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UN rights chief says China committing violations in Xinjiang, Tibet

Geneva, Switzerland Reuters UN human rights chief Volker Turk on Monday called on China to implement recommendations to amend laws that violate fundamental rights, including in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions. Rights groups accuse Beijing of widespread abuses of Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of […]

China pushes adoption of language, cultural symbols in Tibet

Tibet Lhasa Wang Yang

Beijing, China AP A top Chinese official said Thursday that “all-round efforts” are needed to ensure Tibetans speak standard spoken and written Chinese and share the “cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation.”  Wang Yang made the remarks before a handpicked audience in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the home of Tibet’s […]

“Running out of time”: Tibetan President-elect warns of cultural genocide

Exiled Tibetan leaders 2011

Beijing, China/New Delhi, India Reuters The top political leader of Tibet’s government in exile said on Friday that there is an urgent threat of “cultural genocide” in Tibet, and the international community must stand up to China ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.  Penpa Tsering, who was this month elected president of the Central […]

Explainer: What’s driving a possible boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics?

Olympics exiled Tibetans protest

AP Some kind of boycott is almost sure to affect next year’s Beijing Winter Olympics. It’s driven by the widely reported internment of Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in China, which has been termed a genocide by human rights groups. In this 3rd February, file photo, exiled Tibetans use the Olympic Rings as a […]

Tibetans in exile vote in India for their political leader

Exiled Tibetans vote in India

Dharmsala, India AP Hundreds of Tibetans in exile braved the rain and cold Sunday in India’s northern city of Dharmsala, where the exiled government is based, and voted for their new political leader as the current officeholder’s five-year term nears its end. The voters wore masks, maintained social distance and used hand sanitiser as they […]

Fifty thousand Catholics baptised in China in 2017

Cathedral in China

World Watch Monitor Catholic church in Beijing PICTURE: World Watch Monitor Almost 50,000 Catholic baptisms were recorded in mainland China last year, reports Catholic news agency Fides. The 48,556 recorded baptisms “reflect the vitality and the missionary dynamism of a community that fully lives faith”, Fides said, adding that the actual number of people baptised may […]