A young Chinese boy stands on the roof of his home, with a television satellite dish, in the new migrant village of Guihua, China, June 18, 2003. (Photo: RFA)
Tibetan-language broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America appear to be particular targets of the campaign, one source said.
“Beginning in April of this year, the local broadcasting department in Kanlho [Ch: Gannan] prefecture [of Gansu province] dispatched staff to the counties to install cable lines and to pull down the satellite dishes used by local Tibetans to listen to foreign broadcasts like RFA and VOA Tibetan programs,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area of Kanlho said.
“They also installed cable lines for listening to government-approved programs,” the woman said of the new government campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities.
“They distributed copies of the letters issued by the government,” she said.
A Gannan prefecture document obtained by RFA, citing State Council document #129, describes what it calls “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province, a site of repeated Tibetan protests against Chinese rule during the past year.
Machu, Luchu, Chonoe, Tsoe, and Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) counties all in Kanlo TAP witnessed sporadic and sustained anti-China unrest last year.
Tibetans in the region staged some of the most aggressive anti-China protests last year, resulting in several deaths following a violent crackdown by Chinese military troops.
Anyone failing to comply with government directives to remove the dishes would be “dealt with in accordance with law,” the memo said.
Such attempts by Chinese authorities to block the flow of information in and out of Tibet is not new.
China has employed latest technology and harsh stringent measures to effectively stem the flow of information in all possible media outlets.
Efforts were reportedly made by Chinese government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as early as 2000.
Tibetan writer Woeser, in the June 15 entry of her blog “Invisible Tibet,” noted efforts “as early as 2000” by China’s government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, RFA reported.
Hundreds of jamming towers have been built in Tibetan regions for this purpose, she wrote.
“The Chinese government is now forcing Tibetan monks to pull down satellite dishes so that they cannot listen to RFA and VOA broadcasts. In May this year, the Chinese authorities carried out the policy vigorously in Kanlho.”
“In their place, the local Tibetans are forced to listen to [state-controlled] local TV programs connected through land lines,” she wrote.
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