China has closed Tibet to foreigners ahead of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, travel agents said yesterday.
China, sensitive to instability or any other perceived threat to one-party rule, is wary of foreigners in its ethnic border areas, which it calls “autonomous regions,” especially ahead of politically charged anniversaries.
“It’s a new rule because of the 90th anniversary celebration,” a travel agent at a major Western hotel in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, said, requesting anonymity. “Even with a tour group, foreigners cannot come.”
A Beijing-based travel agency said it was notified months ago that foreigners would not be allowed in Tibet next month, but hoped that the restriction would be eased in time for important Tibetan festivals in August.
“We had to make a lot of -cancellations, but we don’t know the reasons behind it. Perhaps it has to do with something political,” the Beijing-based travel agent said by telephone.
“We are disappointed because we lost a lot of money. We just have to tell clients we are sorry,” the agent said.
Last month, Beijing told foreigners not to sow unrest in its vast northern region of Inner Mongolia, after rare protests by ethnic Mongolians sparked by the hit-and-run death of a herder garnered international attention.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) has said people overseas had an “ulterior motive” and were trying to use the incident “to cause trouble.”
Foreigners always need permission to travel to Tibet, but the government periodically places Tibetan areas out of bounds.
In April, it banned foreigners from ethnically Tibetan parts of neighboring Sichuan Province, where exiled Tibetans and activists say authorities locked down a Tibetan Buddhist monastery after a young monk burned himself to death.
Many Tibetans chafe at Beijing rule amid fears of an influx of Han Chinese diluting the Tibetan population.
However, Tibet governor Padma Choling (白瑪赤林), pointing to 18 years of double-digit economic growth ahead of the 60th anniversary of Chinese rule over the region, last month said that Chinese rule had rescued Tibet from thousands of years of feudal serfdom.
Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and the Himalayan region’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled to India nine years later after a failed uprising.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS