Tibetan crisis forces govt to expel Chinese journalists

Concerns over Beijing’s attempts to foment a rebellion within the exiled Tibetans in India prompted New Delhi not to extend visas of three journalists from China.

The government decided not to extend the visas of the three journalists of China’s state-run news agency Xinhua after intelligence agencies sent in adverse reports about their visit to Karnataka to meet some exiled Tibetans. What particularly sent the alarm bell ringing in the intelligence agencies is that they chose to meet the Tibetans in Karnataka, where a section of the exiled community living in settlements in Bylakuppe and Mundgod has been trying to wage a rebellion against Dalai Lama, sources told the DH.

The sources said that the visas granted to Wu Qiang and Lu Tang, who respectively headed Xinhua’s bureaus in Delhi and Mumbai, as well as to She Yonggang, a reporter in Mumbai bureau of the agency, had expired several months ago. But they had been granted fortnightly extensions while the Xinhua had been asked to send their replacements. China’s state-run news agency, however, has not yet send in any other journalist to replace them. Wu, Lu and She would now have to leave India as their visas would expire on July 31 and New Delhi was in no mood to grant them yet another extension. 

The visit of three Xinhua journalists to Karnataka last April came under scanner of the intelligence agencies, not only because they had used fake names during their travel, but also because had also met some exiled Tibetans from Bylakuppe and Mundgod.

New Delhi has of late been concerned over growing activities of the Dorje Shugden sect in Tibetan settlements in Bylakuppe and Mundgod. The Dorje Shugden sect has been running a global campaign against the Dalai Lama, the icon of Tibetans’ struggle against China’s rule over Tibet.

The Serpom Monastic University at Bylakuppe and Shar Ganden monastery in Mundgod are among the main centres of the Dorje Shugden sect in India. Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh since his arrival in India in 1959, had to witness demonstration by the members of the Dorje Shugden sect during his visits to the UK and the US as well.