Contact is taking a holiday!

Contact is taking a break after 25 years of bringing you news of Tibet and Tibetan issues. We are celebrating our 25 years by bringing you the story of Contact and the people who have made it happen, and our archive is still there for you to access at any time, and below you can read the story of Contact, how it came into being and the wonderful reflections of the people who have made it happen over the years.

When and how Contact will re-emerge and evolve will be determined by those who become involved.

News From Other Sites

Xi Jinping: Where Does the Power Come From?

Kerry Brown, China Policy Institute: Analysis The consensus on the history of the People’s Republic of China after its establishment in 1949 is that the last seven decades divides into two phases. The first until 1978, broadly covering the Maoist era, saw mass campaigns, Utopian visions guiding social development, and read more →

China set to free last Tiananmen prisoner – but he’ll be frail and ill

South China Morning Post, 14 October 2016 A rights group and fellow former inmate say China’s last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests will be released on Saturday, but that he’ll face freedom a frail and mentally ill man. Miao Deshun’s release follows an 11-month sentence read more →

Tibet infrastructure gives Beijing edge over India in Nepal: Chinese media

Sutirtho Patronobis, Hindustan Times, Beijing Updated: Oct 13, 2016 09:37 IST India and China are competing for influence over Nepal but superior infrastructure in Tibet that borders the land-locked country can give Beijing the edge, the nationalist Global Times said on Thursday. A top expert wrote in the state-controlled newspaper read more →

ALERT! The Chinese are wiping out Tibet

rediff.com / October 13, 2016 10:15 IST The world must hang its head in shame for being a mute spectator to the ‘cultural holocaust’ in Tibet, says Major General Mrinal Suman (retd), who visited Tibet recently. Tibet continues to be an enigma to all visitors. My two visits have been read more →

China’s Tibet tourism statistics just don’t add up

By Simon Denyer and Congcong Zhang, 6 October 2016 – The Washington Post Depending on your perspective, the official statistics for the number of tourists flooding into Tibet are either impressive, or downright scary. The Chinese government says 23 million visitors will enter the Tibetan Autonomous Region this year, an read more →

The absurd face of China’s censorship: Bookstore tears out Taiwan page from Webster’s

Simon Denyer and Luna Lin, The Washington Post, 13 October 2016 Censorship, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once observed, “reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself.” This week, the Chinese government’s lack of confidence was on display as reports emerged that a state-run bookstore in Shanghai had opened read more →

Brics summit in Goa: After isolating Pakistan, India must call China’s bluff

The Firstpost, 13 October 2016 Having isolated Pakistan in the international community reasonably effectively, India will come face to face with China, Pakistan’s mentor and accomplice, at the two-day Brics summit in Goa this weekend. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to at least politely confront Chinese President Xi Jinping read more →

The alphabet soup at Goa

The Hindu, 13 October 2016 As Indian foreign policy looks westwards, the BRICS summit offers India an opportunity to calibrate its outreach to multiple powers. This weekend will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his foreign policy team undertake a complex and significant manoeuvre. This comes at a time when read more →

A Crack of Daylight Enters Chinese Court Proceedings

China rape victim’s mother Tang Hui (L) sits in the Hunan Provincial People’s High Court in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province on July 15, 2013. The court awarded damages to the mother of a rape victim after she was sent to a labour camp for demanding her daughter’s attackers be read more →

The Cultural Revolution in Tibet: A Photographic Record

The New York Times /Sinosphere /By LUO SILING OCT. 3, 2016 In 1999, the Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser came across Wang Lixiong’s book “Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet.” On finishing it, she sent Mr. Wang photographs taken by her father, who was with the People’s Liberation Army when it entered read more →

China says tourism is Tibet’s best hope. But can its culture survive the onslaught?

The Washington Post /By Simon Denyer October 6 LULANG FOLK VILLAGE, China — The original Tibetan village here was bulldozed five years ago. What has replaced it is Lulang Folk Village, a postcard-ready replica, a Disney-esque version of an age-old settlement in the high ­forest. Grand, ornate buildings in ­Tibetan read more →

‘Never imprison my mind’: Hong Kong lawmakers quote Gandhi, insult China

James Griffiths, CNN, 12 October 2016 Hong Kong (CNN) — The first day of the new Hong Kong parliament descended into farce as several young lawmakers staged curse-laden protests at the swearing in of city’s Legislative Council. “I do solemnly swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance read more →

China-India ties are under stress, need recalibration: Former NSA Shivshankar Menon

The Firstpost, 12 October 2016 Washington: Sino-India relationship, which is under stress, needs to be “recalibrated” as the 1988 arrangement is no longer an ‘effective tool’ with the changed situation, former national security advisor Shivshankar Menon has said ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India. “India-China relationship is under read more →

A romantic opera in Tibet just happens to bolster China’s historical position there

The Washington Post /By Simon Denyer October 11 at 2:34 AM It is an epic tale of love between a teenage princess and a noble emperor, of the first bonds of friendship between China and Tibet that sprung up more than 15 centuries ago. It is a tale of how read more →

China targets parents in new religion rules for Xinjiang

Ben Blanchard, Reuters, 12 October 2016 BEIJING (Reuters) – Parents and guardians in China’s heavily Muslim region of Xinjiang who encourage or force their children into religious activities will be reported to the police, the government said on Wednesday while unveiling new education rules. Hundreds of people have died in read more →