China's response to the Tibet flood disaster is textbook authoritarian damage control — restrict access, punish anyone sharing unapproved information and flood the narrative with state-choreographed praise. Journalists were barred from the disaster zone, at least 10 people were punished for so-called rumormongering and official media leaned on AI-generated visuals while raw footage of the chaos was actively suppressed. WhenA a government silencessilencing victims' voices and polishespolishing the story with artificial imagery, that'sis not crisis management —but that's a cover-up.