(TibetanReview.net, Oct20, 2017) – In what is sure to be challenged as a patent lie by those in the know, the Chinese boss in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has maintained while addressing the press in Beijing on Oct 19 that Tibetans under his rule remained free to travel abroad.
Wu Yingjie, Communist Party of China (CPC) secretary of TAR, said there are no restrictions on overseas travel for Tibetans, including monks and nuns, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Oct 19.
The briefest of report said Wu made the remarks while answering questions from the media after a panel discussion of the report of the 19th CPC National Congress.
It was earlier reported by the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (Washington) Sep 19 that the local Chinese government had promised that Tibetans would be returned their passports, confiscated in Jan 2017, by March. Those passports were seized or otherwise confiscated to prevent the Tibetans from visiting India or attending a major religious teaching being given by Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at Bodh Gaya, India.
In fact, no passports had been issued or returned to Tibetans ever since, the report added.