The Beijing government Wednesday vowed to intensity its crackdown against all "illegal" communications including audio, video and text messaging in Tibet. This move comes just after reports of China's policy of loosening up controls in the region as a 'testing policy' surfaced in the media.
Blaming the overseas Tibetans including the Tibetan government in exile of inciting the ongoing self-immolations in the region, Beijing is gearing up to block communications in Tibet.
"Sharing information and investigating cases will be part of joint prevention and control efforts among multiple provincial departments," said Li Changjiang, a senior official from the national anti-pornography and anti-illegal publications office, according to the Chinese State News Agency Xinhua.
Li said besides audio, video and text messages, all promotional pamphlets, magazines, newspapers, television and radio will also be shut down if they are found to be a "threat" to the country's security and stability.
Since radio is the main source of foreign information for people inside Tibet, the crackdown is likely to block two of the leading over sea radios - Norway based Voice of Tibet and U.S. sponsored Radio Free Asia.
"It is nothing new, they have always been trying to block down the communications and very often they tap all phone communications between over sea Tibetans and Tibetans inside Tibet," said Tenzin Tsering, an exiled Tibetan activist, adding that she never speaks about politics whenever she calls back home in Tibet.
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in an email to HNGN this week said eighteen people in Tawu region of Tibet had sustained severe injuries as a result of firing by the Chinese police upon the Tibetan group celebrating the Dalai Lama's birthday on July 6.
More than one hundred self-immolations have been reported from different parts of Tibet calling for freedom in Tibet and return of the Dalai Lama from exile, according to the Tibetan human rights organization in exile.
Citing official figures, Xinhua on Wednesday said more than 1.32 million "illegal" publications and promotional items had been confiscated in Tibet in the last two years.
