Another Tibet hand who matters

Claude Arpi | Date:23 Mar , 2018 0 Comments

Claude Arpi

Writes regularly on Tibet, China, India and Indo-French relations. He is the author of 1962 and the McMahon Line Saga, Tibet: The Lost Frontier and Dharamshala and Beijing: the negotiations that never were.

In 2012, I wrote on this blog a piece The Chinese who matter in Tibetan Affairs.

It was a list of Chinese officials who had a say in Tibet affairs.

Either they had been, or still were associated with the Roof of the World.

I then wrote: “One can only hope that wisdom will prevail and that they will realize that it is in their (and China’s) interest to find a decent solution to the Tibetan issue with the present Dalai Lama.”

Well, no progress in this front.

In fact, many of the officials that I then listed have since then been purged or investigated, others have retired.

Another Tibet hand promoted

Now a new name should be added: Yang Xiaodu.

Yang, the second-ranking graft-buster (deputy chief of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection or CCDI), has been appointed head of the country’s new sweeping anti-corruption body, the National Supervisory Commission

“A surprise move that effectively asserts the party’s ultimate authority above the powerful state agency”, says The South China Morning Post.

The Hong Kong newspaper added: “The controversial new body will extend the powers of the party’s internal disciplinary watchdog to oversee a vast number of state and public-sector employees, including managers of state-run schools, hospitals, media organisations and companies – even if they are not party members.”

Yang, 64, worked with President Xi Jinping in Shanghai, but also for more than years in Tibet.

The Nikkei from Japan, said that Yang “spent over two decades working in Tibet, rising from section chief of a state pharmaceutical company to vice chairman of the region’s government. The Shanghai native was one of thousands of ethnic Han settlers dispatched by Beijing to oversee administration and keep a lid on protests in Tibet,” adding the fight against corruption has been a key feature of the Xi regime since his ascendance to the presidency in 2013.

He promised to catch the ‘tigers and swatting flies’.

Yang will second him.

Here is Yang’s biography

Yang was born in Shanghai in 1953. In 1970, during the Cultural Revolution, he was sent-down youth performing manual labour in Taihe County, Anhui province.

In September 1973, he began studying at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

He graduated in 1976 and then began working in Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet for a drug company. In 1984, he was named party chief of Nagchu Hospital.

In September 1986, Yang was named deputy commissioner (vice mayor equivalent) of Nagchu. In December 1992, he was named deputy party chief of Chamdo Prefecture.

In 1995, he was named head of the finance department of Tibet Autonomous Region.

In May 1998, he became Vice-Chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region, ascending to sub-provincial rank for the first time. In 2001, he returned to his native Shanghai and became vice mayor.

He studied legal theory at the Central Party School while holding a job in Tibet.

In October 2006, he was named a member of the municipal Party Standing Committee of Shanghai and head of the municipal United Front Department; in May 2012, he was named head of the Shanghai Discipline Inspection Commission.

In November 2013, having reached retirement age for sub-provincial level officials, he was named head of the 3rd Inspection Team, in charge of anti-corruption work at the Ministry of Land and Resources. In January 2014, he was elected Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

On December 25, 2016, Yang was named Minister of Supervision, the eighth and oldest person to serve in the position since the founding of the People’s Republic.

Yang is a member of the 19th Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

What happened to the ‘Chinese who matter in Tibetan Affairs’, mentioned in my post in 2012.

Yu Zhengsheng, former member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo has retired.
Hu Chunhua, a member of the Politburo of the 19th Central Committee, has been promoted as one of the four vice premiers in the State Council.
Sun Chunlan, head of the United Front Work Department, is a vice premier too.
Liu Yandong, former member of the Politburo and Vice-Premier, State Council has retired.
Wang Huning, member, Politburo has been elevated to the Standing Committee of the Politburo.
Meng Jianzhu, member, Politburo has retired.
Guo Jinlong, member, Politburo has retired.
Ling Jihua, former head of the United Front Work Department is in jail.
Yang Chuantang former Minister of Transport got a ‘semi retired’ job as Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC.
Li Liguo, former Minister of Civil Affairs is investigated.
Du Qinglin, former head of the United Front Work Department has retired.
Wang Jianping, former Commander of the People’s Armed Police Force is in jail.
Chen Quanguo, former Party Secretary in Tibet, now Party Secretary in Xinjiang, has been promoted in the Politburo.
Lt Gen Yang Jinshan, former Commander of the Tibet Military Area is in jail.
Lt Gen Xu Yong is still commanding the Tibet Military Area (he was during the Doklam episode).
Hao Peng, a former Deputy Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional has now been promoted to the 19th Central Committee. He presently is the Party Secretary of the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), after serving as the Governor of Qinghai between 2013 and 2016.
Qin Yizhi, former head of the Chinese Communist Party’s youth league has been demoted.
Zhang Qingli, former Party boss in Tibet remains CPPCC’s vice-chairman.
Wang Zhengwei, former Chairman of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission between 2013 and 2016, and Governor of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region between 2007 and 2013 is like Zhang Qingli and Yang Chuantang, a vice-chairman of the CPPCC..