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

Should the Middle-Way policy be put to vote again?

Source: https://www.tibetsun.com/ By Norbu Tsering TORONTO, Canada, 23 March 2021 This question is becoming more and more relevant as we observe the proceedings of the Parliament. Those MPs who favour Rangzen dismiss the Middle-Way policy as a failed policy of unnecessarily appeasing China. No matter the subject of discussion at read more →

China retaliates after coordinated sanctions by western countries over Xinjiang abuses

The Wion 23 March 2021 After the US, the EU, Britain, and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials for excesses against Muslims in Xinjiang region, China hit back at the countries with sanctions of their own. Soon after the coordinated western sanctions, China responded with sanctions of their own, mostly read more →

Australian parliament debates motion on rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang

Reuters. March 22, 2021.  Parliaments in Canada and the Netherlands drew rebukes from Beijing after they passed non-binding motions in February that said the treatment of China’s Uighur Muslim minority constituted genocide. “The most egregious, systematic abuse of human rights in the world is occurring in Xinjiang,” said Kevin Andrews, read more →

The flowers of a camp in Xinjiang

By Palden Sonam Taipei Times 20 March 2021 Once I watched a Chinese movie called The Flowers of War, which depicts the horrors of war atrocities in Nanjing when Imperial Japan occupied the Chinese city in 1937. In one of the most heart-rending scenes from the movie, a Chinese woman with read more →

What Lies Behind China’s Belt and Road Initiative?

Prem Shankar Jha for The Wire. China’s prompt withdrawal of its troops and armour from the eastern part of the grey zone around Pangong lake between the Indian and Chinese defined Lines of Actual Control has confirmed the hypothesis advanced in several previous columns on this platform, that its purpose, from the start, was read more →

China opens its borders to foreigners who take Chinese shots, as geopolitical vaccine silos emerge

Julia Hollingsworth CNN 20 March 2021 Hong Kong (CNN) — China is making it easier for foreigners to enter the country. But there’s one condition: they need to have received a China-made Covid-19 vaccine. At least 23 Chinese embassies around the world issued new visa policies over the past week with this read more →

US is ‘fundamentally at odds’ with China, says top American diplomat

Yashwant Raj, Hindustan Times. March 20, 2021. Blinken warned the Chinese against betting against the US and Sullivan chided them for their lack of confidence in dealing with criticism. The United States and China are “fundamentally at odds”, American Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday after the conclusion of read more →

In First Talks, Dueling Accusations Set Testy Tone for U.S.-China Diplomacy

By Lara Jakes New York Times March 19 2021 ANCHORAGE — Even before the Biden administration’s first face-to-face meeting with senior Chinese diplomats on Thursday, American officials predicted the discussions would not go well. They were right: The traditional few minutes of opening greetings and remarks dissolved into more than an read more →

France rebuffs China after warnings to lawmakers over Taiwan visit

Reuters 17 March 2021 PARIS (Reuters) – French Senators are free to meet whomever they wish when they travel, the country’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday after the Chinese embassy in Paris warned against lawmakers meeting officials during an upcoming visit to self-ruled Taiwan. China’s ambassador in February sent a read more →

China catalyzes the consolidation of the ‘Quad’

Brahma Chellaney Japan Times 18 March 2021 The “Quad,” as its recent virtual summit underscored, has come a long way in cementing a strategic coalition of the leading democracies of the Indo-Pacific region. Comprising Australia, India, Japan and the United States, it has gradually sharpened its edges since 2019 in read more →

China’s Panchen Lama: ‘Anti-China Forces’ Hype Tibet For Political Gain

Reported by Lobsang Gelek for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney. Tibet’s Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama in a speech this month slammed what he called foreign interference in Tibetan affairs, saying that “anti-China forces” care nothing for the Tibetan people and only raise issues read more →

Bolstered by allies, Biden officials take blunt message to first China talks

Michael Martina, Yew Lun Tian, Humeyra Pamuk Reuters 17 March 2021 WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States will take an uncompromising stance in talks with China on Thursday in Alaska, officials have said, in the first face-to-face meetings between senior officials from the two rivals since U.S. President Joe Biden took office. read more →

Why is Britain standing up to China

WION 16 March 2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged that China will pose a “great challenge” for the UK as he set out the findings of a major review of foreign policy. Addressing the British parliament, Johnson said that the UK has “led the international community in expressing our read more →

EU agrees China sanctions over Uighur crackdown

Economic Times 17 March 2021 EU member states have agreed to impose sanctions on four Chinese officials and one state-owned entity over Beijing’s crackdown on the Uighur minority, European diplomats said Wednesday. Ambassadors from the 27 countries gave the green light for the measures as part of a package of read more →

US sanctions 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials

Washington Post 17 March 2021 HONG KONG — The U.S. sanctioned an additional 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over Beijing’s ongoing crackdown on political freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, including a decision to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system. The sanctions announced Tuesday in Washington were introduced under the Hong read more →