(TibetanReview.net, Aug11’21) – Chinese police in Yushu County of Qinghai province have arrested three Tibetans for sharing on their WeChat social media platform photos of public events held in their locality, said the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Aug 10. The photos were apparently of celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
The three men – Rinchen Dorje and Kelsang Nyima of Domda Village and Lhundup of Dza Sershul Township, were taken away following random police inspections of their area, the report said, citing a local source.
They were accused of sharing photos of local events on the WeChat social media platform with Tibetans living abroad, the report cited the source as saying, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Those taken away were said to belong to a WeChat group called the United Association having members both inside and outside Tibet.
WeChat has remained banned in India since the middle of last year.
Plans for celebrations marking the 70th anniversary were cut from three to two days and held just recently with lots of restrictions. Residents were forbidden to discuss the events or sharing information about them with the outside world. Police conducted inspections on the streets and playgrounds to enforce the ban.
The three were stated to have been taken away in handcuffs during such inspections, the report said.
China has imposed a blanket ban on Tibetans across the PRC from communicating with fellow-Tibetans living abroad with the aim to stop the flow of any sort of unpalatable news to the outside world.
