Analysis | November 3, 2026
Chinese police repeatedly beat imprisoned Tibetan businessman’s sister Gonpo Kyi for protesting his unjust imprisonment
Gonpo Kyi, the sister of prominent jailed Tibetan entrepreneur Dorjee Tashi, has suffered severe internal injuries and broken bones after Chinese police repeatedly assaulted and dragged her away during peaceful demonstrations demanding justice for her imprisoned brother.
On October 26, 2026, Gonpo Kyi staged another protest outside the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Higher People’s Court in Lhasa. She held a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping alongside a two-point petition demanding a fair retrial for Dorjee Tashi. Sources close to the family revealed that she had previously staged multiple similar protests outside the TAR Higher People’s Court in June and August this year and over the past four years. In response to these protests, Lhasa police officers have routinely assaulted, dragged, and beaten her, breaking her arm, fracturing bones, and causing internal bleeding and chronic health issues, according to details shared with the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).
Video footage provided by Sakar Tashi, a Tibetan residing in Belgium, shows Gonpo Kyi staging her peaceful appeal while holding the petition. The appeal outlines two specific demands:
- Allow Dorjee Tashi’s defence lawyers full legal access to review the case files.
- Convene a public retrial to overturn the unjust verdict passed against him.
The petition concludes with a clear declaration: “Dorjee Tashi is innocent.”
Sakar Tashi noted that while Gonpo Kyi has carried out dozens of protests demanding a fair hearing, Chinese security personnel routinely detain her, forcibly confiscate phones, and delete recorded footage and photos, severely restricting information from reaching the outside world.
During the October 26 demonstration, Gonpo Kyi’s husband Choekyong accompanied her to film and document the protest. When an officer approached and ordered Choekyong to stop filming, he refused, stating on camera:
“I will keep filming. Dorjee Tashi’s case is not being handled according to the constitution. If things were conducted according to the law, we wouldn’t need to record anything. You have bought off all the doctors in the hospital, and everyone around here is an undercover tail following us. Today is October 26. Police vehicles are circling right now, preparing to detain us again.”
In addition to the Chinese authorities targeting Gonpo for abuse, family sources also report that Chinese authorities maintain 24-hour surveillance on Dorjee Tashi’s elder brother, Dorjee Tseten. Plainclothes agents trail him wherever he goes, and authorities routinely force him out of Lhasa to remote locations during politically sensitive periods.
Dorjee Tashi, a well-known Tibetan philanthropist and owner of the luxury Yak Hotel in Lhasa, was initially detained by authorities shortly after the 2008 mass demonstrations across Tibet. Authorities accused him of providing covert support to protesters and making offerings to the Dalai Lama, holding him in secret incommunicado detention for eight months.
On May 17, 2010, the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court secretly sentenced Dorjee Tashi to life imprisonment on politically motivated charges of “loan fraud” involving 1.5 million yuan, in a trial that lacked due process, access to legal counsel, and credible evidence. In a similarly politicized process, the court also sentenced his brother Dorjee Tseten to six years in prison. Dorjee Tashi was transferred to Drapchi Prison (Tibet Autonomous Region Prison), the largest prison in Tibet, which is notorious for housing political prisoners convicted of state-security-related crimes.
