PHOTO ESSAY: Under watch by Chinese tech, the Tibetan community in Nepal is slowly suffocating

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — In Nepal, the unseen eye has changed Tibetan life.

The cameras are not just machines perched on the thick bundles of wires that twist through narrow lanes of Kathmandu in Nepal. They are a presence, an unseen watcher that Tibetans have learned to fear.

In the city’s refugee settlements, once a haven for the community, every lens is a warning. Men draw their curtains before speaking. Prayer rooms remain locked, their devotions muted behind wood and cloth. The flags that once fluttered freely now cling in tatters to barbed wire.

Nepal is one of at least 150 countries where Chinese companies now sell surveillance tools. These systems that have become central to Beijing’s global push by offering cash-strapped governments, like the Himalayan kingdom, a cheap but intrusive form of policing that uses cameras, algorithms, and data as a force multiplier for control, an Associated Press investigation found.

In Nepal, the technology is also used to watch and deter pro-independence activities from Tibetans.

Near Nepal’s border with Tibet, the road is choked with snow, winding past villages where locals say Chinese officials have pressured them to remove photographs of the Dalai Lama. In Lo Manthang, long a sanctuary for those trying to slip across the mountains, a towering surveillance installation on the Chinese side now overlooks the mountain paths below.

The message is unmistakable: The Himalayas no longer offer cover.

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This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.