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Tsering Yangzom, a member of the Tibetan community in Newcastle, NSW [New South Wales, Australia], told SBS News her uncle works in the flood-affected region of Tibet, but she’s been unable to contact him since the disaster and appears to have been blocked.

She suspects he may be concerned their communications are being monitored, but she’s also “really, really worried” about whether he was affected by the deadly floods.

Normally, she says they speak briefly and intermittently on the Chinese messaging app WeChat, sometimes using coded language to protect her uncle.

“If he says the weather is good, then we can talk a little bit more about the normal life,” she said. “But if he says the weather is not good and rainy or something … that means that I can’t talk much.”

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Human Rights Watch’s Australia director, Daniela Gavshon, told SBS News censorship and self-censorship are pervasive in Tibetan areas.

“These information controls make it even harder to get accurate information, for families to locate loved ones, or to develop a good understanding of the disaster, its scale, its impact, and the response.”

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According to various international media organisations, videos filmed and uploaded by local residents showing the disaster have been censored on Chinese social media platforms.

On Chinese social media platform RedNote, SBS Chinese was unable to find the widely viewed CCTV footage showing the flash flooding engulfing the Rasuwagadhi border crossing between Tibet and Nepal.

Chinese state media has, however, shown vision of recovery efforts.

“For China, everything is inherently political when it comes to Tibet,” [said] Zoë Bedford, executive officer of the Australia Tibet Council.

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“What they’re afraid of is people hearing Tibetan voices. They’re afraid of people understanding the extent of China’s mega-development in Tibet and how much they have been interfering in the environment.”

Feng Chongyi, associate professor in China Studies at the University of Technology Sydney, said many Tibetans and Nepalese people blame the Chinese government, which has funnelled billions into developments in the region in a bid to harness its vast hydropower potential and resources.

“The Chinese government, of course, do not want that kind of opinion or discussion to spread to the international community,” he told SBS News.

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The disaster was triggered by a glacier collapse, which Chinese authorities and international experts have linked to climate change.

Just three months before the disaster, officials from China and Nepal met to discuss strengthening cooperation to monitor floods, weather and glacier-related hazards.

But two Nepali officials told the Reuters news agency they didn’t receive as much information as they wanted from China on glacier risks and water levels, heightening fears that insufficient data sharing could make it harder to anticipate and prepare for natural disasters.

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