Tsering Yangzom, a member of the Tibetan community in Newcastle, NSW [New South Wales, Australia], told SBS News her uncle works in the flood-affected region of Tibet, but she’s been unable to contact him since the disaster and appears to have been blocked.

She suspects he may be concerned their communications are being monitored, but she’s also “really, really worried” about whether he was affected by the deadly floods.

Normally, she says they speak briefly and intermittently on the Chinese messaging app WeChat, sometimes using coded language to protect her uncle.

“If he says the weather is good, then we can talk a little bit more about the normal life,” she said. “But if he says the weather is not good and rainy or something … that means that I can’t talk much.”

Human Rights Watch’s Australia director, Daniela Gavshon, told SBS News censorship and self-censorship are pervasive in Tibetan areas.

“These information controls make it even harder to get accurate information, for families to locate loved ones, or to develop a good understanding of the disaster, its scale, its impact, and the response.”

According to various international media organisations, videos filmed and uploaded by local residents showing the disaster have been censored on Chinese social media platforms.

On Chinese social media platform RedNote, SBS Chinese was unable to find the widely viewed CCTV footage showing the flash flooding engulfing the Rasuwagadhi border crossing between Tibet and Nepal.

Chinese state media has, however, shown vision of recovery efforts.

“For China, everything is inherently political when it comes to Tibet,” [said] Zoë Bedford, executive officer of the Australia Tibet Council.

“What they’re afraid of is people hearing Tibetan voices. They’re afraid of people understanding the extent of China’s mega-development in Tibet and how much they have been interfering in the environment.

Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology Sydney, said many Tibetans and Nepalese people blame the Chinese government, which has funnelled billions into developments in the region in a bid to harness its vast hydropower potential and resources.

“The Chinese government, of course, do not want that kind of opinion or discussion to spread to the international community,” he told SBS News.

The disaster was triggered by a glacier collapse, which Chinese authorities and international experts have linked to climate change.

Just three months before the disaster, officials from China and Nepal met to discuss strengthening cooperation to monitor floods, weather and glacier-related hazards.

But two Nepali officials told the Reuters news agency they didn’t receive as much information as they wanted from China on glacier risks and water levels, heightening fears that insufficient data sharing could make it harder to anticipate and prepare for natural disasters.

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  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    Countdown to thoughtless tankies in the comments attempting to explain why Tibet is somehow actually better off under Chinese imperialist rule…

    Oh wait they’re already here!

  • the_fuckler@nord.pub
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    2 days ago

    Defending vile sinosupremecist policy on the internet is literally praxis. I’m a force for social change.

    • Sepia@mander.xyzOP
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      3 days ago

      Reddit? Isn’t this the platform where these ‘tankies’ have been banned some time ago?

      • Wakmrow@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        So did you actually read the article? The sbs’ claim of censorship was that they couldn’t find videos of the flood on rednote.

        They also found one lady in New South Wales that said she talks to her family in code.

        And then they made the claim that the sinister Chinese government wants to show themselves as competently managing the disaster.

        This is nonsense.

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        Unlike in other countries where they? Just put random stuff on TV without thinking about it? Don’t really get what this is meant to mean lol.

          • febra@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Sure man. Or is it you guys who just keep turning every stone ten times just to find something about China you can whine about every other week

        • lath@piefed.social
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          3 days ago

          A claim is it’s meant to hide a shoddy construction and reinforcement work they (unnamed Chinese construction firm) seem to have done previous to this accident.

          • febra@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I didn’t expect that to be world news. Why do people all over the ocean even care what a small chinese construction company has done in some chinese village? Bad business practices are a thing all over the world, don’t need to look all the way to China to find issues. I bet you can find some right in your city where you currently live. At least I can

            • lath@piefed.social
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              2 days ago

              No doubt there’s shoddy practices everywhere, but it becomes (world) news when there’s casualties. More casualties, bigger news.

              • febra@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                I don’t think the casualties have much of anything to do with any of that. It’s not like you can control the consequences of climate change, such as natural disasters. At least in that aspect China is doing the most out of any country to fight against global warming.

                • lath@piefed.social
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                  2 days ago

                  You can diminish the damage by properly preparing for it and in this case the claim would be that they didn’t.