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

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 →

Democracies Should Help Liberate Tibet – For All Humanity

Tsering Samphel for Taiwan Times. Sixty years ago, on March10, 1959, in Lhasa, the holy city, in the capital city of Tibet, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans formed a massive barricade around Norbulingka, the summer palace of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama to safeguard him and their country from falling read more →

Quad summit | Small cliques will destroy international order, says China

Ananth Krishnan | The Hindu | 15 March 2021  In a strong reaction to Friday’s first leaders’ summit of the Quad — India, the United States, Japan and Australia — and the upcoming visits this week of the U.S. Secretary of Defence to Japan, South Korea and India, China’s Foreign Ministry hit out read more →

‘Tibet Hill’ Proposed For Site Near New Chinese Embassy in London

Reported and translated by Tashi Wangchuk for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney. March 16, 2021. Diplomats working at a Chinese Embassy to be built in the borough of Tower Hamlets in London’s East End should be reminded each day of their government’s treatment of Tibetans and read more →

Encrypted messaging app Signal blocked in China

Washington Post | 16 March 2021 HONG KONG — Encrypted messaging app Signal appears to have been blocked in mainland China, the latest foreign social media service to cease working in a country where the government tightly controls the flow of information. As of Tuesday, users of the app within read more →

The Right Way to Boycott the Beijing Olympics: Opinion I Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney for The New York Times. As the Beijing Olympic Games approach, it is increasingly clear that China, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party does not deserve an Olympic showcase. Because it is too late to move the Winter Games scheduled for Beijing next February, some have read more →

‘Discipline Committees’ Boost Surveillance, Tighten Security in Tibet

Reported by Lobsang Gelek for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney. Hundreds of so-called Discipline Committees set up by Chinese authorities are imposing tightened security measures across Tibet, with almost 2,000 “inspectors” deployed in rural areas to oversee the functioning of villages and read more →

Breaking WeChat ban: Three Tibetan teens go missing, one hospitalised

India Blooms News Service,13 Mar 2021, 10:56 am Lhasa: Three Tibetan teenagers went missing and even one remained hospitalised with two broken legs after reportedly failing to register a WeChat text group chat with local authorities, as per a report published by a Tibetan advocacy group. On the evening of read more →

Geneva shows the film China wants no one to see

Ai Weiwei’s film Coronation is being shown at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva this weekend. This is a first for the documentary, which delves into the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Swissinfo.ch | March 12, 2021 |    “The read more →

US designates five Chinese companies as security threats

TOI | 14 March 2021 | WASHINGTON: In light of the worsening relations between the United States and China, Washington has labeled Chinese tech companies, including Huawei, as national security threats. “The (US) Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau today released a list of communications equipment and services that have been deemed a threat read more →