CHINA-INTERNAL: TIBET AND 19TH PARTY CONGRESS

Authorities have banned travel to Tibet from outside the politically sensitive region while the top-level meetings of the CCP are held. Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on September 29, 2017, that authorities in Sichuan province are tightening controls on undocumented driving by Tibetans ahead of major meetings of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing in October. According to RFA, police were recently deployed in  Barma town in Dzamthang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county in Sichuan’s Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefectures, to monitor traffic in the area and check drivers for proper documents. “Anyone caught without the right papers will be detained for 15 days and fined 2,000 yuan [U.S. $300].” RFA's source said “Many Tibetan nomads in the area own motorcycles and other vehicles, but few of them have driver’s licenses or registration papers, and authorities have left them alone and allowed them to travel freely until now.” However, with the approach of the 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress, to be held in Beijing from Oct. 18 to 28, “authorities have begun imposing travel restrictions and are checking licenses and other documents.”Police in the Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Serthar (Seda) county have also issued orders barring motorcycle traffic in the county ahead of the October 1 National Day celebrations. Police are also warning Tibetan residents of Dzamthang not to stage political protests or create “other incidents” while the Party meetings are being held. 

(Comment: Authorities  have stepped up nationwide "stability maintenance" measures across China targeting anyone with a critical opinion of the Chinese Communist Party or President Xi Jinping.)






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