Tibetan blog activist under house arrest after US invite during Secretary of State visit

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Tsering Woser 1

(TibetanReview.net, Jul10, 2014) –Tsering Woeser, a well-known Tibetan blog activist based in Beijing, has been put under house arrest after she received a dinner invitation from the US Embassy during the Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Beijing, reported AP Jul 9. State security officers arrived at her Beijing home late in the night of Jul 8, shortly after she and her husband Wang Lixiong returned from a trip, the report said. Kerry is visiting China for the sixth round of strategic talks between the two countries.

The state security officers have given no reason for the home detention.

AP cited Woeser as saying the US embassy had called her while she and Wang were travelling outside Beijing to extend an invitation to a Jul 9 dinner and that she had accepted it over the phone.

Woeser, a well-known poet and writer in Chinese, is better known in the outside world for her insightful firsthand reports on many aspects of the critical situation in Tibet under Chinese rule.

Last year she was awarded the International Women of Courage Award by the US State Department. Beijing banned her from travelling to Washington to receive the award, thereby enhancing her prestige as a worthy winner of the award. At the award ceremony, Kerry praised her for her courageous writings on Tibetan people and their causes at a time of deteriorating human rights. “Tsering Woeser has emerged as a clarion voice of the people, even as the Chinese government has worked to curtail the flow of information from Tibet,” he said.

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