I am beginning to enjoy reading the “news” that various organs of the Chinese official media are putting out these days on issues relating to Tibet.  In the past, as much as I disagreed with the Chinese propaganda, I had some sort of respect for them. The reports were no doubt drab, boring, didactic, long  and full of clichés. During the pre-electronic media days even the layout of the printed versions...

Radio Free Asia reported today that an underpass being built beneath a main road in central Lhasa has flooded. Excavations for the underpass have apparently disrupted the water table in the vicinity which has led to several nearby trees dying and falling, according to RFA’s sources, and raised fears that the foundations of the Potala Palace itself may be at risk. Surely, there can be few better metaphors for...

Amidst all the bluster and assertiveness coming from the Chinese Foreign Ministry these days, we sometime forget to appreciate their sense of humor. At least the unintentional kind. It has become custom for some state and local officials to declare March 10 as “Tibet Day” to commemorate this important anniversary. This year was no exception, with proclamations or resolutions being approved by the Wisconsin...

I was struck by coincidental statements made last week, from Washington and Beijing, about the question of whether senior Tibetan monks do have, or should have, political roles. In these two cases, the governments of the United States and China are applying contradictory positions on this topic. Perhaps a common and consistent approach could nurture progress on the Tibet issue. Case #1: the Dalai Lama. Before...

On Monday, March 1 as part of the 2010 Tibet Lobby Day activities, ICT and the Capital Area Tibetan Association hosted a reception for Lobby Day participants and friends of ICT. Lodi Gyari, Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Executive Chairman of ICT’s Board of Directors, made remarks to the gathering, highlights of which are reproduced below. Tashi Delek. Let me wish you all a Happy New...

Every year this time, when the annual sessions of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) are held, we can see some activities in Beijing relating to Tibet. This time one such event is the “approval” of the membership of the boy (now man), Gyaltsen Norbu la, that the Chinese have selected as the Panchen Lama. In a terse report, Xinhua said...

As His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrives in town today, I pose a question: Is tomorrow’s meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama getting greater attention than it would have had it been held last October? I think, indisputably, YES, even without the benefit of a time machine to test the hypothesis. Jump back to last summer/fall. We knew two things: (1) the Dalai Lama was scheduled to come to Washington,...

One of the more jarring assertions made by members of the United Front Work Department at the press conference following the just-concluded ninth round of Sino-Tibetan dialogue in Beijing, was that the Dalai Lama is not the legitimate representative of the Tibetan people. (Other jarring assertions could be saved for another blog, such as claims by Sithar – a Tibetan deputy director of the United Front Work...

In its effort to add official censorship to the myriad items it exports to America, Chinese officials are finding that a tussle over free expression in the U.S. can lead to free publicity … for the film it tried to ban. The Chinese government’s demand that the Festival withdraw the film “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” has led to sold out showings and additional screenings...

Don’t go there. That’s the advice the Chinese government should have taken from their Western PR consultants on the decision to bring up race a few days before President Barack Obama makes his first visit to China. Yesterday, it was reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, stated that Barack Obama should be sympathetic to Beijing’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan autonomy because...