Tibetan writer placed under house arrest following dinner invitation from US Embassy

DHARAMSHALA, July 9: Tibetan writer-activist Tsering Woeser and her husband Wang Lixiong have been placed under house arrest in Beijing as US State Secretary visits China for the sixth round of strategic and economic trade between the two countries.

State security officers arrived at her Beijing home late Tuesday evening, shortly after she and her husband Wang Lixiong returned from a trip, Associated Press quoted Tsering Woeser as saying in a report today.

A picture posted by Tsering Woeser on her facebook page showing two students of public security universities on guard outside her house.
A picture posted by Tsering Woeser on her facebook page showing public security college students on guard outside her house.

Though the security officers refused to provide any reason for the house arrest, she believed that it is related to a dinner invitation she received from the U.S. Embassy over the phone, possibly with Kerry himself which she accepted.

Woeser said that she received the phone call to a Wednesday dinner while she and her husband were travelling outside Beijing.

While announcing Tsering Woeser as the winner of US State Department’s 2013 International Women of Courage Award, Secratary Kerry praised Woeser for her courageous writings on Tibetan people and their causes at a time of deteriorating human rights.

“Tsering Woeser has emerged as a clarion voice of the people, even as the Chinese government has worked to curtail the flow of information from Tibet,” Kerry said at the award ceremony.

The Tibetan writer-activist intended to reply in person to a letter written to her by Kerry following last year’s award and thank him if she were to meet him.

“If I were to meet him, indeed, I would like to reply to his letter in person and offer my thanks,” Tsering Woeser wrote on her Facebook page. “But regrettably, I am now under house arrest.”

 

 

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