In Eyes Above the Plateau: Drones, DJI, and the Aerial Architecture of Control in Tibet, published on 30 September with research support from US non-profit C4ADS, Tibet Watch traces China’s build-out of aerial surveillance in Tibet through the Chinese state’s own paperwork published since 2017 including tenders, contract awards, police bulletins, flight bans and training reports.

The documents reveal two significant parallel developments. Security agencies at every level, from the regional anti-terror unit to county police stations, have bought drones, automated docking stations and systems to detect and jam other people’s drones. At the same time, the state has closed the sky to everyone else. Tibet’s police define the mission of the drone training as ‘stability maintenance’, the Communist Party’s term for crushing any dissent, however mild, and enforcing compliance with Party policy above religious and cultural life as Xi Jinping pursues forcible assimilation.