(TibetanReview.net, Jun09’24) —Chinese government regulations and procedures that have historically impeded travel to Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Tibetan areas outside the TAR for US diplomats and officials, journalists, and tourists remained in place in 2023, witnessing no improvement over 2022. Three TAR travel requests made by US officials during the year were rejected. China applied to the TAR regulations to control travel of international visitors the like of which does not exist for travel to any other provincial level entity in China, said the US State Department in its latest annual report on the implementation of the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018.
For diplomats and officials, travel to Tibetan areas outside of the TAR did not require a permit or special notification beyond the requirements in place for other parts of China. However, municipal and prefecture-level PRC and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, which are often responsible for access restrictions to these areas, gave rise to differing conditions, making it difficult to determine the rationale and timing for these restrictions.
Besides, PRC security forces have used conspicuous surveillance to intimidate, monitor, harass, and restrict the movements of US diplomats, officials, and foreigners, including while on personal travel to Tibetan areas, the report said.
Tibetan Americans regularly have faced restrictions on their travel to Tibetan areas, although anecdotal reports suggest they had more access to the TAR than in 2022. Access to these areas for journalists remained restricted and limited.
The report said the TAR continued to be the only area of PRC that Chinese authorities required diplomats and other foreign officials to formally request permission to visit. Diplomats could not purchase air or train tickets to enter the region without official approval.
Diplomats and other foreign officials did not face additional formal restrictions on travel to Tibetan areas outside of the TAR; however, PRC officials sometimes used conspicuous surveillance to intimidate, monitor, harass, and restrict travel to these areas, the report said.
For visiting Tibet, a 1989 central government regulation requires international visitors, to obtain an official confirmation letter issued by the TAR government, which reports to the central government in Beijing, before entering the TAR. They are required to be accompanied by a designated tour guide. Permission to enter TAR by road was rarely granted. Access to the TAR for many international tourists is denied during periods the PRC government considered politically sensitive, including the March anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising against China’s invasion of Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s birthday in July.
The report also said Tibetan Americans undergo a stricter screening process when applying for PRC visas. Their applications are processed through the United Front Work Department (UFWD), often require a letter from a relative or host in the Tibetan area, an in-person interview with the PRC Embassy or Consulate officer in charge of Tibetan affairs, and submission of personal documents such as copies of naturalization certificates, birth certificates, school and work records, affidavits and other materials.
Tibetan American visitors were stated to have reported more frequent harassment by security officials in Tibetan areas than in other parts of China, including being required to report to the local UFWD office where some were reportedly interrogated, threatened, and forced to download tracking software on their phones.
TAR remains the only region in the PRC where regulations require international journalists to obtain prior permission to travel, with the vast majority of US journalists’ requests to visit and report from the region being rejected, the report said, citing data compiled by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC), the professional organization for the international press corps based in China. The FCCC’s 2022 annual report was cited as saying none of the three foreign journalists who applied to travel to TAR was approved.
While US diplomats and other officials did not have to apply to travel to Tibetan areas outside of the TAR, access to specific areas would sometimes be blocked and official meetings with local government, religious, and community leaders required local Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) permission, as was common practice in many localities throughout China. Besides, PRC security personnel have used conspicuous monitoring to intimidate those traveling to Tibetan areas outside of the TAR, the report said.
During visits in previous years to Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, and Yunnan provinces, local authorities prohibited US diplomats from entering certain monasteries, blocked off specific roads, prevented them from having meetings or conversations with local interlocutors, and monitored their conversations, the report said.
The report said the PRC government did not disclose its decision-making process for granting permission to travel to the TAR, nor did it share the names of officials involved in issuing travel permits to US citizens to visit the TAR.
The Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act requires the US government to deny Chinese government officials access to the United States if they are responsible for creating or implementing restrictions on American government officials, journalists, independent observers and tourists seeking access to Tibet.