Amid tightened security and increased repression, on 20 August, Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to attend a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the so called “Tibet Autonomous Region” by the Chinese government.
9 September 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of an entity labeled as “Tibet Autonomous Region”, a province-level administrative division in the People’s Republic of China which encompasses merely roughly half of Tibet. While Chinese state media is striking a predictably upbeat tone on the anniversary, the reality is that Tibetans have little to celebrate.
The International Campaign for Tibet on behalf of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, actively participated in the 59th session of the UN Huùan Rights Council in Geneva, highlighting the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet through multiple avenues, including oral statements and a public side event.
Yesterday, in Leh, Ladakh, President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel was received in a special audience by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and held meetings with Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Sikyong Penpa Tsering and other members of the CTA.
On 8 July, the Chinese government released Tibetan environmental activist Tsongon Tsering, a 30-year-old Tibetan from Tsaruma Township, Kyungchu County, Ngaba and Qiang Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan, who spoke out about illegal sand mining on the ecosystem of the Dangchu River, a tributary of the Yellow River.
This reports highlights the threats faced by Tibetans in Tibet who celebrate the birthday of their Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and urges the international community — including United Nations bodies, national governments, parliaments, and civil society organizations—to call on China to cease its repressive actions.
The People’s Republic of China’s hydropower and dam projects are increasingly leading to massive human rights violations and environmental damage in Tibet. Since Asia’s largest rivers originate in the Tibetan plateau, the construction of hydroelectric dams in Tibet also threaten the water supply, livelihoods and health of up to 1.8 billion people across China, South and Southeast Asia.
This report shows how the Buddhist Association of China (BAC), a supposedly non-political organization, is becoming a key instrument in the Chinese Communist Party’s strategy to assimilate and transform Tibetan Buddhism – particularly in relation to the search for and recognition of reincarnate lamas.
