ICC Note: Chinese government of control of travel documents is another method of controlling religious minorities, such as Tibetans or Uyghurs, who are also ethnic minorities.  That seems to be the government’s highest priority in China recently: maintaining control. 

By Alexandra Sims

07/09/2015 China (The Independent)

China has effectively banned Tibetans and other religious minority groups from having passports, according to a new report.

The report, from Human Rights Watch, accuses Chinese authorities of using a discriminatory double-tiered passport system meaning that residents of areas populated by religious minorities, such as the country’s Tibetan and Muslim minorities, must provide far more extensive documentation than other citizens.

Additional restrictions have been implemented in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and led to a near-total ban on any travel for these residents unless they are on official business.

Passport restrictions in the TAR have been fiercely controlled since 2012 when almost all passports held by residents were confiscated after the Chinese government  announced a shift to a new “ePassport” system.

Almost no replacement passports have been issued, however. In 2012 only two passports were issued in Tibet’s Chengdu prefecture despite having a population of 650,000 people.

Getting a passport is harder for a Tibetan than getting into heaven,” said one anonymous Tibetan blogger in the report, “This is one of those ‘preferential policies’ given to us Tibetans by [China’s] central government.”

The report suggests that the slow-track system was put in place specifically to prevent religiously or politically motivated activities that Chinese authorities view as rebellious, such as attending speeches by Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, or independent pilgrimages to Mecca.

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