Communication Disruptions in Tibetan Areas Impede Flow of Information

June 25, 2008

Cell phone, landline, and Internet transmissions have reportedly been disrupted in Tibetan areas of western China, according to foreign media, overseas Tibetan groups, and the blog of a noted Tibetan writer in reports from mid-March to late April. The disruptions come amidst protests by Tibetans that began on March 10.

Cell phone, landline, and Internet transmissions have reportedly been disrupted in Tibetan areas of western China, according to foreign media, overseas Tibetan groups, and the blog of a noted Tibetan writer in reports from mid-March to late April. The disruptions come amidst protests by Tibetans that began on March 10. It is unclear to what extent the measures are necessary to protect security in those areas, but their effect, along with other measures such as the ban on foreign journalists entering large parts of western China, have made it difficult to access and confirm information about the protests.

Both the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) and Xinhua have reported that local police have confiscated communication equipment such as cell phones, cameras, fax machines, receivers for overseas TV channels, and computers from multiple monasteries in Sichuan and Gansu provinces. (See April 1 and April 5 TCHRD articles, and March 29 and April 16 Xinhua articles.) The Xinhua articles noted that the police also confiscated various weapons and explosives from the monasteries. Woeser (or Weise, Oezer), a noted Tibetan writer who has used her Chinese blog to feature frequent updates on the protests, reported in an April 28 entry that military police confiscated cameras and cell phones from a Qinghai province monastery on April 19.

Specific Reports of Disruptions (in chronological order)

  • A March 15 Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE) report said that home telephones and cell phones had been "disconnected in many parts of Tibet" as part of "tight restrictions on communication with the outside world."
  • Residents in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, reported that cell phone and landline signals were intermittently disrupted, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports of March 20 and March 31 (link no longer available).
  • Woeser reported in an entry for March 24 (Chinese, English translation by China Digital Times) that three townships in Luhuo (Draggo) County, Ganzi (Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Sichuan were surrounded by military police and phone calls could not get through to those townships following protest activity in the area.
  • A March 27 Woeser blog entry reports that phone calls and other means of communication are only able to intermittently get through to the Sera and Drepung monasteries in Lhasa. The entry also reported that residents in Tibetan areas of Gansu and Sichuan avoid discussing the unrest over the phone, and that calls from overseas are quickly cut off when the protests are mentioned.
  • An April 3 International Campaign for Tibet report said that authorities were "targeting Tibetans with cell phones" and that one Tibetan had been detained because of text messages from the person's family.
  • An April 4 TGiE report said that for over a week at Lhasa's Tibet University, "mobile phones, internet and other devices have been disconnected."
  • An April 7 RFA article noted the difficulties its reporter encountered when trying to call sources to find out more information about reports of protests and injuries in Daofu (Tawu) County, Ganzi TAP, Sichuan. These included failed connections to landline phones and calls to cell phones that were immediately cut off. The article noted that phone lines in Gansu, Qinghai, and other Tibetan areas were not completely cut, but that calls to previous sources' telephones were answered by busy signals or the playing of a Tibetan song. The article also said that some sources whose phones were functioning were reluctant to speak with the reporter.
  • An April 25 Radio France Internationale article reported that no calls could get through to phones at the Drepung and Sera monasteries, so little information could be obtained about the condition of monks from those monasteries who had been detained.

For information on other measures that have impeded the free flow of information about the Tibetan protests, see previous CECC analyses on the ban on foreign journalists entering Tibetan areas to cover the protests and censorship of the Internet and foreign news broadcasts following the protests.