Tibetans inside Tibet have been working on a campaign for civil disobedience when it comes to Losar (Tibetan New Year) this year. Instead of celebrating in normal fashion, countless Tibetans will be in mourning for the thousands killed by the Chinese military in the national uprising last spring and the untold thousands more who are languishing in prison or have been disappeared.

China has closed Tibet to foreign visitors and the media – not just the T.A.R. but eastern Tibetan regions that are incorporated into Chinese provinces. Time’s China Blog reports on the closures and the Losar boycott:

Whatever the truth, it’s what the ordinary Tibetans believe–and the rage it inspires– that counts. The boycott infuriated the Chinese authorities, but more on that later when we’ll have a story about what seems to have been a wide scale act of civil disobedience. That could be repetaed [sic] in the Tibet Autonomous Region proper from February 25th onwards when the official Tibetan new year begins. (Tibetans outside the TAR don’t much choice but to celebrate according to the Chinese lunar calendar).

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Update: the government has now announced that all Tibetan areas in Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces are closed to foreigners, so it looks as though we got in just in time

China is locking down Tibet at a time when there are widely circulating plans for civil disobedience. The Chinese government is setting up the conditions for a massive crackdown with no international witnesses or media to report on their actions. That the action of cutting off 30% of the land controlled by the Chinese government from all foreign tourists and press isn’t drawing international outrage and attention is a bad statement about the willingness of the global community to criticize the Chinese government for their reprehensible behavior.