Geopolitics

China: Harmony or chaos?
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Issue Vol 24.3 Jul-Sep2009 | Date : 12 Jan , 2011

An eye-opener

In this context, a report20 prepared by a Chinese think-tank, Beijing Gongmeng Consulting on the 2008 riots in Tibet is an eye-opener. It entirely contradicts the Party’s official version. The authors, Li Kun, Huang Li, Li Xiang and Wang Hongzhe are lawyers “committed to building a modernized China and promoting human rights, democracy, and rule of law in China.21″

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Their research team spent one month in Tibet “interviewing Tibetan monks, nomads, farmers, scholars, migrants, artists, and business people”. Their objective was to come into personal contact with voices which can give “a clear and objective outline of ordinary people’s living conditions in Tibetan areas.”

When the Dalai Lama dared to state that resentment was the main cause for the violent happenings, he was accused by Zhang Qingli, the Party Boss in Lhasa: “Those who do not love the motherland are not qualified to be human beings”. Shifting the blame on others has been an old practice of the Partys apparatchiks.

The lawyers first point out “major errors in government policy” after March-April 2008 protests. One was ‘over-propagandizing of violence’; another, encouragement of racist sentiment towards Tibetans: “The excessive response of government all over Tibet was to regard every tree and blade of grass as a potential enemy soldier.”

According to them, this further strained the relations between the local Tibetans and the Han migrants: “The fascination that Han citizens have expressed toward Tibetan culture changed to fear and hatred of the Tibetan masses, and Tibetans were rendered as a people incapable of gratitude.”22

One of their conclusions is: “Understanding is a pre-condition for discussion, unity and development. If the promotion of healthy development in Tibetan areas is truly desired then there must be a change in thinking and an adjustment in thinking behind the current nationality theories and policies.”

‘Stability in ethnic areas’ has for a long time been central to the Central Government policies. The leadership in Beijing (and perhaps even more the PLA) understands the importance of stability to ‘defend China’s borders’. Soon after the Tiananmen massacre, in October 1989, the “Summary of the Central Politburo Standing Committee’s Forum on Tibet Work” already pointed out two main issues ‘to firmly grasp the Tibet work’: stability of the political situation and economic development. Since then the dual mantra has been constantly repeated, though ’stability’ has never been achieved. The Lawyers’ report has tried to find out why.

Tibet’s safety is the entire country’s safety

During the 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held in early March 2008 in Beijing23, President Hu Jintao met a few ‘Tibetan’ delegates and told them: “Tibet’s stability has to do with the entire country’s stability, Tibet’s safety has to do with the entire country’s safety.”

In a recent interview, Prof Samdhong Rinpoche told that some 500 reports, articles, websites, etc criticizing the Chinese government have come to the notice of his Administration. These reports circulate freely in China. It is truly a sign of change (or at least an increase in the “˜chaos).

According to the Lawyers’ Report, one of the issues which makes Tibet (and China) so unstable is the emergence of a new aristocracy. The Chinese Revolution is supposed to have wiped out the old aristocracy and emancipated the masses. However, the Report found that in Tibet, the difficult terrain has created “locally fixed power networks, which inevitably lead to a high incidence of corruption and dereliction of duty.” For the Chinese lawyers, this new aristocracy, which is ‘legitimized by the Party’, is even more powerful than the old one.

The Report analyses in detail the rapport between the new aristocracy and the masses: “there is a lack of any effective supervision over the local officials. …’Foreign forces’ and ‘Tibet independence’ are used by many local officials as fig leaves to conceal their mistakes in governance and to repress social discontent …elevating everything to the level of splittist forces in order to conceal their errors.”

The final conclusions are not far from the Tibetan Diaspora’s views: “Earnestly listen to the voices of ordinary Tibetans and on the basis of respecting and protecting each of the Tibetan people’s rights and interests”.

Regarding ’stability’, the Lawyers’ conclusions are lucid: “Due to the special nature of the political environment in Tibetan areas, ’stability’ in the state’s Tibet policies has special significance. The Center considers that, ‘If there is not a stable social environment, then all talk of development is empty’. Even though ‘development and stability’ are the two trains of thought for government work in ethnic areas, in the actual exercise of power, ’stability’ takes on an overwhelming importance.”

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

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.

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