In an unprecedented move on April 2, China’s Communist Party has swapped the roles of two Politburo members: Shi Taifeng is now head of the Central Organization Department which is central to maintaining the CCP’s grip on power through the nomenklatura system, while Li Ganjie has taken over the United Front Work Department, responsible for party influence operations.

Both men were promoted to the Politburo in 2022 but do not sit on the elite CCP Politburo Standing Committee; Shi, a close Xi ally with extensive experience in non-Han regions, now controls the party’s personnel system, while Li, a technocrat and the youngest Politburo member, manages the party’s key influence operations.

While Shi might have been elevated in the CCP’s organization hierarchy, Li has direct influence in terms of Tibet work.

Sonam Nyima, who holds the concurrent position as a member of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) Party Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, instructed the leaders of the United Front System “to do a good job in overseas united front and overseas Tibetan compatriots” in line with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s governance strategy on Tibet. Sonam delivered the instruction during a meeting of the United Front Work Department on April 28. Chinese state media reported that Sonam presided over the meeting to instruct the “United Front” workers to “study” speeches of the CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered at the April 25 meeting of the CCP Politburo and during his state visits to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Sonam’s instructions to the leaders of the United Front System are important in the context of expanding Chinese transnational repression.

In continuing implementation of the policy to sinify the Tibetans, with an emphasis on the youth demographic, Chinese leadership in Tibet continues ideological indoctrination of Tibetan youth to achieve its policy goal of “strengthening the sense of community for the Chinese nation”.

Timing it with the six-decade anniversary of China’s official designation of the Tibet Autonomous Region, around 100 Tibetan youth, ranging from kindergarteners to young adults, were made to deliver speeches on “ethnic unity and transformative changes in Tibet under the leadership of the CCP”.

The speech competition on April 26 was one of the many CCP activities to systematically repress Tibetan culture, language, and identity, including the closure of Tibetan-language schools, forced assimilation policies, and obligatory boarding schools that separate children from their families and erode their cultural heritage.

On April 14, Wang Junzheng, Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, presided over a meeting of the United Front Work Leading Group, to instruct the group to “thoroughly study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s key instructions on united front work in Tibet”, according to Chinese state media. Wang gave instructions for continuously improving the quality and effectiveness of united front efforts across Tibet to strengthen political, ideological consciousness to actively absorb the Tibetans and the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism. Wang also stressed the importance of maintaining stability and enhancing the management of religious and economic affairs, aiming to build a modern socialist Tibet and ensuring the Party’s leadership remains central to all united front work in the TAR.

On China’s tenth National Security Education Day on April 15, a wide range of activities were organized across Tibet, with authorities emphasizing China’s national security through public campaigns, school events especially in elementary schools, and community outreach in the Tibetan society. While the official propaganda attempts to give an impression of strengthening awareness of “national security” and responsibilities, the inclusion of children in “border guard” activities, legal education initiatives, prioritizing state security over individual rights raises deep concerns of the colonized being forced to comply with the Chinese state interests over their personal rights. The overwhelming emphasizes on China’s National Security Law, the Anti-Espionage Law and the Anti-Terrorism Law fosters an atmosphere of surveillance and self-censorship in the Tibetan society.

At a regular press conference on April 28, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China confirmed that Indian pilgrims will be allowed to resume their pilgrimage to the sacred mountains and lakes in Tibet, including Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, from June to August this year. This development comes as China and India mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

China did not allow Indian pilgrims to visit Mount Kailash through the traditional official routes via Lipulekh Pass and Nathu La Pass since 2020, initially due to COVID-19 restrictions and later due to strained India-China relations following the Galwan Valley clash. Although the private route to Mount Kailash through Nepal was reopened in 2023, Nepali tour operators reported that nearly 50,000 Indian pilgrims were denied access in 2023 and probably an equal or higher number might have been denied in 2024 also although reports aren’t available.

Led by monastery management cadres, a group of Tibetan monks from Tholing Monastery in Zamda (Zanda) County, Ngari (Ali) Prefecture, were taken for a 20-day (April 3-23) “exchange and learning tour” to Beijing, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Guizhou for exposure to China’s red history to “forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation”. Chinese state media reported that the monks visited 21 sites-including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Hall of the People, and the Zunyi Conference Memorial Hall- to deepen “three consciousnesses” education, implementing ethnic and religious policies, and promoting China’s national unity. Primarily serving to reinforce state narratives, Chinese state media reported that the tour strengthened the monks’ patriotic and political awareness, with the monks expressing renewed commitment to the Party’s guidance, and the sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism.

Built in 997 AD during the second diffusion of Bhuddism in Tibet by Lha Lama Yeshi Ö, Tholing Monastery is the oldest monastery in Ngari Prefecture situated near the Indian border of Ladakh.

Like the “patriotic education” tour for the monks of Tholing Monastery, the Jokhang Temple Management Committee in Lhasa also took a group of Jokhang monks on a 14-day “study tour” to Chongqing, Fujian, and other regions aimed at “fostering a strong sense of community among all ethnic groups in China.” The United Front via Chinese state media on April 24 reported that the monks were taken to key “red education” sites such as Jiefangbei, Zhazidong, and Baigongguan in Chongqing to ideologically align them with the CCP’s efforts to “strengthen patriotism, religious harmony, and political reliability” among the monks.

Leveraging on long cultivated “talents” to infiltrate and attempt to lead the Tibetan monastic community’s loyalty to the Chinese state, China deployed one of its loyal asset, Thubten Khedrup Drubkhang to lead a “propaganda and research” tour to the monastic community in Nagchu (Naqu), TAR.

Holding concurrent positions as the Vice Chairman of the CPPCC of the TAR and President of China’s Tibetan Buddhist Academy, Thubten Khedrup in three-day (April 20-23) tour in the area lectured the monastic community promoting “Xi Jinping Thought and the Party’s religious policies”. Accompanied by local officials, Thubten instructed the monks and nuns to deepen their understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics, strengthen their national, civic, and legal consciousness, and to guide Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society through the Sinicization policy. Thubten’s tour reflects ongoing efforts by Chinese authorities to integrate Tibetan Buddhism closely with state ideology and to promote identity as Chinese not as Tibetan.

On April 8, 2025, the Buddhist Association of China, with oversight from the government, convened a special meeting in Beijing to address the regulation of Buddhist animal life liberation practices, to align the practice with CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “thought on ecological civilization.” The meeting reviewed draft measures for standardizing animal liberation, for legal compliance. Senior officials from the Central United Front Work Department and Buddhist leaders from various jurisdiction attended the meeting, underscoring the state’s increasing oversight of religious practices in line with China’s policy priorities.

Tibetan Buddhist leaders have for long championed the Tibetans and their followers across China and the world to absolutely refrain from taking lives and engage in animal life liberation practices to accumulate merits. Anti-slaughter movement against Chinese commercial slaughterhouses in Tibet have been growing over the years. The regulation on life liberation practices is anti-thetical to the anti-slaughter movement in Tibet.