By Khedroob Thondup
At the Seoul Defense Dialogue this Tuesday, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro delivered a moment that will echo across Asia’s contested waters. Asked about gray-zone coercion, Teodoro did not retreat into diplomatic platitudes. Instead, he reached for a note handed to him by the Chinese delegation — a note that baldly declared the 2016 South China Sea arbitral award “illegal, null and void.”
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 8 Sept: Five Dharamsala-based Tibetan organisations said in an open letter on Tuesday that “we welcome” President Xi Jinping’s expected visit to India for the 18th BRICS Summit on September 12–13 and called for renewed dialogue between Chinese leadership and the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, without preconditions.
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By Khedroob Thondup
When President Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping, the United States should prioritise environmental security in Tibet over human rights advocacy. Tibet’s ecological fragility directly impacts Asia’s water systems, regional stability, and global climate resilience. Framing Tibet as an environmental issue allows Washington to engage Beijing on shared interests, avoid predictable sovereignty disputes, and build coalitions with India and Southeast Asia around water security.
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By Khedroob Thondup
The Qinghai–Lhasa Railway, celebrated as a symbol of China’s engineering prowess and political integration of Tibet, faces mounting risks as permafrost thaw accelerates under global warming. Built across fragile frozen ground, the railway is now sinking and destabilising, threatening infrastructure integrity, regional connectivity, and environmental security. This brief outlines the scientific basis of the problem, its geopolitical implications, and policy recommendations for international engagement.
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By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 4 Sept: Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama returned to his residence in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, on Friday after spending more than two months in Ladakh, where he engaged in a series of religious and public programmes during his extended stay that began in late June.
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By Khedroob Thondup
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek this week offered a revealing glimpse into Beijing’s delicate diplomatic choreography. On paper, the ten-country bloc stood united in condemning “military strikes” against fellow member Iran. Yet Xi Jinping’s decision to avoid a formal bilateral meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian underscored the careful tightrope China is walking: supporting Iran enough to preserve strategic ties, but not so visibly as to alienate Washington or Gulf partners.
By Vijay Kranti
New Delhi – 3 Sept: Mr. Penpa Tsering, Tibet’s elected ‘Sikyong’ (President), today released a book which is focused at exposing China’s activities to maintain its colonial grip over Tibet. Titled ‘China’s Colonial Games in Tibet’, the book is published by the Centre for Himalayan Asia Studies and Engagement (CHASE), and is edited by Vijay Kranti, a veteran journalist, Tibetologist and photographer. The book was inaugurated on the opening day of the three-day Tibet-festival ‘Spirit of Tibet’ at the Indian International Centre of capital today. Other dignitaries, present on the stage were Mr. Nitin A. Gokhale, Prof. C. Raja Mohan and Brigadier Anshuman Narang – all three well known experts on China and strategic affairs.
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 3 Sept: Tibetan and Chinese scholars, activists and policy experts concluded a three-day forum here on Wednesday with a joint declaration calling for nonviolence, democratic reform and continued dialogue toward a peaceful resolution of the Sino-Tibetan conflict.
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By Khedroob Thondup
The Tibetan struggle has always been about survival — of a people, a culture, and a land. Today, that struggle is not only political but ecological. The repression inside Tibet is inseparable from the disastrous environmental degradation unfolding across the plateau. Mining projects gouge sacred mountains, dams choke rivers, and global warming accelerates the melting of glaciers that sustain Asia’s water systems. The Tibetan diaspora must bring these realities to the world’s attention, because silence is complicity.
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By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 2 Sept: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) on Wednesday marked the 66th anniversary of Tibetan democracy in exile, commemorating the establishment of the Tibetan People’s Deputies — the precursor to today’s Tibetan Parliament in Exile — on 2 September 1960 under the leadership of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
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