(TibetanReview.net, Jul01’21) – Chinese authorities have placed a Tibetan writer in Rebkong (Chinese: Tongren) County of Qinghai Province under restrictive surveillance after they found she had maintained contact with people outside the People’s Republic of China and a well-known Tibetan writer in Beijing, reported the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Jun 30.
The victim, Pema Tso, is the author of numerous articles and poems published in Tibetan magazines and has been teaching Tibetan language in Rebkong for the past 30 years, the report said.
“Since 2020, Chinese authorities started restraining Pema Tso, saying that she had contact with people outside Tibet, specifically Beijing-based Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser,” the report quoted a local source as saying.
Woeser writes a column for Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan Service and is herself a victim of Chinese government surveillance. She was removed from her government job in Tibet for her writings and poems.
Pema Tso was “accused of owning sensitive political documents and books. She is currently barred from attending any schools or lectures,” the source was quoted as saying.
Pema Tso was born in the 1960s in Rebkong, the capital of the Malho (Huangnan) Prefecture, Qinghai Province. She graduated from Qinghai Public University in 1987, majoring in Tibetan language. She is said to have won many literary awards for her writings.