China is leveraging Tibet’s geostrategic location to convert it as a logistics hub and a gateway to South Asia as part of its “new Western Land-Sea Corridor” endeavor. Chinese state media on May 7 reported that in the “first quarter of 2025, Tibet’s total goods imports and exports reached 2.308 billion yuan, up 5.9% year-on-year, with imports rising by 56.7%.” Citing doubling of railways, expressways and highways for the “Western Land-Sea New Corridor Development Index during the 14th Five-Year Plan period”, Chinese state media boasted that the first South Asian train departed from Zhengzhou, capital of Henan, carrying 150 new energy vehicles for export to Nepal. While Chinese state media attempt to project Tibet’s integration into international trade channels-particularly with South Asia-serving an economic interest, the “integration” serves China’s broader geopolitical strategy and to counter India’s influence in South Asia. The “integration” also serves to stamp China’s claim of Tibet as an inseparable part of China.

Kelsang, a 42-year-old Tibetan from Serdak Township in Tengchen County, Chamdo, has endured nearly a decade of systematic deprivation and harassment by Chinese authorities, who have denied his family access to basic services such as electricity and water since 2016. Despite submitting multiple formal appeals, Kelsang’s efforts for redress have been met with escalating retaliation, including arbitrary detention, surveillance, and intimidation. In March 2025, after publicly sharing a video detailing his family’s hardships, Kelsang was detained on vague charges of “disrupting social order” and later subjected to further harassment, forced confessions, and restrictions on his movement and expression.

According to India based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, his children face school discrimination, and his family is excluded from state programs. Kelsang’s case, tied to his and his grandfather’s political activism, reflects the broader repression of Tibetans challenging Chinese government policies.

The family of Tibetan torture victim Dorjee Tashi continues to be denied visitation rights despite having repeatedly submitted formal requests by the family’s attorney Wang Fei of Beijing Zebo Law Firm. Initially told a meeting would be possible, the family was later informed that a visit permit could not be granted citing Dorjee Tashi violating prison regulations but provided no evidence of it. On April 29, Dorjee Tashi’s elder brother, Dorjee Tseten, who was also incarcerated for six years in the past, condemned the authorities’ shifting position as both arbitrary and unlawful.

In a rare public disturbance in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, police handed administrative penalties to 31 individuals involved in a brawl outside a bar in the early hours of May 7, according to India based Tibetan media outlet Tibet Times citing official statements issued in both Chinese and Tibetan-language media. Authorities used the incident to heighten surveillance in western Lhasa for suspected “independence or terrorist activities,” which is an overreach underscoring the Chinese authorities taking advantage of and escalating a brawl to “independence or terrorist activities”. The Chinese authority’s response reflects the broader strategy of conflating ordinary social unrest with threats to state stability. This incident, and the official reaction, illustrate how even minor disturbances are swiftly politicized in Tibet to erode civil liberties under the guise of maintaining order.

The mother, Dugkar Dolma, of Tulku Hungkar Dorje, a revered Tibetan religious leader from Golog, Qinghai, who died suspiciously in Vietnam in March 2024 due to highly probable China’s transnational repression, passed away on May 6, 2025, at 85, after months of illness and grief, according to India based media outlet Tibet Times. Tulku Hungkar Dorje had become inaccessible after Chinese authorities interrogated him for refusing to endorse the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama in mid last year, only to be tracked and arrested in Vietnam, and die in custody under unexplained circumstances. The Chinese authorities in their communication to Hungkar Dorje’s monastery said that he had died of a heart ailment although there is no record of him ever having one. Despite international demands, including from the European Parliament, for a transparent investigation and the return of his body, Chinese and Vietnamese authorities secretly cremated his remains, permitting only a brief viewing by the monastery monks.

Thinley Dorjee, a member of the Party Standing Committee of Nagchu (Naqu) City and head of the United Front Work Department, led a delegation of local Party and government officials to inspect over 15 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in Sog County and neighboring areas, reported the county United Front Work Department on May 8.

As a Tibetan “talent” working for the CCP, during the visit, Thinley’s delegation met with monastery management committees and Party officials conducting a comprehensive review of religious affairs management, legal compliance, and the implementation of Party directives such as the “Three Consciousnesses” and the promotion of China’s national unity within religious communities.

Stressing playing a “chess game” of religious work, Thinley instructed the monastic community to uphold the Party’s comprehensive leadership over religious work, strengthen the political and ideological guidance of monastery management, and advance the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism by encouraging monks and nuns to align their practices with socialist values.

China’s announcement of plans to build the world’s largest hydroelectric project in Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) Grand Canyon-a biodiversity hotspot near the disputed border with India-has ignited regional tensions and environmental fears. Writing in Yale Environment 360, Fred Pearce cautioned that the $137 billion project, set to generate nearly three times the power of the Three Gorges Dam, has alarmed Indian officials who warn it could allow China to manipulate the crucial Brahmaputra River, threatening water security and potentially weaponizing water flows in future conflicts. While Chinese authorities insist the dam will be safe and not harm downstream countries, Indian leaders and independent experts warn of risks ranging from altered river flows and sediment disruption to catastrophic failure in this seismically active region. India has revived plans for its own massive dam downstream, raising the stakes for both environmental damage and geopolitical confrontation, as water diplomacy across South Asia weakens and disputes over transboundary rivers intensify.