{"id":182328,"date":"2015-03-25T16:10:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T23:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=182328"},"modified":"2015-03-25T16:12:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T23:12:36","slug":"woeser-intermarriage-campaigns-a-continuation-of-colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/03\/woeser-intermarriage-campaigns-a-continuation-of-colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"“Intermarriage Campaigns a Continuation of Colonialism”"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last year it was reported that officials were encouraging interethnic marriage in the ethnically distinct and troubled regions of Tibet and Xinjiang<\/a> (in one Xinjiang county, reports said that interethnic couples were being offered as much as 10,000 RMB annually for five years<\/a>, in addition to\u00a0healthcare and educational benefits). Last July, Tibetan blogger and activist Woeser<\/a> wrote a blogpost on\u00a0the global use of incentivized intermarriage as part of colonial campaigns, and\u00a0use of the tactic by current and previous Chinese governments on the Tibetan population<\/strong><\/a>. High Peaks Pure Earth has translated Woeser’s\u00a0original blogpost<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cInter-ethnic marriages are a strong security in Tibet\u2019s battle against splittism, we (\u2026) should actively encourage inter-ethnic marriages, and (\u2026) formulate preferential policies.\u201d This is what the Secretary of the TAR Party Committee, Chen Quanquo, said at a \u201cSymposium for Inter-Ethnic Marriages\u201d in 2014; after appearing in China\u2019s official media, it triggered a storm of protests and was ridiculed with the slogan, \u201cIntermarriages against splittism\u201d.<\/p>\n […] Using \u201cintermarriage\u201d for \u201cethnic assimilation\u201d has been common in the history of Tibet. It has been highly praised by Party officials and attributed by a large group of nationalists to \u201cthe first minister governing Tibet during the late Qing\u201d, the \u201cso-called high officer of the border province\u201d, Zhao Erfeng, who Tibetans call \u201cButcher Zhao\u201d. He implemented the so-called system of Liuguan that replaced former Tusi as the governors of ethnic groups; it included a series of \u201cpolicies of assimilation\u201d that resulted in the murdering of countless Tibetans in different areas, the forced resettlement of local people, and a number of preferential policies encouraging Han-Tibetan intermarriages as a means to foster \u201cassimilation\u201d and \u201cintegration\u201d. It even included a special \u201cHan-Barbarian Intermarriage Order\u201d that encouraged Han officials and soldiers to marry local Tibetan women; it stipulated that \u201cEach couple is given 10 litres of highland barley each month; couples raising children are\u00a0given 10 litres per person per month. Those joining the army and cultivating savage land, will be entitled to keep this land and after three years, be exempt from paying an official grain quota to the government\u201d etc.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s 21st century, the CCP officials governing Tibet propagate publicly that \u201cwith regards to schooling, employment, joining the Party, joining the army, obtaining support for business start-ups or innovation, respective policies are geared towards effectively mobilising inter-ethnic marriages\u201d. It is obvious that this is a direct imitation of Butcher Zhao\u2019s ideas. Of course, in order to realise \u201cinter-ethnic marriage\u201d, the migration of other ethnic groups is required. For the most part, the policies exist to encourage Han Chinese to migrate to Tibet so as to dilute and trivialise ethnic problems and tensions. Marriage should really be a natural \u201cI like you, you like me\u201d matter; but now it is used by those in power, it is forcefully encouraged and enticed by means of various \u201cspecial policies\u201d. I have even heard of certain work-units in Lhasa offering a reward to people who engage in \u201cethnic intermarriage\u201d. The long-term consequences of this will certainly be profound. […] [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Click through<\/a>\u00a0to read Woeser’s entire post at High Peaks Pure Earth. Also see HPPE’s extensive archive of Woeser’s writing in translation<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last year it was reported that officials were encouraging interethnic marriage in the ethnically distinct and troubled regions of Tibet and Xinjiang (in one Xinjiang county, reports said that interethnic couples were being offered as much as 10,000 RMB annually for five years, in addition to\u00a0healthcare and educational benefits). Last July, Tibetan blogger and activist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":158206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[11937,8129,508,894,69,4765],"class_list":["post-182328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-colonialism","tag-ethnic-minority","tag-ethnic-tensions","tag-marriage","tag-tibet","tag-tibetans","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n