Chinese authorities are closely watching a Tibetan writer after they discovered she had contact with people outside Tibet.
Pema Tso, author of numerous articles and poems published in Tibetan magazines, has been teaching Tibetan language in Rebkong (Tongren in Chinese) for the past 30 years.
Due to constant police surveillance, she has been unable to meet other people or have a normal life, the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Since 2020, Chinese authorities started restraining Pema Tso, saying that she had contact with people outside Tibet, specifically Beijing-based Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser,” the source said.
Woeser, who writes a column for RFA’s Tibetan Service, is a controversial figure because of her pro-Tibetan writings and poems.
Woeser “has emerged as the most prominent mainland activist speaking out publicly about human rights conditions” for Tibetans, the U.S. State Department said in a statement after she won its “Woman of Courage” award in 2013.
In addition to surveilling Pema Tso for contacting Woeser and others, authorities warned her several times, according to the source.
“She was… accused of owning sensitive political documents and books. She is currently barred from attending any schools or lectures,” the source said.
Pema Tso was born in the 1960s in Rebkong, the capital of the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai. She graduated from Qinghai Public University in 1987 as a Tibetan language major. She has won many literary awards for her writings.
