Woeser, Tibetan poet. (picture provided by Woeser)
According to a report on Tuesday by Voice of Tibet based in Norway, Woeser, accompanied by her husband, Wang Lixiong, went back to Lhasa on August 17 to visit her family. Eight officers unexpectedly arrived at her mother’s home, presented Woeser with a summons to accompany them for questioning. They searched her mother’s home and took her away. She was detained for eight hours. Police say that they had been contacted by an individual who had seen Woeser taking photographs of soldiers and police on the streets of Lhasa.
On Wednesday, Mr. Wang, also a well known author, said that he and his wife had flown back to Beijing last Saturday, less than 48 hours after the summons and six days into a planned month-long visit to Lhasa. “We had to leave Lhasa earlier than we planned. Our families were under a lot of pressure after being harassed by the police,” he explained.
Police also confiscated Wang’s laptop as well. “They hacked my password and erased every picture they did not want the outside world to see. They don’t want the truth to be spread,” said Wang.
Wang didn’t think it was illegal to take pictures in a public place. “As visitors, we just took some pictures of the paramilitary police who were standing in a public area,” he argued. “We didn’t visit any secret areas or military installations. They had no legal basis for detaining my wife. I felt I was in a battle to fight for the truth. The authorities are exerting their best effort to deceive the outside world of what’s really happening in Tibet.”
Wang explained that this last trip to Lhasa was very different from previous ones. “Police and paramilitary forces are everywhere on the street. They check for anyone who looks suspicious. On the pilgrim route that circles the Jokhang Temple, paramilitary police are on guard around the clock. This is very unusual. Nobody feels safe. People are very cautious of their words and deeds so as not to offend the government,” said Wang.
Woeser has become one of the best-known Tibetan personalities, first as a poet whose work was approved by the Chinese regime, and then as a dissident author with her first book of prose which was banned in 2003. She has since not been allowed to publish in China, but the restrictions have failed to deter her.
Because it was repeatedly hacked and shut down, Woeser was forced to place the blog that she began in 2005 on a server outside China. Her current blog—woeser.middle-way.net —is the most popular site for many Tibetans and has recorded three million hits since she launched it on an overseas server early last year.
“Fear in Lhasa has been captured on cameras all over the city, the government buildings and the temples; Fear in Lhasa has been transferred to people’s hearts; Fear in Lhasa has become even greater than the 1959 (Tibetan Uprising), 1969 (Culture Revolution), 1989 (Tiananmen Square Massacre) combined,” Woeser writes.