Tibet strictly controlled sensitive information self-immolation incident five years before it was transmitted outside

Tibet Page, the official Chinese website of the Central Tibetan Administration, recently reported that a young Tibetan in Tibet’s Nagqu region set himself on fire in 2015 to protest the Communist Party’s oppressive policies, but the incident did not reach outside the country until more than five years later due to the Communist Party’s tight control over the dissemination of information there.

The report quoted unnamed sources inside Tibet as saying that on Sept. 17, 2015, Xumo, a 26-year-old Tibetan, set himself on fire near the bus station in the village of Xhachuka in Nagqu Prefecture, for example, and was arrested by local police and taken to a hospital for treatment, but died on the same day. The authorities also arrested three of Xumo’s relatives afterwards, but the whereabouts of these people are still unclear to the outside world. The source also said many local Tibetans witnessed the self-immolation, but the incident remained unknown for a long time because of the Communist Party’s tight control of information in Tibet.

Radio Free Asia reported Thursday that 157 Tibetans are known to have set themselves on fire since 2009 in protest of the Communist Party’s oppressive policies.