Authorities in China’s Gansu province have, according to a report (December 10) issued by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), detained three Tibetans, including a painter of traditional religious art, apparently for sharing politically sensitive information on the social-media messaging platform WeChat. The three were taken into custody in Sangchu (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in Gansu’s Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture just days ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Dec. 10, 1989 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The Washington, D.C.-based ICT identified two of those detained as Tsegan, in his mid-30s, and thangka painter Lubum Dorjee. It added that notices circulated by Chinese government departments in Kanlho earlier this year had threatened closer police scrutiny of messages shared on WeChat and warned chat group members not to publish “illegal information” or “spread rumors.” Radio Free Asia separately reported that Chinese authorities in Tibet now offer cash awards of as much as 300,000 yuan (U.S. $42,582) for information leading to the arrests of social-media users deemed disloyal to China.
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