Last year you were one of over 100,000 people who joined me to help defend my home Lhasa; the beautiful and sacred capital of Tibet. As I wrote to update you recently, the threat to Lhasa has not gone away and I urge you to join me again by helping to stop the opening of a luxury hotel in Lhasa run by UK company Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/richard-solomons-intercontinental-pull-out-of-tibet In the last few days, the campaign group Free Tibet has reported that InterContinental's "Lhasa Paradise" hotel will be open for paying guests at the end of September [1], and that the hotel plans to host a "celebration" on 25 August featuring "a ceremony full of ethnic characteristics". Quite what there is to celebrate is unclear, as Tibetans continue to be severely repressed in their own country; one recent western visitor to Lhasa observed “security personnel visible almost everywhere” and that local Tibetans were “visibly afraid of law enforcement officials” [2]. And in eastern Tibet last week, Chinese security forces opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing at least four Tibetans. [3] Tourism on China's terms is a grave threat to Lhasa, and to the Tibetan people. The Chinese government continues to fast-track economic development in Lhasa by selling “Tibet chic” to rich Chinese tourists. Lhasa under occupation is no place for a luxury hotel; in fact, opening the ‘Resort Lhasa Paradise’ in Tibet today is akin to opening a hotel in Johannesburg at the height of apartheid. IHG themselves admit that less than half the staff will be Tibetan. Intercontinental still has time to make the right decision and pull out of Lhasa instead of turning a blind eye to China’s severe repression of the Tibetan people and destruction of my home city. Please sign this NEW petition, and tell IHG that Lhasa is no paradise, and that their involvement in this hotel is simply aiding and legitimising the brutal occupation of Tibet by China. Urge them to cancel the Lhasa hotel NOW! https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/richard-solomons-intercontinental-pull-out-of-tibet Thank You, Read More: 1.http://freetibet.org/news-media/pr/tibet-intercontinental-hotel-opens-its-doors-first-time-chinese-propaganda-event 2. http://freetibet.org/news-media/na/living-state-fear 3. http://freetibet.org/news-media/na/3-more-tibetans-die-custody