Dalai Lama assures followers

Aug 28, 2019, | IANS

Dharamshala, Aug 27: Brushing aside concerns about his health, the Dalai Lama, 84, has assured his followers, especially Tibetans, that he is in the best of health and will live to be 110 years old.

A video of his address to members of the Minnesota Tibetan Association at the Von Ngari Monastery on August 18 has been widely circulated on social media and was received with joy and relief by his followers around the world.

Concerns about his health were voiced following news that he had been admitted to a private hospital in Delhi due to a chest infection in April.
In his address, while consoling his followers, some of who could be heard weeping occasionally, the Dalai Lama recalled a dream in which the goddess of glory, one of the eight Dharma protectors and the protector deity of Tibet, Palden Lhamo riding on the back of the Dalai Lama proclaims that he will live for 110 years.
The Dalai Lama also said that the other divinations carried similar foretelling, a statement from the Central Tibetan Administration said.

Holding a letter presented by the representative of Tibetans in Minnesota, the Dalai Lama reassured them again about his health while humorously remarking about the good functioning of his digestive tract.

He also mentioned about the attention, support and best of medical services that were being provided to him by the Indian government.

Many among the six million Tibetans watched the video with tearful eyes and shared it with friends, parents, families and colleagues.

“Tibetans have not forgotten me, and I will not forget you,” said the Dalai Lama, as he patted one of the followers on the back while recounting a moment when thoughts of the Tibetan people flashed through his mind.

The Dalai Lama has lived in self-imposed exile in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

**The Blessings of Peace and Justice in Tibet bestowed by Palden Lhamo, Goddess Shri Devi.**

HOLY MOUNTAIN OF TIBET BLESSES THE TIBETAN NATION

The scenery of Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Tibet

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the glaciers on the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the glaciers on the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

A visitor takes photos of the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet, Aug. 24, 2019. (Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

Photo taken on Aug. 24, 2019, shows the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu, Tibet. (Photo: Xinhua)

There are many famous glaciers in Tibet, however, we know only a few of them. So today let me show one which locates on the Sapukonglagabo Mountain in Biru County of Nagqu Prefecture.

the glaciers of Mt.Sapukonglagabo

taking photos on a river

it seems the mountain touch sky

what an Unbelievable sight?

looks like the flag on a ship

an awesome and attractive place

I CHAT, YOU CHAT, AND WE CHAT FOR FREE TIBET

I CHAT, YOU CHAT, AND WE CHAT FOR FREE TIBET. THE CHAT FOR TIBET.

I chat, you chat, and We chat for Free Tibet and not to conquer Tibet. CHAT FOR TIBET.

Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE

How “WeChat” Conquered Tibet | The Diplomat

Clipped from: https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/how-wechat-conquered-tibet/

Jamyang Palden, a 30-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk uses the WeChat app on his iPhone to leave a voice message for a friend in Tibet, in Dharmsala, India, Nov. 10, 2014.

Image Credit: AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia

Tibetans know the surveillance risks, but many choose to give up privacy for convenience.

The digital revolution has emerged as a key factor in the rapid dissemination of news and broadcasting views. Within the last decade, social media has replaced print media, signaling a paradigm shift in how we consume and convey information. Due to advances in science and technology, sharing news and information has become less time-consuming, more convenient, and more decentralized.

But many people don’t realize that convenience has cost them their privacy. As you flow through your daily routine on a smartphone, you inadvertently share more data than you realize. This tradeoff between convenience and privacy illuminates the case of WeChat with respect to Tibetans and the larger Tibetan issue. In my research, I have found that Tibetan netizens generally give up privacy for the sake of convenience when using WeChat, operated by the Chinese company Tencent.

WeChat, the world’s largest standalone messaging app, is constantly refining their technology to monitor — and censor — content from its more than 963 million monthly active users. But still, 70 percent of Tibetans in the diaspora use the application. Overseas Tibetans or anyone with family or relationships associated with Tibet tend to download the messaging app to stay in contact, since other global social media applications are banned in the region. Tibetans who want to communicate with their relatives have no other choice but to use this means of contact.

In the eight years since Tencent debuted WeChat, it has become the dominant social networking platform in China as a whole, including in Tibet. The app has grown into an internet behemoth with over 1 billion registered users worldwide and 902 million daily users. Last year, 45 billion messages were being sent on the platform every day, 18 percent more than in 2017. The reason behind this meteoric rise is the official ban on global social media platforms in China, aided both by censorship of foreign apps – WeChat’s competitors — and subsidies from the Chinese government. This also means that WeChat’s information technology services and software are fundamentally insecure. The Chinese government claims sweeping powers over any matter considered relevant to China’s national security and pressures Chinese firms not only to censor content but, when needed, hand over user data.

Yet for many Tibetans, mobile apps like WeChat have become indispensable in their social life. News and information spreads like wildfire on WeChat and Facebook feeds, even as the mainstream media struggles to catch up with the pace.

In an interview with Tibetans recently arrived in India, one woman told me, “WeChat is set to become more obligatory in the daily lives of many Tibetan people.” At the same time, there is scrutiny of WeChat, which has been linked to an alarming rise in arrests of Tibetans. That, combined with the implementation of the recent cybersecurity laws, makes many Tibetans practice self-censorship on WeChat: discussing more about social matters and reposting and forwarding messages that are nonpolitical.

This Tibetan told me that she realized her phone was tapped, and her calls and text messages were under surveillance. Before she left Tibet, the Internet Security Bureau surprised her with their ability to repeat her words and voice messages precisely when they called her in for interrogation.

WeChat in Exile

In every nook and corner of Tibetan communities in India, many Tibetans are becoming addicted to Tencent apps, which they use extensively. People glued to their phone screens are a common sight, and many are sending voice or video messages, playing PubG, or using other functions to communicate.་ The popularity of WeChat stems from the ease of use, as well as the fact that voice messages do not require literacy in Tibetan. This means that Tibetans who may not be able to read Tibetan can still participate in groups and share their views and ideas confidently.

In a field survey with 550 participants from across India conducted by the author in 2018, 70.90 percent of Tibetans reported using the WeChat app extensively to connect with their family in Tibet, diaspora and abroad. And WeChat is reportedly only gaining popularity in Tibetan communities in exile.

Fig 1. The most popular social media platforms among Tibetans. Data from author field survey.

A Tibetan roadside vendor at McLeodganj explains:

My parents are in Tibet and calls are expensive. Being deprived of formal education, I was introduced to a software called WeChat by my friend in 2012. I found it is just user friendly and does not necessarily require a fast internet connection and literacy. Since then I have been using this application. I can hold a button and talk to my family and relatives in any way at any time. I can get updates on many news and information. I even joined some chat groups and actively participated during the 2016 Tibetan election by airing my views.

But I strongly believe that I am under surveillance since the application is made in China. I rarely talk about and post any political related messages and images on my feed.

Another Tibetan man I spoke to explained to me how his family in Tibet would talk with him on WeChat almost daily. But surprisingly, one day he found that he had been removed from the family group chat, and that his parents had blocked him without any further explanation. He was notified that they were changing their profile pictures and status on WeChat but was unable to send a message or get in touch with them thereafter. This incident has left him with questions — he assumes that the Chinese cyber police might have warned his family against contacting someone outside of Tibet.

WeChat and Beijing

Tencent has officially denied any government involvement in privacy matters several times. It is, however, an accepted reality that Chinese officials censor and monitor WeChat users. WeChat also states in its privacy policy that it may share users’ data with “government, public, regulatory, judicial and law enforcement bodies or authorities” to “comply with applicable laws and regulations.” On a technical level, thus, WeChat does not offer users much protection against government surveillance. Cases of Tibetans being arrested for circulating messages that have been deemed politically sensitive evince this.

As a company based in China, WeChat is subject to state laws on content control, and while WeChat claims to be end-to-end encrypted, there is a significant evidence to suggest that client-side censorship based on keyword and surveillance is prevalent, including erasing messages that are deemed politically sensitive issues.

One Tibetan girl, who went from Lhasa to study abroad in Europe, told me why she quit WeChat. When she was at home, she created a chat group and invited 30 of her classmates on it for a dinner party. Soon after, to her horror, she was called in by government officials for severe interrogation and warned against creating any future chat groups for classmates. Later, out of frustration with the lack of privacy, she eventually quit WeChat. She further explains, “I felt insecure after the interrogation and became very cautious. I realized that the Chinese apps are absolutely not safe.”

The problem is larger than WeChat. In some villages in Tibet, police are taking away people’s phones and secretly installing an app that extracts data from emails, texts messages, and contacts. The surveillance app searches for information on a range of material, including literature by the Dalai Lama and messages that are deemed politically sensitive.

Tibet continues to witness a severe clampdown on WeChat, part of a broader crackdown on social media throughout China. Users face the threat of imprisonment if they are found responsible for “online rumors.” China has been cracking down hard on WeChat users who demonstrate sympathy and support for the Tibetan cause and blocking any avenues for the spread of relevant information. Restrictions and fines have thus been on rise for sharing “illegal” content on WeChat.

In addition to the notorious firewall, the government can censor specific words to try and control the narrative of any given incident by pushing their own agenda and restricting citizens’ freedom of expression. However, many Tibetan and Chinese netizen use images and memes to portray a serious topic in a lighthearted manner, and further increase the spread of information.

“Fake News”

The influx of information has led to a preponderance of news about conditions in Tibet. However, the catch is that false rumors are hard to tell apart from real news. Due to the security risks involved, it is difficult to validate news on Tibet, which primarily comes by way of social media.

The spread of “fake news” has become a global concern. False, misleading, or confusing online content created by fake accounts can harm the unity and harmony of any society. Unfortunately, lies and rumors are often taken seriously, and baseless allegations among Tibetans have the serious potential to affect the struggle to advocate the cause of Tibet.

Through my research, I found that some of the key factors behind growing paranoia and possible divisions in the Tibetan movement are lies and unverified rumors created by many fake accounts on popular social media outlets like WeChat and Facebook. These platforms raise concerns surrounding the dissemination of false or misleading information, as they lack the gatekeeping and verification processes that traditional media have. The convergence of traditional and new media as a means of information dissemination has raised questions regarding where to draw the line between regulation and censorship, and how to balance freedom of expression with inflammatory and provocative speech.

While enjoying the benefits of WeChat, we should be wary of the negative effects. In short, while WeChat has become and continues to be a popular medium for social interaction and bridging private and public lives, the safety of the application and security of shared content remains a legitimate concern for everyone.

Tenzin Dalha is a research fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute, doing research on Chinese cybersecurity policy and the social media landscape of Tibetan society.