For decades, the Tibetan services of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) served as lifelines — beacons of truth, piercing the fog of censorship that envelops Tibet. These broadcasts were not mere news bulletins; they were instruments of dignity, connection and resistance. Their recent suspension is not just a bureaucratic decision — it is a moral and strategic failure that must be urgently reversed.
From the snowbound monasteries of Amdo to the refugee settlements of South India, Tibetan listeners tuned in to hear the world speak to them in their own tongue. In a land where information is tightly controlled and history rewritten, VOA and RFA offered unvarnished facts: global events, Tibetan affairs, spiritual teachings and cultural preservation. They were trusted not because they were perfect, but because they were consistent, courageous and rooted in the Tibetan experience.
Inside Tibet, where Chinese state media dominates and surveillance is omnipresent, shortwave broadcasts became a quiet act of defiance. Monks hid radios beneath robes. Farmers listened under starlight. These broadcasts informed Tibetans of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s travels, international support for human rights and the voices of exiled leaders. They reminded listeners that Tibet was not forgotten — and that truth could still cross borders.
In exile, VOA and RFA helped knit together a scattered people. They offered a shared narrative, a common vocabulary of struggle and hope. For younger generations born in India, Nepal or the West, these broadcasts were bridges to ancestral memory. For elders, they were echoes of a homeland lost, but not erased.
The decision to suspend these services — whether due to budgetary constraints or shifting priorities — betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of their value. In an era of digital saturation, it is tempting to assume that social media and online platforms suffice.
However, in Tibet, where Internet access is filtered and monitored, shortwave remains one of the few reliable conduits of uncensored information. In exile, where identity is fragile and assimilation relentless, Tibetan-language broadcasts are cultural oxygen.
The geopolitical stakes are high. China’s narrative on Tibet is aggressive, well-funded and global. It seeks to portray Tibetan resistance as obsolete, His Holiness as irrelevant and exile as futile. VOA and RFA countered this narrative — not with propaganda, but with pluralism. They offered interviews, debates and stories that reflected the diversity and resilience of the Tibetan people.
To silence these voices is to abandon the very principles that justify their existence: freedom of expression, support for oppressed peoples and the defense of truth. It is to signal to Tibetans — inside and outside — that their story no longer matters. That is unacceptable.
Reinstating VOA and RFA Tibetan broadcasts is not just a technical fix. It is a reaffirmation of commitment. It tells the world that the Tibetan struggle is not a relic, but a living movement. It tells Tibetans that their language, their truth and their dignity still have a place on the global stage.
Let the radios hum again in the highlands. Let the voices return. The world is listening — and so are the Tibetans.
Khedroob Thondup is a former member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
Chile has elected a new government that has the opportunity to take a fresh look at some key aspects of foreign economic policy, mainly a greater focus on Asia, including Taiwan. Still, in the great scheme of things, Chile is a small nation in Latin America, compared with giants such as Brazil and Mexico, or other major markets such as Colombia and Argentina. So why should Taiwan pay much attention to the new administration? Because the victory of Chilean president-elect Jose Antonio Kast, a right-of-center politician, can be seen as confirming that the continent is undergoing one of its periodic political shifts,
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
Taiwan’s long-term care system has fallen into a structural paradox. Staffing shortages have led to a situation in which almost 20 percent of the about 110,000 beds in the care system are vacant, but new patient admissions remain closed. Although the government’s “Long-term Care 3.0” program has increased subsidies and sought to integrate medical and elderly care systems, strict staff-to-patient ratios, a narrow labor pipeline and rising inflation-driven costs have left many small to medium-sized care centers struggling. With nearly 20,000 beds forced to remain empty as a consequence, the issue is not isolated management failures, but a far more
RSS