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China news tagged with: tibet politics (7)

• China Elevates Its Chosen Tibetan Spiritual Leader

  

  Gyaltsen Norbu, the Beijing-appointed Panchen Lama, has been given a seat on the CPPCC, the New York Times reports:

  Although membership in the advisory group, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, is of nominal interest to ordinary Chinese, the Panchen Lama’s appointment on Sunday ratchets up the government’s efforts to elevate his stature among Tibetans. Because he was appointed by Communist Party authorities rather than by Buddhist leaders, many Tibetans reject his religious authority as the ranking leader after the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since 1959.

  Born as Gyaltsen Norbu, he was anointed the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995, after the Dalai Lama identified a different child as the latest incarnation of the Panchen Lama. A few weeks later, that boy and his family vanished. The government has said that they are in “protective custody,” but their whereabouts have been an enduring mystery for 15 years.

  According to Xinhua, the official news agency, the appointed Panchen Lama, just shy of his 20th birthday, is the youngest person ever appointed to the consultative conference, which convenes later this week as part of the annual pageant that includes meetings of the National People’s Congress, the country’s main legislative forum.

  See also “China appoints Panchen Lama in tactical move to quell unrest” from the Independent.

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  • March 1, 2010 11:30 AM

• China to Mark Defeat of Tibet Uprising

  

  With the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising approaching in March, and with memories of last year’s riots still fresh, Chinese leaders in Beijing have opted this year to mark the occasion by naming a “Serf Liberation Day.” From AP:

  A holiday to mark the “emancipation of millions of serfs and slaves” in Tibet will be decided on during a meeting of the region’s legislature starting Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency said.

  The entry of Chinese forces into Tibet in 1949 was followed by efforts to transform the Buddhist, feudal order into a socialist, secular society. Tibetans rebelled on March 10, 1959, to try an oust the Chinese, but the uprising ended after 20 days with the flight of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, into exile in India.

  A bill to decide on a holiday marking those events will be presented during the second annual session of the ninth Tibet Regional People’s Congress, Xinhua said.

  The bill is aimed at “reminding all the Chinese people, including Tibetans, of the landmark democratic reform initiated 50 years ago,” Pang Boyong, deputy secretary general of the Tibetan regional congress standing committee, said Saturday, according to the report.

  Meanwhile, McClatchy profiles Gyalwang Karmapa, the third-highest lama in the Tibetan religious order, who has been mentioned as a possible transition leader after the death of the Dalai Lama:

  The Karmapa is the first Tibetan Buddhist reincarnation to be recognized by both the Dalai Lama and Communist Party authorities of China. He made headlines in January 2000, at age 14, with his flight from Chinese-ruled Tibet into exile, traveling by foot and horseback, then by jeep and helicopter to India. Allegations of espionage, intrigue involving a forgotten amulet and squabbling within a monastery marked his early years in India.

  Exuding self-assuredness, the solidly built, 6-foot-tall Karmapa received several foreign journalists in a rare interview over the weekend at the university that’s his temporary home near the mountain headquarters of the Dalai Lama. The Karmapa talked of his love of music, his future role for Tibetan Buddhists and the lack of human rights in China.

  He criticized the Chinese government, which he said wanted “to create this ethnic conflict” that exploded in deadly rioting in Tibet in March. However, he spoke tenderly of the Chinese.

  “Since I am born as a Tibetan, I really care about the Tibetan people and Tibetan community. At the same time, I also love the Chinese,” he said.

  Read about the controversy over the selection of the Karmapa via Wikipedia. See also CDT’s coverage of last year’s riots in Tibet.

  » Read more
  • January 11, 2009 5:48 PM

• Joshua Kurlantzick: Losing Lhasa

  

  In the New Republic, Joshua Kurlantzick writes about Beijing’s new strategy of co-option in Tibet that he says is a more “insidious danger” than blatant repression:

  To be sure, China still cracks down, as it did after large-scale protests last spring, when it declared martial law and reportedly threw hundreds of Tibetans jail. But Beijing now hands out carrots, too. “China’s central government has been intensifying its program of support for Tibet,” noted China’s state-owned CCTV International earlier this year. “These projects aim to speed up infrastructure development and bring more benefits to Tibet’s farmers and herdsmen.” After a 2000 visit to the region, China’s former vice-premier Li Lanqing echoed this sentiment, as paraphrased by the Communist-owned People’s Daily Online: “China’s strategy on large-scale development of the western region will bring Tibet into a new economic development era.”

  Indeed, the national government spends more state money on the Tibet Autonomous Region, the province that makes up much of historic Tibet, than any other province in China. It shows. Outside of the Barkhor, the old Tibetan area of town, I found the city looked much like other provincial capitals, with its rows of hotpot restaurants catering to Sichuan migrants and squat office towers housing neon-lit Chinese shopping malls selling mobile phones, jewelry, and other expensive items.

  The government is spending the money strategically. Much of it has gone to ethnic Chinese, who have migrated to Tibet in search of jobs building new roads, office towers, and the high-elevation railway linking the region to the rest of China. Though Beijing usually refuses to admit this ethnic strategy, Chinese state officials have actually reported that Lhasa, heart of Tibetan culture, is no longer a majority Tibetan city.

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  • December 23, 2008 11:04 AM

• China Tightening Control in Tibet Region, Exiles Say

  

  As Tibetan exiles meet in Dharamsala, India to discuss their strategy in dealing with the Chinese government, Chinese officials have been keeping a tight rein on Tibetan areas. From the Los Angeles Times:

  Although it is difficult to say conclusively that the two events are linked, reports of tighter control, stepped-up patrols and increased paramilitary presence in Lhasa, the regional capital, and along major transport arteries coincide with a key strategy meeting attended by exiles in northern India this week.

  “We’ve monitored an even more intense crackdown in the past couple of weeks,” Kate Saunders, communication director with the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, said today. “The Chinese authorities have clearly been very rattled by the fact they were taken unaware this spring and summer.”

  Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama has called on his host country, India, to help Tibet. From Times of India:

  “India and Tibet is having the relationship of a ‘guru and chela’ (teacher and disciple) and when chela (disciple) is in trouble, the guru (teacher) must look after him,” the Nobel laureate said here.

  It has also been reported that a top policymaker for the Chinese government on Tibet has been fired, though the reasons are not yet clear. Reuters reports:

  Bi Hua was asked to step down recently as director of the No. 7 bureau of the Party’s United Front Work Department, the independent sources with knowledge of the case said, requesting anonymity for fear of repercussions.

  It was not clear what prompted Bi’s removal from the helm of the bureau, which oversees Tibetan affairs.

  » Read more
  • November 20, 2008 1:35 PM

• Ben Hillman: Rethinking China’s Tibet Policy

  

  Ben Hillman writes in Japan Focus:

  Both official Chinese and exile Tibetan responses to the protests that broke across Tibet last month followed a familiar, worn-out script. For the Tibetan exiles and their international supporters, this was a last gasp for independence by the victims of cultural genocide. For the Chinese government this was premeditated mayhem orchestrated by the “Dalai clique” and “criminal elements” bent on splitting China. Both sides have it wrong.

  Certainly, Tibetan exile flags and “free Tibet” slogans were features of Tibet’s biggest and most violent protests in decades, but it is simplistic to see the widespread discontent on the Tibet Plateau as a bid for freedom by an oppressed people. Protests in Lhasa began with Tibetan monks using the anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile (March 10, 1959) to peacefully demonstrate against tight religious controls, including patriotic education campaigns and forced denunciations of the Dalai Lama, but they were soon joined by ordinary Tibetans who used violence against non-Tibetans and their property. Victims included Muslim traders as well as Han Chinese.

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  • June 12, 2008 6:31 AM

• Simmering Resentments Led to Tibetan Backlash

  

  The New York Times posted an article that looks at the long-term policy failures that may have contributed to the unrest in Tibet:

  “…To many Tibetans and their sympathizers, the weeklong uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa reflects years of simmering resentment over Beijing’s interference in Buddhist religious rites, its tightened political control and the destruction of the environment across the Himalayan territory the Tibetans consider sacred. If there is a surprise, it may be that Beijing has managed to keep things stable for so long.

  Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing has sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic development and by inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism. But an influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense among Tibetans that China is irreparably altering their way of life, produced a backlash when Communist Party leaders most needed stability there, analysts say.

  ABC News (Australia) has also run a story titled, “Resentment runs deep in Tibet.” Rosemary Righter of The Times has a column which comments on the history and future of China’s policies in Tibet:

  The Dalai Lama talks about the Tibet problem in terms of “the identity of a people”. On this, if nothing else, Beijing agrees. It can end resistance in Tibet only by destroying Tibetan identity. It is deliberately swamping the population with Han Chinese and other immigrants, imposing “patriotic education” and Chinese-language qualifications for jobs, and stifling – other than as tourist exhibits – Tibet’s customs. The Dalai Lama seeks for Tibetans the autonomy to which they are lawfully entitled as an “autonomous region” of China. But that would up-end Beijing’s strategy. That is why China’s leaders accuse him of inciting Tibetans to challenge, they say, the “stability of the State”.

  Meanwhile, the party chief for Tibet has indicated that these policies will only be intensified in coming years. From Reuters:

  “We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai clique,” Tibet’s Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region’s government and Party leaders.

  …Zhang also suggested greater political control in the region.

  “We must continue to deepen our nationalist education and practically strengthen the building of political power at the grassroots,” he said.

  » Read more
  • March 18, 2008 9:56 PM

• China’s Hu names ally acting party boss of Tibet – Reuters

  

  From Reuters, via Phayul.com:

  China’s Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has appointed a political ally as acting party boss of Tibet, a move that further consolidates his power base.

  The party’s elite Central Committee recently appointed Zhang Qingli, 54, vice governor of the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang in China’s northwest, as acting party boss of the Himalayan region, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday. It gave no further details.

  Technorati Tags: china, tibet

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  • November 28, 2005 9:15 AM

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