On June 16, 2025, Chinese authorities sentenced Sherab, the abbot of Yena Monastery, to four years in prison. Gonpo, the monastery’s chief administrator, received a three-year sentence. Both men were charged for leading peaceful protests against the construction of the massive Gangtuo hydropower dam project a part of China’s 13-dam cascade planned for the upper reaches of the Drichu.
In a blistering new report released on June 4, 2025, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has lifted the veil on what it calls China’s “grey-zone infrastructure strategy” on the Tibetan Plateau — a slow, calculated campaign of control disguised as development.
From colossal dam projects that strangle Asia’s water sources to digital surveillance systems that map and monitor ethnic Tibetans with Orwellian precision, the CSIS warns: China’s blueprint for Tibet is not just about bridges and tunnels — it’s about power without war.
