September 25, 2014
- The Chinese authorities have imposed stringent new conditions on candidates for village-level committee elections in one area of Tibet, which includes the exclusion of anyone who has attended religious teachings by the Dalai Lama, has ‘overseas connections’ or who “secretly has sympathy for the 14th Dalai clique”.
- The conditions were announced by Ngari (Chinese: Ali) prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region as the authorities carry out a new round of committee elections all over PRC. China claims that these elections represent the implementation of ‘village democracy’, but the new Tibetan-specific conditions are a further indicator that the Tibetan people face discrimination and do not enjoy the limited rights granted by the Chinese authoritarian system.