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Turquoise Roof
@turquoiseroof.org
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Turquoise Roof, a portal for briefings on Tibet today - policy, development, insights, stories.
https://turquoiseroof.org/
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Congratulations to Gesbeen Mohammad, Guy Creasey, Sofia Fernandez Vyas, & Esella Hawkey for winning the ARTS & CULTURE STORY OF THE YEAR in the @fpalondon.bsky.social Media Awards 2025 for their film:

Inside China: The Battle for Tibet
ITV/FrontlinePBS/@hardcash.bsky.social www.fpalondon-awards.org
WINNER ARTS & CULTURE STORY OF THE YEAR fpa Media Awards 2025 Gesbeen Mohammad, Guy Creasey, Sofia Fernandez Vyas, and Esella Hawkey Inside China: The Battle for Tibet ITV / Frontline PBS / Hardcash Productions Judges comment: The panel thought this was as good as documentaries get – fantastic, absolutely brilliant TV with so much they didn’t know. A clear winner and the strongest finalist. The panel found it particularly relevant that the Chinese Embassy in London called for the broadcast of the programme to be cancelled.
November 30, 2025 at 11:31 PM
turquoiseroof.org
Zhang Yadi (张亚迪), 22, missing in Changsha after alleged detention. She is reported to be fluent in Tibetan, Chinese, English & French, and engaged in academic & rights work linked to #Tibetans. No official info for 47 days.
September 17, 2025 at 9:35 AM
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Xi’s TAR visit underscored tighter CCP control: ethnic unity, #sinicisation of Tibetan Buddhism, big infrastructure, & border security near India. Insightful breakdown by Jayadeva Ranade (CCAS):

www.ccasindia.org/CCAS-XI-IN-T...
As anticipated, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to participate in the celebrations to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the TAR. Due to security concerns he did not visit Lhasa on September 9 – the actual date of the anniversary – but on August 20-21 and the dates of the visit were not disclosed till just hours earlier. Chinese leaders have avoided visiting Lhasa on the actual date of the anniversary for nearly the past fifteen years. The last time China celebrated this anniversary in Lhasa on September 9 was the tenth anniversary in 1975. It has subsequently been held on September 1, except in 2015, when it was held on September 8. (CCAS)
September 14, 2025 at 7:31 PM
turquoiseroof.org
@dawalokyitsang.bsky.social showing how #Tibetans under Chinese #colonialism built chosen families in exile, using schools like TCV in India to create kinship beyond blood, grounded in shared history, loss, & resistance. 🌱 #Resilience
bowdoinorient.com/2025/09/12/a...
Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang gives a talk. Lokyitsang, a Tibetan-American anthropologist, spoke on how Tibetans fleeing from Chinese colonialism found their chosen families among other refugees in India. Photo credit: Abigail Hebert
September 12, 2025 at 1:53 PM
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Internal directives for 2025 show heightened vigilance. A Chengdu “cybersecurity” memo warns of “Tibetan independence” & anti-China activity online, especially around the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday & TAR’s 60th anniversary.
September 1, 2025 at 1:03 PM
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Suranjana Tewari, BBC Asia business correspondent: www.bbc.com/news/article...
What would a stronger relationship mean? India and China are economic powerhouses – the world's fifth- and second-largest, respectively. But with India's growth expected to remain above 6% in the coming years, a $4tn (£3tn) economy and $5tn stock market, it is on the way to becoming the third-largest by 2028, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "While the world has traditionally focused on the single most important bilateral relationship in the world, US and China, it is time we shift more focus on how the second and would-be third largest economies, China and India, can work together," says Qian Liu, founder and chief executive of Wusawa Advisory, based in Beijing. But the relationship is deeply challenging. The two sides have an unresolved and long-standing territorial dispute that signifies a much broader and deeper rivalry. Violence erupted across Ladakh's Galwan Valley in June 2020 – the worst period of hostility between the two countries in more than four decades. The fallout was largely economic – a return of direct flights was taken off the table, visas and Chinese investments were put on hold leading to slower infrastructure projects, and India banned more than 200 Chinese apps, including TikTok. "Dialogue will be needed to help better manage the expectations of other powers who look to India-China as a key factor of Asia's wider stability," says Antoine Levesques, senior fellow for South and Central Asian defence, strategy and diplomacy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. There are other fault lines too, including Tibet, the Dalai Lama, and water disputes over China's plans to build the world's largest hydroelectric power project across a river shared by both nations, as well as tensions with Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack. India also does not currently enjoy good relations with most of its neighbours in South Asia, whereas China is a key trading partner for Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. "I…
August 31, 2025 at 5:24 PM
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习近平率中央代表团抵达拉萨出席西藏自治区成立60周年庆祝活动
2025-08-20 16:31 (Xi Jinping leads a central delegation to Lhasa to attend the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region) archive.is/3dwQG Source: Xinhua News Agency Weibo
Xi Jinping stands on a red carpet outside an Air China plane in Lhasa, greeted by two women in traditional #Tibetan dress who offer ceremonial tasmpa. Xi wears a white khata (Tibetan ceremonial scarf) around his neck and appears to throw a pinch of tsampa into the air (“རྩམ་པ་བཏབ་པ” (tsam pa btab pa)). Security personnel and officials stand nearby, with a red carpeted staircase leading down from the aircraft in the background.
August 20, 2025 at 9:29 AM
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The report also noted the growing number of #WeChat #censorship & #surveillance incidents in #Tibet, including citing our research partner @tibetwatch.org on a Tibetan monk being arrested in Golok Prefecture, after criticising Chinese law on WeChat (May, 2024):

tibetwatch.org/tibetan-monk... #微信
In June, Free Tibet reported the executive of Chigdril County, Golok Prefecture, and the county’s United Front Work Department carried out a 10-day political education campaign at a local monastery for the approximately 100 monks in residence after a Tibetan monk at the monastery was detained for a WeChat post criticizing a county law. County officials detained the monk without a warrant in May on charges of separatism and held him incommunicado. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) stated the government’s Monastery Management Committee also instructed the monks to refrain from any social media, written, or other communication critical of government views on ethnic unity.
August 14, 2025 at 4:09 AM
turquoiseroof.org
The State Dept's 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (inc. #HongKong, Macau, & #Tibet), published yesterday cites @turquoiseroof.org research www.state.gov/reports/2024... #TransnationalRepression

You can read the original report on #iSoon here: turquoiseroof.org/spyware-as-a...
[ screenshot of text from the 2024 DRL human rights report on Tibet: e. Instances of Transnational Repression Chinese authorities engaged in transnational repression against the approximately 150,000 Tibetans living outside the TAR and the Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties, many as refugees in India and Nepal. Threats, Harassment, Surveillance, or Coercion The Tibetan overseas community was frequently subjected to harassment, monitoring, and cyberattacks believed to be carried out by the Chinese government. In April, the NGO Turquoise Roof released an extensive analysis of China’s efforts to deploy targeted surveillance technology against diaspora communities, including the Central Tibetan Administration. In November, the Record and the Central Tibetan Administration reported a China-linked state hacker group had compromised websites of Tibetan digital news outlet Tibet Post and Gyudmed Tantric University.
August 14, 2025 at 3:44 AM
turquoiseroof.org
This month, @tibetwatch.org reported on another planned hydropower dam for which authorities mobilised “ideological work” teams to pacify local opposition:
tibetwatch.org/twenty-tibet...
July 30, 2025 at 1:40 PM
turquoiseroof.org
Undercover: Inside the Chinese Digital Gulag, ITV — chilling insight (2019) archive.is/WOq7x#select... #Xinjiang #Tibet #陈全国 #surveillance
July 27, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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China's mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo raises seismic, ecological, and geopolitical concerns across South Asia and the Himalayas, writes Khedroob Thondup
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/chin...
July 27, 2025 at 11:57 AM
turquoiseroof.org
#Xinjiang Police College: Training the "Cyber police"
substack.com/inbox/post/1... @netaskari.bsky.social analyses public documentation that provides a detailed plan for a “Cyber Range” for the PSB to improve their cyber operations in XUAR.
July 25, 2025 at 1:27 PM
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The Himalayas are the real frontier for another conflict between the Asian giants— shaping the loyalties of border populations, argues Nirupama Rao www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead...
In this unfolding story, the Himalayas are not a backwater. They are the stage. The monasteries-in-the-clouds, the chanting monks, the adorned prayer wheels; they are not just relics of a bygone age, but instruments of power in a new one. This is where China and India are already competing — not with missiles, but with a spiritual succession crisis. And that is why, even as the world watches for signs of confrontation in the oceanic waters of the Indo-Pacific, the real front may lie higher — among the clouds and the cliffs, in the realm where the spiritual becomes geopolitical. The next great struggle between Asia’s two giants could well be fought not with submarines and aircraft carriers, but with threngwas (prayer beads in Tibetan) and reincarnations.
July 24, 2025 at 10:47 AM
turquoiseroof.org
TCHRD: #Tibetan Environmental Defender Tsongon Tsering Released Early Amid Heavy Restrictions

tchrd.org/tibetan-envi...
July 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
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Lookout Threat Lab cite @turquoiseroof.org report "A long shadow: the expansion and export of China's digital repression model in Tibet" turquoiseroof.org/a-long-shado... 西藏新设立网络行动中心，扩大跨国镇压渠道 turquoiseroof.org/download/%e8...
Screencap from Lookout blog post: Journalists have frequently reported on Meiya Pico’s involvement in the Chinese commercial surveillance market, with their tooling used by law enforcement and the surveillance of minority groups in the region. In April 2025, researchers at Turquoise Roof released a report detailing the company’s procurement of training and tooling for the Tibet Police College in Lhasa. Meiya Pico themselves frequently advertise their involvement in both Chinese and international law enforcement product exhibitions, including INTERPOL World Exhibition. In fact, Meiya Pico boasts partnerships with a number of international government clients, including the Russian military who have purchased its forensics and mobile surveillance products. As of 2018, it was reported that the military investigative directorate of the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee (военное следственное управление Следственного Комитета РФ) purchased two Meiya Pico products, iDC-8811 Forensic Magicube V3 and iDC-4501 Mobile Forensics System V2 through a forensics contractor, “ExpertExpress LLC”. These two products, along with Cellebrite’s IFM-2008 Forensics Master suite, were purchased for 5 million rubles (approximately $74,000USD) in 2018. The Russian purchase was intended to enable Russian military criminal investigations, and does not appear targeted toward foreign victims. However, the Russian purchase was most likely later annulled, as the selling company, ExpertExpress and its subcontractor Ester Solutions sold the Meiya Pico solutions to the Russian military’s Investigative Committee using falsified licenses. In October 2018, the owner of Ester Solutions, Dmitriy Saturchenko, was arrested under large-scale fraud charges. Meiya Pico has also been instructed by China’s Ministry of Public Security to train representatives from countries affiliated with the Belt & Road Initiative in digital forensics investigations. As of September 2019, 29 countries were referen…
July 17, 2025 at 10:40 AM
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... and have done since 2009 @hpeaks.bsky.social globalvoices.org/author/deche...
A list of countries in East Asia that Global Voices publishes coverage on. #Tibet
July 14, 2025 at 2:51 PM
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Global Voices have good ad-free, paywall-free, coverage of contemporary #Tibet globalvoices.org/-/world/east... ...
screencap of GV Tibet [ a country in East Asia ] landing page https://globalvoices.org/-/world/east-asia/tibet/
July 14, 2025 at 2:46 PM
turquoiseroof.org
Kate Saunders of
@turquoiseroof.org
spoke on a panel this afternoon on the Future of Tibetan Buddhism & the Preservation of Tibetan Culture www.ibcworld.org/events/view/...

The event was convened by the International Buddhist Confederation in New Delhi to celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday.
July 13, 2025 at 1:07 PM
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The spokesperson of the PRC Embassy in New Delhi appeared to single out a recent @tibetaction.bsky.social report (and resulting media coverage in India) for particular criticism:
Yu Jing @ChinaSpox_India 🔹It has been noted that some media outlets irresponsibly spread false information about boarding schools in Xizang Autonomous Region, China, citing a fake report. 🔹Xizang is a high-altitude region where the population is highly dispersed. For children from herding families in particular, traveling long distances to school is often unavoidable. Boarding schools have been established as a practical solution to guarantee all children’s equal access to education. 🔹Like schools in other Chinese provinces and regions, boarding schools in Xizang place strong emphasis on family involvement. Parents are actively engaged in school management and planning through parent committees and open day events. Students enjoy flexible boarding options, with the freedom to return home every weekend, during holidays and festivals, and throughout winter and summer breaks. Parents are welcome to visit their children at school at any time and may take them home whenever needed. 🔹The schools offer a wide range of traditional cultural courses, including Tibetan language, literature, and folk dance. Students enjoy traditional Tibet Plateau cuisine and can wear traditional clothing on campus. 🔹Seeing is believing. In July, some Indian journalists visited boarding schools in Xizang andsaw the true story on the ground. 🔹It is hoped that media adopt a fact-based, and rational approach to understanding China’s boarding school system, rather than relying on hearsay, spreading fabricated narratives, or making false accusations. @timesofindia @pradeepToI @htTweets @Rezhasan
July 13, 2025 at 12:54 PM
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The succession of #Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is a thorn in China-India relations, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi Spox said today, as India’s foreign minister prepares to visit China for the first time since deadly border clashes in 2020:

Source: x.com/ChinaSpox_In...
Yu Jing @ChinaSpox_India 🔹It has been noted that some media outlets irresponsibly spread false information about boarding schools in Xizang Autonomous Region, China, citing a fake report. 🔹Xizang is a high-altitude region where the population is highly dispersed. For children from herding families in particular, traveling long distances to school is often unavoidable. Boarding schools have been established as a practical solution to guarantee all children’s equal access to education. 🔹Like schools in other Chinese provinces and regions, boarding schools in Xizang place strong emphasis on family involvement. Parents are actively engaged in school management and planning through parent committees and open day events. Students enjoy flexible boarding options, with the freedom to return home every weekend, during holidays and festivals, and throughout winter and summer breaks. Parents are welcome to visit their children at school at any time and may take them home whenever needed. 🔹The schools offer a wide range of traditional cultural courses, including Tibetan language, literature, and folk dance. Students enjoy traditional Tibet Plateau cuisine and can wear traditional clothing on campus. 🔹Seeing is believing. In July, some Indian journalists visited boarding schools in Xizang andsaw the true story on the ground. 🔹It is hoped that media adopt a fact-based, and rational approach to understanding China’s boarding school system, rather than relying on hearsay, spreading fabricated narratives, or making false accusations. @timesofindia @pradeepToI @htTweets @Rezhasan
July 13, 2025 at 12:45 PM
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Tencent Attempts to Silence FreeWeChat.com in Trademark Smokescreen Attack:

en.greatfire.org/blog/2025/ju... #SLAPP (*Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) via ‪@netaskari.bsky.social‬
screencap via FreeWeCat: In a blatant attempt to suppress independent documentation of digital repression in China, Tencent has launched legal action to take down GreatFire’s FreeWeChat.com, using trademark infringement claims to mask what is clearly a politically motivated act of censorship. On June 12, 2025, Tencent’s legal representative—cybersecurity firm Group-IB—submitted a takedown complaint to our hosting provider, accusing FreeWeChat of trademark and copyright infringement, cybersquatting, and unfair competition. GreatFire responded in detail, refuting each allegation on both factual and legal grounds. Despite this, the provider complied and removed our service, a troubling indication of how even flimsy legal threats can silence public-interest platforms. FreeWeChat.com is one of GreatFire’s core anti-censorship initiatives. Since 2016, the project has preserved both censored and uncensored public posts from China’s dominant social platform WeChat, providing a rare window into conversations otherwise erased from public view. With over 175,000 unique visitors in the past three months, the site serves researchers, journalists, and Chinese citizens seeking transparency about the topics WeChat's owner, Tencent, suppresses. Now, Tencent, through Group-IB, has demanded the takedown of FreeWeChat, falsely claiming the project infringes on its trademark. They cite the use of the word “WeChat” in our domain, even though FreeWeChat does not use WeChat's logo, claim affiliation, or distribute any modified WeChat software. The claim is thin, but the intent is clear: shut down a watchdog.
July 10, 2025 at 4:49 PM
turquoiseroof.org
Dalai Lama: Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama (Gaden Phodrang Trust, 21 May 2025. Published July 2, 2025. Translated from the original Tibetan)

www.dalailama.com/news/stateme...
Statement Affirming the Continuation of the Institution of Dalai Lama July 2, 2025 (Translated from the original Tibetan) On 24 September 2011, at a meeting of the heads of Tibetan spiritual traditions, I made a statement to fellow Tibetans in and outside Tibet, followers of Tibetan Buddhism, and those who have a connection with Tibet and Tibetans, regarding whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue. I stated, “As far back as 1969, I made clear that concerned people should decide whether the Dalai Lama’s reincarnations should continue in the future.” I also said, “When I am about ninety I will consult the high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, to re-evaluate whether or not the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue.” Although I have had no public discussions on this issue, over the last 14 years leaders of Tibet’s spiritual traditions, members of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, participants in a Special General Body Meeting, members of the Central Tibetan Administration, NGOs, Buddhists from the Himalayan region, Mongolia, Buddhist republics of the Russian Federation and Buddhists in Asia including mainland China, have written to me with reasons, earnestly requesting that the institution of the Dalai Lama continue. In particular, I have received messages through various channels from Tibetans in Tibet making the same appeal. In accordance with all these requests, I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue. The process by which a future Dalai Lama is to be recognized has been clearly established in the 24 September 2011 statement which states that responsibility for doing so will rest exclusively with members of the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They should consult the various heads of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and the reliable oath-bound Dharma Protectors who are linked inseparably to the l…
July 2, 2025 at 10:33 AM
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BBC Analysis: A test of Beijing's powers of persuasion (Laura Bicker, China correspondent) www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cq...
BBC Analysis published at 10:23 BST : A test of Beijing's powers of persuasion Laura Bicker, BBC China correspondent The Dalai Lama’s statement said that “no one else has any authority to interfere” in choosing his successor. He means China. But while answering questions I put to them at today’s foreign ministry press conference, Beijing has made it clear - they want the next Dalai Lama to come from China and the person must be approved by the Chinese government. This is the scenario many analysts feared. The Dalai Lama had hinted in earlier statements that he may wish to find his successor before his death. This would mean there would be no gap and no time for China to find its own successor. There may also be a scenario where the world is faced with two Dalai Lamas. One appointed by the Gaden Phodrang Trust and the other appointed by Beijing. This could be a real test of Beijing’s powers of persuasion – which one does the world recognise?
July 2, 2025 at 10:25 AM
turquoiseroof.org
BBC: Ahead of today's message, Chinese state media had published strongly worded articles arguing that the Dalai Lama's succession could not be decided by an individual alone.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cq...
BBC : Why has China rejected the Dalai Lama's message? As we have been reporting, it was clear that the Dalai Lama's statement would not be received well in Beijing - and now the foreign ministry reaction bears that out. China annexed Tibet in the 1950s - in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India with his followers, and Beijing regards him as a separatist. Ahead of today's message, Chinese state media had published strongly worded articles arguing that the Dalai Lama's succession could not be decided by an individual alone. Beijing insists that the Dalai Lama's reincarnation needs government approval and will be chosen through the lot-drawing system. But the Dalai Lama has said his reincarnation will be born outside China - and urged his followers to reject anyone chosen by Beijing. In today's address, he again made it clear that "no one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter" - drawing Beijing's ire.
July 2, 2025 at 10:21 AM