Flood in Tibet: STP Condemns China’s Censorship and Calls for Unrestricted Access

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) strongly condemns the Chinese leadership’s ongoing information blackout following the devastating flash flood in the border region between Tibet and Nepal and pays tribute to the victims. The human rights organization demands unhindered access for independent media and humanitarian organizations to the affected region. Furthermore, those affected must be able to report freely on the disaster, according to the STP.

Images of destroyed villages, eyewitness accounts, and continuously updated casualty figures are reaching the public from Nepal. There, approximately 900 deaths have now been confirmed, and over 4,000 people are missing. In contrast, Chinese authorities have so far reported 16 deaths in the Tibet Autonomous Region. At the same time, 546 people are missing. The STP attributes this discrepancy primarily to Beijing’s strict control over the news.

This control is not new, but rather part of China’s long-standing policy of oppression and assimilation toward Tibet. Since the occupation of Tibet in 1950, the Chinese leadership has suppressed all forms of independent reporting from the region and grants foreign media access only in strictly controlled, exceptional cases. Videos of the destroyed Gyirong border crossing and the extent of the destruction on the Tibetan side disappeared from Chinese platforms within a few hours. Instead, what remains visible is primarily a narrative of orderly strength: rescue workers marching in formation and survivors expressing their gratitude. “This is a familiar pattern in Chinese state media. The news blackout is part of a comprehensive assimilation policy directed against the Tibetan language, religion, and cultural autonomy,” says Mirjam Kobold, Advisor for Asia at STP.

This erasure of Tibetans continues in the international response as well. In his letter of condolence to the Chinese government, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz referred to those affected by the flood disaster in “China” without even mentioning Tibet.

“This flood is a terrible natural disaster. But the fact that we hardly hear anything about what is happening to the people in Tibet is the result of China’s deliberate policy,” says Kobold. “When the chancellor fails to name Tibet, he plays into the hands of the Chinese leadership. The German government must no longer dismiss the oppression of Tibetans and the censorship of independent reporting as an internal matter of China—and should start by being more careful with its own choice of words.” The Tibet Initiative Germany also criticized Friedrich Merz’s statement: “Even in the midst of a disaster, the voices, experiences, and fates of the people in Tibet are in danger of being rendered invisible.”

The STP calls on the German government to press the Chinese government for free access to Tibet. Furthermore, it must advocate for immunity from prosecution for those affected who communicate with relatives abroad or with the media, as well as for respect for the Tibetan people’s religious and cultural freedoms and an end to the ongoing policy of assimilation.