The BBC just reported sad news of refugees gunned down while trying to leave China:

A British climber has related how he saw Chinese border guards shooting dead a Tibetan refugee in a group trying to flee to Nepal 11 days ago.

Policeman Steve Marsh told the BBC he was resting at a camp on the Tibetan side of the Himalayan peak of Cho-Oyu.

He spoke of his shock at the incident, which he said scores of other mountaineers also witnessed.

Tibet welfare groups say the Tibetan who died was a young nun, and add that a boy might also have been killed.

A report from Romanian climbers also confirms the story, but puts the toll much higher:

The Romanian climbers, Alexandru Gavan and Sergiu Matei, told the television the civilians were killed on a remote Himalayan passage on Sept. 30.

“They were men, women and children, barely wearing decent winter clothes. After an actual human hunt, eight of them did not live to see their dream fulfilled. They were hunted like rats,” Gavan told Realitatea television.

A more in-depth report, including background on the route and risks, can be found on Save Tibet. Apparently, an article from 2003 on Save Tibet explained that the Chinese have been spending quite a bit of money to build roads and outposts for the soldiers to shoot at Tibetans who try to leave Tibet:

The Chinese government has recently completed construction of a paved road to Gyaplung, just 6 kilometers from the glaciated Nangpa La (Nangpa Pass) on the Nepal-Tibet border in its effort to stem the flight of Tibetans from Tibet, according to ICT sources in the region. Nangpa La, at over 19,000 feet above sea level (5,716 meters), is the primary escape route into Nepal used by Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet.

…officers and men of the Tibetan border patrol units have had to brave freezing conditions and extreme discomfort in order to carry out their duties of preserving stability in the border regions of the Motherland. As a crossing point, Nangpa-La mountain pass has always been a ‘golden route’ for people trying to steal across the border. Patrolling the mountain pass at Nangpa-La is a duty that has to be carried out every night by the officers and men of the unit and involves a two-hour walk from the unit’s temporary station to Nangpa-La. Wearing leather hats and thick padded greatcoats, they have to wade through three waist-deep streams and traverse two mountains that are snow-capped even in summer.

It appears to be a government setting up facilities to support a ruthless human hunt. Preserving stability in border regions must mean that they are afraid of a Tibetan freedom or separatist movement forming from escapees who live in neighboring India or Nepal. Thus it clear why they intend to kill or maim anyone who tries to escape the country. Again from the 2003 report:

Approximately 2,500 Tibetans annually escape from Tibetan enroute to India. Approximately a third of those refugees are children under 18 years who are seeking a Tibetan language education unavailable to them under Chinese rule. Approximately one quarter of the refugees who successfully escape Tibet are monks and nuns who flee due to Chinese repression of religious beliefs and practices.

Will China’s reaction after this latest news story be to start checkposts for climbers to do inspections of gear and prevent climber communication with outside contacts?