Chinese Food

Papa roach: Chinese farmer breeds bugs for the table
AFP

Cockroach farmer Li Bingcai eating an exuvial roach at his farm in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

​Cockroach farm in China
As farmer Li Bingcai opened the door to his cockroach farm in southwest China, an insect the size of a dart flew into his face.
Picking the critter off his forehead, he tossed it back into the dark room where some 10 million more of its kind scurried around, housed in wooden frames perched on shelves.

Cockroaches eating feed at a roach farm in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

​Breeding cockroaches
The six-legged creatures may be a bugbear for most, but Li and other breeders in China are turning them into a niche business.
Some sell cockroaches for medicinal purposes, as animal feed or to get rid of food waste. 

Li breeds them for something else: food for human consumption.

A dish of cockroaches at a restaurant in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

​Food for human consumption
A restaurant down the road from his small facility fries them up in famously spicy Sichuan sauce for the gutsier eaters.
"People don't believe how good it is until they try some," Li told, putting a live one into his mouth as others crawled all over the place and people visiting.

Roaches at a cockroach farm in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

​Cures ailments
Known colloquially as American cockroaches, the Periplaneta americana is one of the largest species and are consumed for a variety of ailments: stomach ulcers, respiratory tract problems, and even simply as a tonic.
"The greatest effect of cockroaches are that they have great immunity, which is why humans will absorb its benefits after eating them," Li said, noting that in China cockroaches are dubbed "Little Strong" because they can live for days even after being cut in half.

Cockroach farmer Li Bingcai harvesting roaches at his farm in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

Security
Tucked at the edge of bamboo-covered mountains in Yibin, Li's facility is a nondescript single-storey former farmhouse surrounded by crop fields and livestock farms. 

The breeding area is roughly the size of a badminton court, with windows sealed off with netting to prevent any great escapes.
Security is paramount: In 2013, some one million cockroaches escaped a farm in eastern Jiangsu province roamed free after their greenhouse was destroyed.
Li's cockroaches live between the spaces of square wooden frames that are held together by pipes and stored in racks lining two rooms. 

The place is kept warm and humid, leaving a smell reminiscent of damp clothes.

Cockroach farmer Li Bingcai holding up roach larvae at his farm in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

​Feeding time
Feeding time causes a frenzy -- as Li heaps a mix of ground corn, fruit and vegetable peelings on small trays, the insects suddenly swarm the platforms, crawling over each other.
"We breed them in a hygienic environment. They eat proper food -- nothing synthetic," he said.
Every three months, Li harvests the cockroaches to keep the population under control by dropping some into a vat of boiling water before dehydrating the carcasses.
Last year, he sold one tonne of dried cockroaches to a pharmaceutical factory for nearly 90,000 yuan ($13,500).

A cook frying cockroaches at a restaurant in Yibin, China's southwestern Sichuan province.

Caution
Li's main source of income is from selling the insects directly to farms or medicine factories, and this is supplemented by an online shop his daughter helped set up. 

Half-a-kilo (1.1 pounds) of whole dehydrated insects retail for between 100 and 600 yuan ($15-$90).
The bugs have detoxifying properties and can act as a diuretic. 

It is also effective for relieving sore throat, tonsillitis, (liver) cirrhosis and fluid build-up.
But other Chinese medicine experts caution that a poorly regulated industry with a low barrier of entry could result in adverse effects.

China's Final Solution

China Spiriting Uyghur Detainees Away From East Turkestan to Prisons in Inner Mongolia, Sichuan
By Shohret Hoshur

Police patrol the area outside Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, in China's East Turkestan colony, June 26, 2017.

Ethnic Uyghurs held in political “re-education camps” in northwest China’s East Turkestan colony are being sent to prisons in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan province, officials have confirmed, adding to the growing list of locations detainees are being secretly transferred to.
In October last year, RFA’s Uyghur Service reported that authorities in the East Turkestan had begun covertly sending detainees to prisons in Heilongjiang province and other parts of China to address an “overflow” in overcrowded camps, where up to 1.1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas have been held since April 2017.
And earlier this month, RFA spoke to officials in both Shaanxi province and neighboring Gansu province, who confirmed that Uyghur and other Muslim detainees from East Turkestan had been sent to prisons there, although they were unable to provide specific numbers or dates for when they had been transferred.
The first report, which was based on statements by officials in both East Turkestan and Heilongjiang, came in the same month that East Turkestan chairman Shohrat Zakir confirmed to China’s official Xinhua news agency the existence of the camps, calling them an effective tool to protect the country from "terrorism" and provide vocational training for Uyghurs.
As global condemnation over the camp network has grown, including calls for international observers to be allowed into East Turkestan to investigate the situation there, reports suggest that authorities are transferring detainees to other parts of China as part of a bid to obfuscate the scale of detentions of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the region.
RFA recently spoke to an official at the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Women’s Prison who said that detainees from East Turkestan had been transferred to detention facilities in the region, but was unable to provide details without obtaining authorization from higher-level officials.
“There are two prisons that hold prisoners from East Turkestan—they are Wutaqi [in Hinggan (in Chinese, Xing'an) League’s Jalaid Banner] Prison and Salaqi [in Bogot (Baotou) city’s Tumd Right Banner] Prison,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
When asked how many Uyghur detainees are held in the prisons, the official said she could not disclose the number “because it is strictly confidential.”
The official said she had attended a meeting on transfers of detainees from East Turkestan and that prior to the meeting attendees had received notices informing them that “we are not allowed to disclose any information regarding the transportation program.”
“Regardless of who is making inquiries, we cannot disclose any information unless we first obtain permission from our superiors,” she said.
An official at the Wutaqi Prison Command Center also told RFA that detainees from East Turkestan are being held at Wutaqi, as well as a second one in Inner Mongolia, without specifying which one.
The official, who also declined to provide his name, said the detainees had been transferred to the two prisons as early as August last year, but was unsure whether they were being permanently relocated to the two prisons or being held there temporarily before they are transferred elsewhere.
“The prisoners are placed in two prisons, but [the officials at the facilities] don’t report to us about what is happening inside,” he said, before referring further inquiries to his supervisor.
“Regarding the number and the exact location of where they are held [in the prisons], I am unable to say,” he said.
The official said he was unsure of whether any detainees from East Turkestan had been sent to Inner Mongolia recently, as information about the transfers is closely guarded.
“It is impossible for me to tell you how many prisoners have been transferred here this month or last month,” he said.
“The authorities are keeping all the information very secret—even we don’t know the details.”

Sichuan transfers
Reports of detainee transfers from East Turkestan to Inner Mongolia followed indications from officials in Sichuan province that prisons there are also accepting those held in East Turkestan "re-education" camps.
When asked which prisons East Turkestan detainees are being sent to in Sichuan, an official who answered the phone at the Sichuan Provincial Prison Administration told an RFA reporter that if he was calling to “visit them,” he would first have to make an official request.
One official at a prison believed to hold detainees from East Turkestan in Yibin, a prefectural-level city in southeast Sichuan, told RFA that he “can’t discuss this issue over the phone” and suggested that the reporter file an official request for information.
But when asked about whether there had been any “ideological changes” to procedures at the facility, a fellow official who answered the phone said “these detentions are connected to "terrorism", so I can’t answer such questions.”
“The transfer of East Turkestan detainees is a secretive part of our work at the prison, so I can’t tell you anything about it,” she added.
The statements from officials in Inner Mongolia and Sichuan province followed recent reports by Bitter Winter, a website launched by the Italian research center CESNUR that focuses on religious in China, which cited “informed sources” as confirming that detainees from East Turkestan are being sent to prison facilities in other parts of the country.
The website, which routinely publishes photos and video documenting human rights violations submitted by citizen journalists from inside China, cited “CCP (Chinese Communist Party) insiders” as saying that more than 200 elderly Uyghurs in their sixties and seventies have been transferred to Ordos Prison in Inner Mongolia.
Bitter Winter also cited another source in Inner Mongolia who said one detainee was “beaten to death by the police” during his transfer, and expressed concern that the victim’s body “might already have been cremated.”
The website has previously said that the Chinese plan to disperse and detain “an estimated 500,000 Uyghur Muslims” throughout China.

Call to action
Dolkun Isa, president of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress exile group, told RFA he was “deeply troubled” by the reports of secret transfers of detainees from East Turkestan to prisons in other parts of China, saying the move signalled a “very dark intent” by authorities.
“We simply cannot imagine what kind of treatment they are enduring at the hands of Chinese guards in these prisons, as this is shrouded in complete secrecy,” he said, adding that he was concerned for the well-being of the detainees.
Isa called on the international community to turn its attention to the transfers and demanded that the Chinese government disclose the total number of detainees who had been moved, as well as the location of the prisons they had been sent to.
“If the United Nations, U.S., EU, Turkey and other Muslims nations do not voice their concerns over this troubling development in a timely manner, I fear these innocent Uyghurs will perish in Chinese prisons without a trace,” he said.
China recently organized two visits to monitor re-education camps in East Turkestan—one for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Thailand—during which officials dismissed claims about mistreatment and poor conditions in the facilities as “slanderous lies.”
Reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities.
Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, has said that some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the camps—equating to 10 to 11 percent of the adult Muslim population of East Turkestan.
In November 2018, Scott Busby, the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, said there are "at least 800,000 and possibly up to a couple of million" Uyghurs and others detained at "re-education" camps in East Turkestan without charges, citing U.S. intelligence assessments.
Citing credible reports, U.S. lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, recently called the situation in East Turkestan "the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today."

Free Tibet

Tibetan Youth Self-Immolates Over China's Tibet Policies
By Tinley Nyandak
Drugkho, a Tibetan youth seen in these undated photos, set himself on fire to protest China’s repressive policy in Tibet near the Ngaba District’s security office, Sichuan Province, Dec. 8, 2018.

A young Tibetan man set himself on fire outside a district security office in China's Sichuan province earlier this month, chanting, "Long Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama! Free Tibet!"
Tibetan sources say the man, Drugkho, is about 22 years old, and is believed to still be alive, but his whereabouts and his condition remain unclear.

He is the latest Tibetan to attempt to self-immolate over repressive Chinese policies in Tibet. 

Local sources said the incident occurred last Saturday near the Ngaba District security office, but details were scarce.
Whenever there is a self-immolation protest, China typically beefs up its security to try to prevent the news from spreading.
"There has been an immediate lockdown in the area, with internet communications blocked. A Tibetan youth self-immolated on December 8 in the afternoon in Ngaba county, and it is true that it happened, but after the incident any discussion of this is very inconvenient," RFA Tibetan service and The Tibet Post International reported, quoting sources in Tibet.
Dharamsala-based Kirti Monastery's spokesman Lobsang Yeshi says no further details were known because of strict restrictions on information flow in the area and dangers to the Tibetans speaking to the outside world.
The protester was a former monk at Kirti Monastery. 

He was formerly known as Chokyi Gyaltsen, but after he disrobed in 2017, he took the name of Drugkho, according to Tibetan sources.
Ngaba's main town and nearby Kirti Monastery have been the scene of repeated self-immolations and other protests in recent years by monks, former monks, and other Tibetans calling for Tibetan freedom and the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. 

Drugkho's self-immolation protest is the 42nd such confirmed incident in Ngaba.
Drugkho's protest brings the total number of self-immolations to roughly 155 in Tibet since February 2009. 

The majority of those self-immolators have died.

Celebrating Death

10 Years Ago in Sichuan, a Quake Killed 69,000. Should China Be Thankful?

By Tiffany May

A student who survived the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 mourning in Beichuan, China, last month at a memorial for the many victims.

HONG KONG — The looming anniversary of a deadly Sichuan earthquake has been named “Thanksgiving Day” by local government officials, drawing scorn from Chinese internet users who feel the government should be honoring the dead instead.
The magnitude-7.9 earthquake on May 12, 2008, killed at least 69,000 people, including thousands of children whose classrooms collapsed. 

While the government directed substantial resources into rebuilding, the collapse of poorly built schools across the earthquake-prone zone remains a symbol of government apathy and a source of national heartbreak.
After Wenchuan County officials announced the day of thanksgiving to mark the anniversary on Saturday, the state news media described “beautiful, tidy buildings” that now populate the most ravaged disaster zone. 

The report noted that local residents often expressed their indebtedness for the “gushing springs of generosity” they had received — a sentimental adage.
Echoing the hyperbolic phrases used in the state news media, the viral news aggregator Toutiao said in a post that earthquake victims felt “gushing springs of gratitude” for the “big love” that streamed into the region from all corners of the country.
The heavy-handed focus on gratitude drew an overwhelming backlash from Chinese internet users who responded to Toutiao’s post on Weibo, a microblogging site.
“Everyone knows that the earthquake killed tens of thousands of people on that day, and yet you call it ‘Thanksgiving Day,’” a Weibo user said. 

“What do we give thanks for?”
“Can’t it be called ‘Memorial Day?’” another user asked. 

“Gratitude at the tip of the tongue is the most hypocritical way of giving thanks.”
Others suggested alternative names for the anniversary: “Day of the Earthquake Victims,” “Day of Suffering” and even “Day of Shame.”
China has long portrayed those who endure extreme suffering as models of resilience. 

In an extended “Thanksgiving Day” report, Xinhua presented stories of the quake’s child survivors who have grown up to serve the country.
One boy who was photographed after the disaster encouraging rescue troops is now in training to become an army doctor. 

Another was photographed then with a sign that read, “I want to be a paratrooper when I grow up.” And sure enough, he became one.
“The stories not only create a positive narrative about the victims, but their choice of professions also shows how the tragedy brought them closer to the state,” said Suzanne Scoggins, an assistant professor of political science at Clark University in Massachusetts.
The government’s messaging allowed it to deflect public discontent that surfaced after the quake. 

In anticipation of sensitive anniversaries, the propaganda authorities often instruct the state news media to “cast tragedy in a new light” in order to pre-empt reflections on “political and institutional failures,” said David Bandurski, a co-director of the China Media Project and a fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin.
In a comment that has since been deleted, a Weibo user assailed the reframing of the earthquake anniversary as “utterly thoughtless,” saying it “shirks responsibility.”
“This is clearly a tragedy, and yet it’s made into a celebration,” another Weibo user said. 

Then, referencing a propaganda term derisively, he asked, “Is this a Chinese characteristic?”
By reframing the quake anniversary as a day of thanksgiving, local officials are probably trying to forge an atmosphere of unity, reinforcing “the way in which government groups and residents worked together,” Professor Scoggins said.
But Chinese internet users remained cynical about the government’s positive spin.
“Only after seeing these comments do I realize the world is sane,” a Weibo user wrote in response to the “Thanksgiving Day” announcement. 

“Unlike this crazy piece of copy.”

Free Tibet

24-Year-old Tibetan Self-Immolates in Anti-China Protest
VOA News

Map of self-immolations in Tibet, or near Tibet
Monitors say a 24-year-old Tibetan man set himself on fire Saturday outside a monastery in China's southwestern Sichuan province, a region heavily populated by ethnic Tibetans who protest China's policies in their nearby homeland.
A statement Sunday from the organization "Free Tibet" said the man self-immolated Saturday afternoon, drawing a large detachment of police and security personnel who took him into custody.
Witnesses are quoted as saying Pema Gyaltsen was thought to be alive when arrested. 

But the statement said activists have been unable to confirm his current condition or whether he survived the ordeal.
The statement also said police remained in the area to prevent the spread of information, and that Internet service in the region was cut.
Analysts say Saturday's self-immolation is the first in the disputed region since December, when another male set himself on fire and died.
Free Tibet says more than 140 Tibetan protesters have set themselves on fire since 2009, when anti-China protesters -- most of them monks and nuns -- began self-immolating to protest what locals describe as Chinese interference in Tibetan customs and religious practices.
The majority of those protesters have died.
Protesters also have sought to bring attention to demands for the return of their exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Chinese authorities last decade criminalized self-immolation protests, and local courts have imprisoned scores of people for their alleged roles in supporting the protests.

Cultural Genocide

U.N. Human Rights Experts Unite to Condemn China Over Expulsions of Tibetans
By EDWARD WONG

Buddhist monks at Larung Gar last year. A half-dozen United Nations experts have condemned the expulsions of monks and nuns from two Tibetan religious enclaves, Larung Gar and Yachen Gar.

A half-dozen United Nations experts who investigate human rights abuses have taken the rare step of banding together to condemn China for expulsions of monks and nuns from major religious enclaves in a Tibetan region.
In a sharply worded statement, the experts expressed alarm about “severe restrictions of religious freedom” in the area.
Most of the expulsions mentioned by the experts have taken place at Larung Gar, the world’s largest Buddhist institute and one of the most influential centers of learning in the Tibetan world. 

Officials have been demolishing some of the homes of the 20,000 monks and nuns living around the institute, in a high valley in Sichuan Province.
The statement also cited accusations of evictions at Yachen Gar, sometimes known as Yarchen Gar, an enclave largely of nuns that is also in Sichuan and has a population of about 10,000.
“While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, grave concern is expressed over the serious repression of the Buddhist Tibetans’ cultural and religious practices and learning in Larung Gar and Yachen Gar,” the statement said.
It was signed by six of the United Nations experts, or special rapporteurs, who come from various countries. 

They each specialize in a single aspect of human rights, including cultural rights, sustainable environment and peaceful assembly. 

It is unusual for so many of them to collaborate in this manner.
The statement was sent to the Chinese government in November, but was made public only in recent days, before the start of this year’s session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. The session began Monday and is scheduled to end on March 24.
The United Nations experts have asked Beijing to address the reports of evictions and demolitions. The release of the statement before the session in Geneva puts more pressure on China to explain the actions taking place at the two Tibetan Buddhist institutions. 

China says matters related to Tibet are internal affairs, but Chinese officials in Beijing have privately expressed some concern over outside perceptions of the demolitions and evictions at Larung Gar and related Western news coverage.
Over the summer, Chinese officials began deporting monks and nuns living at Larung Gar who were not registered residents of Garze, the prefecture where the institution is. 

Since then, hundreds of clergy members have been forced out, and workers have demolished small homes clustered along the valley walls. 

One day last fall, I watched workers tearing and cutting apart wooden homes, sometimes using a chain saw.
Official reports have said the demolition is part of a project to improve safety in the area because people live in such tight quarters there. 

In 2014, a fire destroyed about 100 homes.
Residents said the government planned to bring the population down to 5,000 from 20,000 by next year. 

The government evicted many clergy members once before, in 2001, but people returned. 

The encampment was founded in 1980 near the town of Sertar by Jigme Phuntsok, a charismatic lama, and is now run by two abbots. 

The United Nations experts said in the statement that while they awaited China’s response, they “urge that all necessary interim measures be taken to halt the violations and prevent their reoccurrence.”

Tibetans in anguish as Chinese mines pollute their sacred grasslands

By Simon Denyer

Landscape along the road from Xining to Yushu in Qinghai Province, on May 29.

JIAJIKA, CHINA — High in western China’s Sichuan province, in the shadow of holy mountains, the Liqi River flows through a lush, grassy valley, dotted with grazing yaks, small Tibetan villages and a Buddhist temple. 

But there’s poison here.
A large lithium mine not only desecrates the sacred grasslands, villagers say, but spawns deadly pollution. 

This river used to be full of fish. 

Today, there are hardly any. 

Hundreds of yaks, the villagers say, have died in the past few years after drinking river water.
China’s thirst for mineral resources — and its desire to exploit the rich deposits under the Tibetan plateau — have spread environmental pollution and anguish for many of the herders whose ancestors lived here for thousands of years.
The land they worship is under assault, and their way of life is threatened without their consent, the herders say.
“Old people, we see the mines and we cry,” a 67-year-old yak herder said, requesting anonymity for fear of retribution. 

“What are the future generations going to do? How are they going to survive?”

A local environmentalist, who also declined to be named to prevent backlash from the authorities, said he had done an oral survey of local opinion and found that Tibetans would oppose mining projects even if companies promised to share profits with local communities, to fill in mines after they were exhausted, and to return sites to their natural state.
“God is in the mountains and the rivers, these are the places that spirits live,” he said. 

“When mining comes and the grassland is dug up, people believe worse disasters will come. It destroys the mountain god.”

Salt deposits at the Jiajika lithium mine in Tagong township in China’s western Sichuan province, seen on August 9, 2016. Local Tibetan herders have protested at least twice against the mine, saying it has polluted the Liqi river and killed fish and yaks downstream.

It was in 2009 that toxic chemicals from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine first leaked into the river, locals say, killing their livestock and poisoning their fish.
“The whole river stank, and it was full of dead yaks and dead fish,” said one man in the downstream village of Balang, who declined to be named for fear of retribution. 

Another pollution outbreak and a protest by villagers in 2013 forced the government to order production temporarily stopped, locals said.
“Then, during the past few months, officials came to the village to try to persuade people,” the man said. 

“They said we have to have the mine, but promised they would take time to fix the pollution problem before reopening it.”
But in April, just after mining restarted, fish began dying again, locals said. 

“That’s when we just knew they had lied,” the man said.

Dead fish are seen in May, 2016. A Free Tibet protest against the Jiajika lithium mine in Dartsedo County in May, 2016.

In May, residents gathered to stage a second protest, scattering dead fish on a road in the nearby town of Tagong, only to be surrounded by dozens of baton-wielding riot police. 

Again the government stepped in, issuing a statement to “solemnly” promise that the plant would not reopen until the “environmental issues” are solved.
But the problem at the Jiajika mine is not an isolated one. 

Across Tibetan parts of China, protests regularly erupt against mineral extraction, according to a 2015 report by Tibet Watch.
China is focused on copper and gold extraction from Tibet, but is also exploiting a whole range of minerals “with increasing intensity,” including chromium, iron, lithium, iron, mercury, uranium and zinc — as well as fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, the report said.
Although China boasts of its development work in western regions where Tibetans live, the report argued that much of the transport and other infrastructure in the region is aimed at extracting minerals rather than benefiting residents. 

Projects usually import workers from other parts of China, seldom employing Tibetans in significant numbers.
When protests break out, China’s response has generally been heavy handed, with authorities seeking to politicize the protests.
Understanding those risks, Tibetan communities sometimes use creative ways to get their message across.
In August 2013, hundreds of people gathered in Zadoi county in Qinghai province to protest against mining on what they considered to be a holy mountain; they flew Chinese flags to demonstrate their loyalty to the state, and erected posters and placards quoting Xi Jinping’s words on the need to balance economic growth and environmental protection.
It didn’t help. 

Police and paramilitary forces arrived in large numbers, firing bullets above the crowd, arresting eight people and injuring many more.

A camp at a lead and zinc mine in the high altitude village of Xingniangda, southern part of Qinghai province, where only Han Chinese work.

The entrance of a lead and zinc mine in the high altitude village of Xingniangda, southern part of Qinghai province, where only Han Chinese work.

In the villages outside Xiaosumang township in Qinghai, residents blame a lead and zinc mine for the deterioration of the grasslands for miles around, and even for falling harvests of caterpillar fungus, a highly prized health cure that is the backbone of the local economy.
Contaminated water from the mine, residents said in a joint letter to the authorities in 2010, not only killed their livestock but alsocaused people who drank it to die of cancer, they said.

“Over the years, many herders would sigh and say: ‘Life can’t go on like this anymore. Even drinking has become a big issue for people living on the grasslands,’ ” the letter said.
A May 2009 protest in Xizha village prompted a severe crackdown, the letter said, with guns and tear gas used, seven women severely beaten, and 12 men blindfolded, detained and tortured.
Authorities threatened to cancel poverty-alleviation grants, including income and housing subsidies, if anyone in the region brought up the issue of environmental protection again, the letter said, adding that the crackdown “caused great fear to spread in our hearts.”
Whether the mine is truly the culprit for all the grasslands’ ills is another matter – climate change, for example, is probably an important factor. 

But that doesn’t soothe local anger.
“When I was young, there was more grass, more flowers, it was really beautiful here,” said one 27-year-old man in a valley downstream from the lead and zinc mine. 

“Now you see it’s less beautiful every year. People see all this and they are not really sure what happened, so they think it must be the mine.”

A woman washes clothes near the Jiajika lithium mine in Tagong township in China’s western Sichuan province on August 9, 2016. Local Tibetan herders have protested at least twice against the mine, saying it has polluted the Liqi river and killed fish and yaks downstream.

In Jiajika, 300 miles to the southeast, the commercial pressure to reopen the lithium mine is mounting. 

The element is a vital component in rechargeable batteries used in cars, smartphones, laptops and other electronic and electrical items, and demand — and prices — are skyrocketing.
In January, Youngy Co. Ltd., the parent company of Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium, promised investors that the local government would step up efforts to reopen the mine in March.
That same month, an article in the local Ganzi Daily newspaper outlined the authorities’ dream of making the area “China’s lithium capital,” calling Jiajika the biggest lithium mine in the world with proven reserves of 1.89 million metric tons and even greater potential. 

Three companies, including Rongda, will invest 3.4 billion yuan ($510 million) in the site by 2020, the article said.
He Chengkun, Youngy’s media officer, said an official investigation had established that the plant was not responsible for killing fish in 2013 or this year.
“The local government has made it clear it is nothing to do with our company,” he said. 

“They are looking into it, and have already zoomed in on some suspects.”
He said the plant has been closed since late 2013 because of problems relating to land acquisition, and denied that it had restarted operations in April as locals claimed.
Nevertheless, across the Tibetan plateau, resource extraction, land grabs and environmental destruction remain flashpoints for conflict between Tibetans and the authorities, said Free Tibet director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, reflecting both local grievances and the wider problem that Tibetans do not have the right to decide what happens to Tibet and its resources.
“Those resources feed the demands of Chinese industry instead of the needs of the Tibetan people,” she said. 

“That is why their environment is put at risk and their rights are trampled upon, and why we can expect to see this conflict played out repeatedly in the future.”