Tibetan writer placed under house arrest 'over dinner invite from John Kerry's delegation'
Rights advocate believes her acceptance of a meeting with the US delegation visiting China was the cause of couple's house arrest
A well-known Tibetan writer said today that she and her husband have been placed under house arrest in Beijing as China plays host to US State Secretary John Kerry for the latest round of US-China talks.
Tsering Woeser, who has been advocating Tibetans rights, said state security officers arrived at her Beijing home late last night, shortly after she and her husband Wang Lixiong returned from a trip.
The state security officers refused to give a reason for the home detention, but Tsering Woeser said she believes it is related to a dinner invitation she received from the US Embassy, possibly with Kerry himself.
The US Embassy in Beijing did not immediately reply today when asked for a comment.
Tsering Woeser was awarded last year’s International Women of Courage Award by the US State Department, but Beijing banned her from travelling to Washington to receive the award.
At the award ceremony, Kerry praised Tsering Woeser for her courageous writings on Tibetan people and their causes at a time of deteriorating human rights.
”Tsering Woeser has emerged as a clarion voice of the people, even as the Chinese government has worked to curtail the flow of information from Tibet,” Kerry said at the time, according to a transcript posted on the State Department’s website.
Tsering Woeser said the US embassy had called her while she and Wang were travelling outside Beijing to extend an invitation to a Wednesday dinner, which she said she accepted over the phone.
She said the embassy never said whom she would meet but she thought it could be Kerry, who wrote her a letter following last year’s award.
”If I were to meet him, indeed, I would like to reply to his letter in person and offer my thanks,” Tsering Woeser wrote on her Facebook page. “But regrettably, I am now under house arrest.”
