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Updated March 19th, 2022 at 06:58 IST

US claims China 'systematically' denies access to Tibet to foreign diplomats, journalists

The US State Department revealed that in 2021, Chinese authorities 'systematically' denied US diplomats, journalists and tourists to travel to Tibet.

Reported by: Rohit Ranjan
China
Image: AP/ Unsplash | Image:self
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The US State Department revealed that in 2021, Chinese authorities 'systematically' denied US diplomats, officials, journalists and tourists to travel to the Tibet Autonomous Territory (TAR) and several other Tibetian places. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in January 2020, Chinese authorities have enforced nationwide travel and entrance restrictions, limiting the ability of foreign diplomats, journalists and tourists to visit the TAR and other Tibetan territories.

A report submitted to the US Congress suggests that international visitors' travel to the TAR required the approval of TAR government travel permits and the TAR authorities routinely denied travel permits to international journalists, diplomats, and other officials, often with indications that the central government had denied the request. The State Department stated that the US diplomats sought to visit the TAR in February 2021 through a diplomatic note but Chinese officials did not let them pay an official visit to the TAR in 2021, despite the embassy's repeated requests with different dates over a six-month period.

Chinese officials consistently turned down requests

The report also said that in 2021, the Chinese government welcomed two delegations of foreign diplomats from a select group of countries and an international journalism delegation in the TAR. However, the report goes on to say that Chinese officials consistently turned down requests to meet with government, religious, and civil society leaders in these areas.

The Chinese security forces frightened US diplomats and officials on their travel to Tibet, followed them, prohibited them from meeting or communicating with local residents, harassed them, and restricted their movement. The report further claims that Tibetan Americans' travel to Tibetan territories has been restricted on a regular basis and that the journalists continued to have restricted and limited access to certain regions in Tibet.

Students in Tibet being teached in Chinese language

In the meanwhile, teachers in the Tibetian region are receiving workshops on teaching the students in Tibet in the Chinese language. Tibet Press claimed that in Tibet's capital Lhasa, all educational topics are now taught in Chinese and the goal is to brainwash the students. Sources suggest that textbooks in the Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai province in northwest China have now been translated into Chinese language.

(Image: AP/ Unsplash)

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Published March 19th, 2022 at 06:58 IST

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