US Flags Chinese Restrictions on Travel to Tibet Region

In its latest annual report to the Congress under the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018, the US State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs noted that international visitors' travel to the TAR continues to require approval through government-issued travel permits. In 2025, consular officials from the US Embassy in Beijing were permitted to make the first official visit to the TAR since 2019.

"Diplomats and officials did not require a permit to travel to Tibetan areas outside of the TAR. However, Chinese security forces intimidated and harassed US diplomats, officials, and other foreign visitors through conspicuous surveillance. Tibetan Americans regularly have faced restrictions on their travel to Tibetan areas. Access to Tibetan areas for journalists remained restricted and limited," read the report.

According to the report, although diplomats and other foreign officials are allowed to visit Tibetan areas outside the TAR, Chinese officials used "conspicuous surveillance" to intimidate, monitor, and harass travellers to these areas.

The US department stated that Beijing heavily restricted and controlled access for American journalists to the TAR. It noted that the Chinese regulations did not regularly require international journalists to obtain prior permission to travel to any part of the country except the TAR.

The Chinese e-government rejected almost all US journalists' requests to visit and report from the TAR, the report said, citing the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC), the professional organisation for the international press corps based in China.

According to the FCCC, Chinese officials refused at least five requests by foreign journalists to visit the TAR.

The report noted that 93 per cent of correspondents who attempted to travel to the TAR and other Tibetan areas of China faced difficulty in reporting. While the government occasionally organises press tours of the TAR, they do not provide opportunities to report independently.

"When US journalists gained access to Tibetan areas, the Chinese government further suppressed their ability to report about Tibet by intimidating and preventing Chinese nationals from interacting with them. Group tours enabled the government to claim increased numbers and greater access to the region while maintaining strict control over the information conveyed," the US State Department mentioned.

The report highlighted restrictions on foreign official access to monasteries in Tibetan areas of Kardze and Ngaba, both in Kham province in Tibet.

During visits in recent years to Tibetan areas in Kham and Amdo, it said, "Local authorities surveilled US diplomats and, in several instances, prohibited them from entering monasteries, blocked off specific roads, prevented them from having meetings or conversations with local interlocutors, and monitored their conversations."

- IANS