18. Jul 2010
Kyirong land port moving forward
(Himalayan Times; TibetInfoNet) Beijing is expanding its engagement in Nepal by building a huge land port connecting it with the South Asian region as a whole via Nepal's Rasuwa area. The plan involves Chinese participation in infrastructure development in Nepal linking it to the new port. The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government has said that Kyirong (Chin: Jilong) port, in Shigatse (Chin: Xigaze) prefecture, will begin operations in 2011. The purpose is to make Kyirong the "biggest land trade channel of TAR to South Asia" over the next three to five years, a TAR government spokesperson said. "An expanded and enhanced connectivity between the two countries also open the avenues for Nepal being a transit country between the two giant economies, China and India", a Nepali government statement said.
18. Jul 2010
Plastic bags banned in Tibet
(Xinhua) The authorities have banned ultra-thin plastic bags in the TAR. In a circular, the government ordered all prefectures and counties to replace these bags with cloth ones. The move is mainly aimed at tackling pollution at tourist sites, Xinhua reported. The government has banned the manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags that are under 0.025 mm thick by the end of 2010 to curb 'white pollution' in the region. Although Beijing had banned these bags throughout the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 2008, many remote Tibetan areas are yet to implement the ban.
20. Jul 2010
Kyirong/Rasuwa custom point to open for tourists
(Himalayan Times; TibetInfoNet) Dr Songping Wang, executive director of Tibet Tourism Administration said that a new custom point between Nepal and Tibet at Kyirong (Chin: Jilong) will help encourage more tourist flow into Nepal, and the PRC too. Wang added he is looking forward to bilateral tourism promotion between Nepal and the government of the TAR. "Development of more border points can help to develop Trans Himalayan tourism activities", he said. The Nepalese Consul in Lhasa, also present at a programme organised jointly by Tibet Tourism Administration and Chinese Foreign Ministry, requested tour operators, travel agencies, government officials in Lhasa to encourage tourists to visit Nepal. Although officially reopened for many years, and the traditional link between Nepal and Tibet, the border point which links the Kyirong and Rasuwa districts has remained unused in favour of the route via Tatopani/Dram (Chin: Zhangmu; Nepali: Khasa) further east.
21. Jul 2010
Report slams security forces in Tibet
(HRW) A new report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) claims eyewitness accounts confirm that Chinese security forces used disproportionate force and acted with deliberate brutality during and after the Tibetan protests of 2008. HRW say that many violations continue, including disappearances, wrongful convictions and imprisonment, persecution of families, and the targeting of Tibetans suspected of sympathising with the protest movement. The 73-page report, "‘I Saw It with My Own Eyes': Abuses by Security Forces in Tibet, 2008-2010", is based on more than 200 interviews with Tibetan eyewitness conducted outside China, as well as some official Chinese sources.
21. Jul 2010
Production begins at Gyama
(TibetInfoNet; Xinhua) Xinhua reports that production has begun at the controversial Gyama polymetallic mine in Maldrogongkar (Chin: Mozhugongka) county, Lhasa municipality, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). A China National Gold Group (CNGG) subsidiary, Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Co., started construction of the project in 2008.The People's Daily said that it is currently the largest mining project operated by a central state-owned enterprise in Tibet, and one of the eight priority construction projects in the TAR. There were strong protests against the project by local Tibetans during 2009.
26. Jul 2010
China to expand lithium production in Qinghai
(Xinhua) Lithium extraction from Qinghai province's salt lakes is set to expand over the next five years to meet a surge in demand from manufacturers of lithium batteries, according to the China Daily newspaper. The province has the PRC's largest reserves of lithium and accounts for nearly 90 percent of its output, the report said. Liu Shanqing, director of Qinghai's Land and Resources Department said the plan is to increase lithium carbonate output from 6,000 tons in 2009 to 30,000 tons. Citic National Security Lithium Technology Corporation will produce about 25,000 tons, with Qinghai Lithium Co accounting for most of the rest.
27. Jul 2010
Monk commits suicide
(Tibet.net) A 70-year-old monk named Ngawang Gyatso committed suicide due to an "intolerable depression" that has been blamed on the stress of the 'Patriotic education' campaign at the lama's monastery, Ronpo, in Nagchu (Chin: Naqu), TAR. A report by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said that during the campaign, monks were arrested for having pictures of the Dalai Lama and for contacting the outside world concerning the reincarnation of Rongpo Choje. As the campaign intensified, the monastery's head discipline officer, Tashi Tensang, and a monk named Jampa became mentally ill, which compelled the former to leave the monastery. A major source of tension was the authorities' insistence that monks denounce the Dalai Lama and Rongpo monastery's Lama Dawa.
28. Jul 2010
Floods disrupt Lhasa train services
(Xinhua) All trains to and from Lhasa passing through Shaanxi province were cancelled due to floods and other rain-triggered disasters, Xinhua reported. The report did not say whether any of the railway tracks had been damaged. However, damage to highways was reported; a landslide in Bomi County in Tibet's Nyingtri Prefecture destroyed part of a highway linking the TAR and Sichuan province.
28. Jul 2010
UN "extremely concerned" over Nepal's refoulement of Tibetans
(AFP; ICT) The United Nations has confirmed that Nepal forcibly repatriated three Tibetans who clandestinely crossed the border from Tibet in early June 2010. The UN refugee agency said it was "extremely concerned" by the move and that it had written to the Nepalese government about the incident. This is the first such case to be reported since 2003. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) published a report according to which two of the three Tibetans - a monk and a young woman - are now in jail in Tibet, while the third was allowed to return to his monastery. The reports alleged that the three Tibetans were taken back to the border by helicopter, accompanied by "a Nepalese politician" and a policeman.
29. Jul 2010
Senior CPC leader calls for more care for disciplinary cadres
(Xinhua) He Guoqiang, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee, has called for greater care to be offered to cadres in disciplinary work in "grassroots and under-developed areas". He made the remarks on a meeting with "discipline officials" from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and the Tibet Autonomous region (TAR) at the seaside resort of Beidaihe, Hebei Province. He, also chief of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said the officials had devoted themselves and made great contributions to local government and Party discipline inspection work.
