Xi Jinping’s Tibet Challenge 60 Years Of Failed Policies In Tibet Introduction

With ’s once-a-decade leadership change, the ’s Tibet Challenge highlights China’s 5th generation of leaders failed policies in Tibet; policies that, despite six have inherited both extraordinary power and a decades of unfettered control, have left Tibetans considerable number of major challenges, prominent resolutely opposed to China’s rule. Xi’s challenge is among which is China’s continued occupation of a Tibet in crisis, devastated by four generations of restive Tibet. colonial exploitation but possessing a population whose sense of the Tibetan nation, and whose spirit Tibetans are arguably challenging China’s and diverse resistance to China’s rule is undiminished occupation more strongly today than at any time since the day the People’s Liberation Army invaded since the 1950s. The accumulated effect of decades Tibet over 60 years ago. of failed policies have contributed to a society in which Tibetans’ human rights are routinely abused This report summarizes China’s attempts to maintain and where they are marginalised politically, socially the occupation of Tibet through Three Pillars of and economically. Public protest has taken a tragic Coercive Control – Military Occupation, Colonial turn with more than 100 individuals choosing to Rule, and Fear and Intimidation. Xi and China’s 5th self-immolate as a form of resistance against China’s generation leaders must now recognize that the rule, usually with fatal consequences. Meanwhile, impact of continuing along the same path as previous the cycle of protests crushed by military crackdown generations will only result in greater instability in Tibet that has typified past periods of unrest, is changing. as well as growing international condemnation of China is now discovering that a display of force China’s leadership. is unable to prevent mass gatherings of Tibetans, whether they are praying for those who have self- We are not alone in recognizing that change in Tibet immolated or engaging in more confrontational acts must come. A 2012 Reuters report (ii) wrote “Every of protest. generation of [Chinese] leaders must resolve problems left over from the previous generation,” a source Tibetans are moving beyond fear of China’s violent with leadership ties said. “For Hu, it was Taiwan,” … regime. In recent months increasingly large numbers “For Xi, it’s Tibet”. Another anonymous party official of Tibetans have taken to the streets to demonstrate told Reuters “More and more government spending, their opposition to China’s rule. Meanwhile, Tibetans more and more security, is not going to buy enduring are embracing new forms of creative resistance, stability in Tibet... The high-pressure policies can’t expressed through music, literature and assertions continue forever.” of national identity. China’s policy failures have spurred a new generation Xi Jinping, the leader of China’s 5th generation, of Tibetans, who have never known an independent now has the challenge of Tibet on his hands. Little Tibet but who are showing a deep commitment is known about Xi’s personal opinions on Tibet, but to their nation and asserting their fundamental his father a former vice premier, knew right to political, social and economic freedom. the Dalai Lama and was close to the 10th Panchen Their resistance is threatening the very stability Lama. In July 2011, speaking in front of the Potala and endurance the 5th generation of the Chinese Palace in , Xi Jinping’s adherence to the Communist Party so desire. Party line was absolute, vowing to “thoroughly fight against separatist activities by the Dalai clique by Xi’s challenge is to resolve the Tibet issue swiftly firmly relying on all ethnic groups ... and completely and peacefully, or risk creating an even greater crisis smash any plot to destroy stability in Tibet and of geopolitical significance, as Tibetans resist four jeopardize national unity.” (i) generations of China’s failed policies.

Tibet is comprised of the three provinces of Amdo, Kham, and U-Tsang. Amdo is now split by China into the provinces of and part of . Kham is largely incorporated into the Chinese provinces of , Gansu and , and U-Tsang, together with western Kham, is today referred to by China as the (TAR). Tibet’s traditional territory accounts for one quarter of the landmass of today’s People’s Republic of China.

2 China’s military occupation

February 2013 saw the centenary of the 13th Dalai “thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering Lama’s reassertion of the Independence of Tibet and hardship that they literally experienced hell from the Manchu Empire (1a). Chinese forces were on Earth” (1j). This statement starkly contrasted driven out of Tibet until 1949, when the newly with the CCP’s claim to have liberated Tibet from triumphant Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sought the “oppressive, feudal rule of the Dalai Lama” to consolidate its victory by rapidly spreading its (1k), a medieval, oppressive society consisting of influence as widely ‘landowners, serfs and slaves’. Ultimately, ’s as possible. condemnation of Tibet’s ‘feudal’ past is a classic colonialist argument – ‘backwardness’ serving as On 7 October 1950, 40,000 People’s Liberation a justification for invasion (1l). Pre-invasion, many Army (PLA) troops crossed the Drichu [Yangtse] river Tibetans recognized inequalities in their system and into central Tibet. Overwhelmingly outnumbered, the Dalai Lama had begun to promote reforms (1m). the Tibetan army were forced to surrender (1b) and The exiled Tibetan government is now a democracy Tibet became an occupied state (1c). The CCP to which the Dalai Lama has devolved his political claim is that Tibetans are among China’s 56 ethnic authority (1n). nationalities (1d) bound together by a common destiny (1e) – a fabrication rooted in China’s deep historical After 60 years China is still reliant on its military ethnocentrism. But Tibet, a clearly defined nation, and paramilitary forces to maintain control of Tibet, had fulfilled the criteria of a sovereign state three with estimates of between 150,000 – 500,000 PLA decades before the founding of the People’s Republic troops stationed on the Tibetan Plateau. The visible of China (PRC) (1f). China’s leaders however classified presence of security forces is stepped up around Tibetans as ‘barbaric uncivilized’ peoples that sensitive anniversaries and periods of unrest (1o), should be ‘assimilated or eliminated’ (1g). Tibetans, but China has been unable to entirely suppress fiercely proud and independent, showed no signs of mass demonstrations, notably in 1959, in the late assimilating and thus the CCP pursued policies to 1980s (when Tibet was placed under martial law) eliminate the Tibetan nation. and in 2008, when more than 150 separate incidents of protest were recorded across the plateau. China’s persecution steadily increased, as did Tibetan Despite the crackdown that followed the 2008 resistance, and in March 1959 popular protests Uprisings, public protests have continued and take erupted in Lhasa. When the PLA began shelling the place regularly, especially in eastern Tibet, often in city the was forced to escape Tibet conjunction with self-immolations by Tibetan monks, and, according to China, 87,000 Tibetans were killed nuns and laypeople (1p), demonstrating that China’s or arrested as a result of the Uprising (1h). Exactly 50 military occupation cannot suppress the Tibetan years later the Dalai Lama said that Beijing’s policies people’s will to be free.

3 Self-immolation case study, Tsering Kyi

On 3 March 2012 Tsering Kyi, a 20 year-old student from a nomadic family, poured petrol over her body, marched into the vegetable market of Machu town in Amdo [Chinese: Maqu, Gansu Province] and set light to herself, raising her fist above her head. She died at the scene.

As a child she had lived a nomadic way of life, following the yak herds and sleeping under the stars, but that ended with the fencing of the grasslands and Tsering Kyi – described by teachers as an “example” to other children – gradually found herself at the centre of political unrest. In 2008 Machu erupted in protests and hundreds of Tibetans were detained in a brutal crackdown. Two years later students from Tsering Kyi’s own school staged protests calling for freedom and independence.

Shortly before her final act of defiance, Tsering Kyi told friends and family, “We should do something for Tibet – life is meaningless if we don’t do anything for Tibet” (I). Tsering Kyi’s self-immolation was the 24th confirmed to have taken place in Tibet. Such protests now exceed 100, across all regions of Tibet.

China now spends more on public security than it Like other oppressed people around the world does on international defence (1q). A Human Rights whose freedom movements have recently toppled Watch study in 2011 found that security spending authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and in the Ngaba region of eastern Tibet [Chinese: Aba, North Africa, the are pushing for Sichuan Province] – at the epicentre of the current their own freedom. Tibetan resistance within Tibet wave of self-immolations – has been outstripping that has become increasingly diverse, with a renewed of non-Tibetan areas of Sichuan Province since 2002. determination to promote the Tibetan national identity through the spread of a home-grown With a “strike hard” campaign and a new “anti-terrorist” movement called Lhakar, or “White Wednesday”, unit established in 2007, Human Rights Watch argued in which Tibetans consciously engage in and that China’s provocative policing contributed to the promote uniquely Tibetan activities. unrest of 2008 and since. By 2009, security spending in the Ngaba region was five times the average of the A widespread cultural renaissance is also rest of Sichuan. With China’s extreme response to underway, with Tibetan political aspirations the self-immolation of 20 year-old Phuntsok in March being expressed through music and literature. 2011, in which 300 monks were disappeared from Kirti With these powerful and creative yet subtle monastery and two elderly Tibetans beaten to death forms of resistance on the rise throughout Tibet, at the monastery gates (1r), it is hardly surprising that China’s military power is becoming increasingly Ngaba remains a major centre of unrest. ineffective.

Every 20 metres along the main road of Aba, police officers and communist officials wearing “red armbands look out for potential protesters. Dozens more paramilitaries sit in ranks outside shops and restaurants in an intimidating show of force. Journalist Jonathan Watts of The Guardian” newspaper, smuggled into Ngaba town in February 2012

4 China’s colonial rule

China’s rule of Tibet is one of the last remaining community-led projects has delivered patchy remnants of the 20th century-style of colonialism development that seldom benefits the poorest that was overthrown and denounced by the global Tibetans; indeed much of the revenue generated community. China’s goal since 1950, as first in Tibet goes back into mainland China’s pockets expressed by , has been to integrate (2b). The Gormo-Lhasa Railway, by far the largest Tibet with China. But whilst four generations of project, was completed in 2006 at a cost of 33 billion colonial policies have created social exclusion, yuan. The International Campaign for Tibet reports deprivation and disparities between poor rural that the railway has triggered a “second invasion” Tibetans and wealthy urban Chinese in Tibet, Tibetans of Chinese into Tibet, facilitating both the swift continue to assert their distinct national identity. deployment of military and the exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources (2c). Figures from China’s most Colonial exploitation of Tibet accelerated when Hu recently available census in 2000 give the population Jintao became Party Secretary of the TAR in the late of the entire Tibetan Plateau – including 150 Tibetan 1980s. Hu’s policy of “grasping with both hands”, autonomous counties – as at least 10 million, which sought to use economic development as a tool excluding military and migrant workers. 5.4 million are in the “struggle against separatism”, was consolidated listed as Tibetan; the remainder Han or other Chinese with the launch of China’s Western Development people (2d). As long ago as 2002, officials in the TAR Strategy (WDS) in 1999 and is still visible today. admitted to foreign journalists that Tibetans would Designed to reduce the economic disparity between soon be in a minority in Lhasa (2e). the richer eastern seaboard of China and poorer western provinces, the political objectives of the WDS Dr Andrew Fischer, an economist specialising in Tibet, were articulated by then President Jiang Zemin, who has called Tibet’s growth ‘ethnically exclusionary’ said it “will help develop China’s economy, stabilise (2f). He reported that in 2010 central government local society and contribute to China’s unity” (18 subsidies to the TAR surged to record-high levels, September 2000). Yulu Dawa Tsering, the revered surpassing 100% of the TAR’s GDP for the first time Tibetan lama and independence campaigner who ever, exacerbating the region’s extreme economic died in 2002, said the WDS represented “a period of dependence on Beijing and consolidating the visible emergency and darkness” (2a). hand of the state in most aspects of the economy (2g).

China’s financial investment in Tibet is substantial Tourism is a major beneficiary of state investment, (193.1 billion yuan from 2011 to 2015), but the with tourists expected to number 15 million by 2015 emphasis on large infrastructure rather than (2h) – the vast majority of which will be Chinese. In

5 Today I went to Jokhang Temple and when I passed the security check, Tibetans had to “register their names while Han Chinese could go right through; as I was about to pass through, I was grabbed by a police officer who insisted that I register my name! I said that I was a Han Chinese but he absolutely refused to believe me and kept insisting on seeing my ID card. A Chinese tourist’s account of a visit to Lhasa, June 2012, as recounted by Tibetan poet and blogger Tsering” Woeser

2012 China announced further heavy investment in Catherine Ashton publicly recognized this problem tourism infrastructure within Tibet, including a new for the first time, saying “...the EU questions whether theme park near Lhasa. However Tibet is routinely the objective of environmental protection can only closed to foreign tourists. The TAR is closed during be reached by eliminating the traditional way of life sensitive political anniversaries and when any large of Tibetans who have lived in harmony with nature protest takes place: parts of Amdo and Kham, where for centuries. The EU is concerned that compulsory most of the Tibetan self-immolations have taken resettlement of all nomads has the potential to destroy place, have also been closed. Even when Tibet is the distinctive Tibetan culture and identity” (2t). open, the authorities attempt to tightly control what tourists see and understand. Tour guides and hoteliers have been suspended and imprisoned for perceived indiscretions. Despite the fact that occupation is no vacation, several international hotel companies, Crisis at the “Third Pole” including Starwood (2j) and InterContinental Hotels, are operating or plan to operate luxury hotels in Lhasa. China’s colonial policies in Tibet are putting an internationally significant environment at risk. Known as the Third Pole because Chinese migration onto the Tibetan plateau coupled it holds the planet’s third largest store of glacial freshwater, Tibet with Tibetan economic marginalisation – poor is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Glacial melt from education and training preventing Tibetans from the plateau is disrupting water supplies, threatening sustainable competing for business and employment opportunities livelihoods and putting more than one billion downstream peoples – were among the driving forces behind protests in at risk (II). China’s solution is to build more dams, including at Lhasa in 2008 (2k). Since then China has intensified least five on the Yarlung Tsangpo, until recently the world’s largest efforts to marginalize the Tibetan language in favour undammed river. Concerns about the possible impacts of these of Chinese (2l). In October 2010 over 10,000 Tibetan dams include downstream nations’ access to a safe, stable water students and teachers protested against proposed supply (III), the risk of damming rivers in seismic activity areas (IV) education reforms by Qinghai Province, which aimed and threats to the most bio-diverse region in the world (V). to change the primary language of instruction from Tibetan to Chinese (2m). Street signs are in Chinese, Despite claiming that strengthening environmental protection on the official documents generally only available in Chinese Tibetan plateau is important for “maintaining border stability, ethnic and letters addressed in Tibetan are not delivered. But unity and the building of a well-off society,” (VI), China’s past and in spite of China’s efforts, a resurgence of the Tibetan current policies have brought region-wide famine, desertification language as an expression of identity is underway in on the grasslands, acute flooding from clear-cutting Tibet’s forests, Tibet (2n). and environmental destruction through unregulated mining (VII). Meanwhile China blames Tibet’s nomads – who for millennia have In 1998 China announced its final solution – the lived sustainably on the Plateau – rather than its own policies, for elimination of the Tibetan nomadic way of life, which threatening China’s precious water resources. for millennia has been an intrinsic part of Tibetan society. In 1998 China’s Agriculture vice-minister Qi Jingfa, said “All herdsmen are expected to end the nomadic life by the end of the century” (2o). Although China missed its own deadline, by January 2011 officials said 1.43 million farmers and herders had permanent homes (2p). Efforts to force Tibetans into ghetto-style housing blocks have now intensified and in May 2012 the State Council announced plans to resettle the remaining nomad population 246,000 households or 1.157 million nomads across the PRC by 2015 (2q). For thousands of years, Tibetan nomads have lived sustainably on the grasslands; now China’s policy of ‘converting rangelands to pastures’ is leading to overgrazing in fenced-in areas and exacerbating desertification (2r). Land, seized under false claims of ‘environmental protection’ in the age of climate change, is cleared, often to make way for dams and mining operations. Coercive settlement is also causing economic and social problems (2s), likely to fuel greater unrest. In June 2012, EU High Representative

6 Rule by fear and intimidation

China has used repression as a means to breed fear The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy among Tibetans and consolidate its control in Tibet (3c) reported that use of the “patriotic education” over the last 60 years. In “Worst of the Worst 2012: campaign has become “systematic, protracted and The World’s Most Repressive Societies”, a report by enforced with new-found vigour and zeal”; individuals renowned think-tank for democracy Freedom House, failing to denounce the Dalai Lama and praise Tibet (which is classified as a disputed territory within Communist leaders are subjected to torture and the report) receives the lowest score, ranking it “least imprisonment. free” alongside Syria, North Korea and Sudan (3a). There are currently at least 527 known political China’s control is most pervasive in the religious sphere, prisoners in Tibet (3d) according to the US State with a series of especially harsh policies. As an integral Department, but the true number is likely to be part of Tibetan national identity, is considerably higher. In January 2012 several hundred perceived as a direct challenge to China’s authorities; Tibetans returning from India, where they had traveled and a distinct threat to the unity of the country. on legitimate papers to attend Kalachakra Teachings given by the Dalai Lama, were arbitrarily detained and Since the beginning of the invasion China has attacked subjected to patriotic education at various centres Tibetan Buddhism, intensifying the crackdown over around Lhasa. Human Rights Watch believes it was the past decade. In May 2006 former TAR Party the first time since the late 1970s that authorities had Secretary called for the intensification detained Tibetan laypeople in such large numbers (3e). of the “patriotic education” campaigns (3b), a policy characterised by denunciations of the Dalai Lama. China’s vilification of the Dalai Lama has been ramped up in recent years. The pre-eminent representative of the Tibetan people and a global icon of peace, Ethnic ‘Autonomy’ versus Cultural Assimilation? the 14th Dalai Lama is viewed by Beijing as enemy number one, described as a “wolf in monk’s robes” Tibetan unrest has fueled a debate among Chinese intellectuals and and “a monster with a human face”. His image is Party officials about whether ethnic ‘autonomy’ is an obstacle to banned in Tibet, yet protesters – especially those national cohesion. Ma Rong (Beijing University) has long believed who have self-immolated – most of whom were not current policies have rendered the Chinese nation an empty concept born when the Dalai Lama was forced to escape from and that the assimilation of minorities is inevitable (VIII). In February Tibet, have consistently appealed for his return. China 2012 United Front’s Zhu Weiqun advocated removing ethnic status blames the Dalai Lama for masterminding the wave of from identity cards and scrapping minority schooling, suggesting Tibetan self-immolations, calling his prayers for those “Some of our current educational and administrative policies who have died through self-immolation “terrorism in have unintentionally weakened [minorities’] sense of nationhood disguise” (3f). and Chinese nationalism” (IX). Countering opinions, aired during a symposium convened under the Chinese Academy of Social Further extreme measures to intimidate Tibetans by Sciences, concluded that turning away from “the basic [ethnic consolidating control over Tibetan Buddhism include autonomy] system and policy” could “easily lead to ideological chaos new regulations ruling that only Chinese authorities and thereby cause a negative impact on society” (X). can approve the recognition of reincarnated lamas, tight restrictions on religious gatherings and practices,

7 Growing Tibetan resistance

In the last five years there has been a surge of resistance by Tibetans in Tibet; notably the Uprisings in 2008, which were of a scale previously not witnessed since 1959, but increasing again in recent months. Since January 2012 more than 20 mass protests have taken place with demonstrators calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama (XI). China’s response to such protests has been often brutal, with reports of armed police attacking and beating demonstrators and, in a number of cases, opening fire, killing peaceful protesters and seriously injuring many more.

On 8 February 2012 at least 2,000 Tibetans in two different areas of Yulshul in Amdo [Chinese: Yushu Prefecture, Qinghai Province] took part in protests despite the intense security crackdown. In Tridu around 1,400 Tibetans took part in a “solidarity” march, instigated initially by 400 monks from from Sekhar monastery. The peaceful protesters carried banners calling on authorities to respect Tibetans and the Tibetan language and demanded freedom in Tibet, the return of the Dalai Lama, and the release of political prisoners, including the 11th , . In Nangchen hundreds of Tibetans, mainly young lay people, gathered for an all-day prayer vigil during which they chanted long-life prayers and slogans in support of the Dalai Lama.

and the permanent stationing of government officials, self-immolations have taken place, threatened to in some cases armed security, in monasteries. The “severely crack down” on Tibetans who engage in US State Department’s most recent annual report on “splittist activities”. religious freedom observes that “CCP control over religious practice and the day-to-day management Reporters Without Borders recently expressed alarm of monasteries and other religious institutions has at the continuing media blackout in Tibet, noting tightened” and “official interference in the practice “not only are foreign media organisations prevented of Tibetan Buddhist religious traditions generated from covering these events, but the authorities have profound grievances and contributed to a series of also organized a veritable disinformation campaign, self-immolations by Tibetans” (3g). using pro-government media such as the Global Times, which play down the disturbances and No section of Tibetan society is free of repressive accuse the international community of interfering” policies. Yet since 2008, despite China strategically (3k). In addition to restricting the flow of information targeting Tibetan cultural expression, writers, from Tibet to the outside world, China recently musicians and educators have emerged at the stepped up control of the flow of information forefront of a cultural renaissance, with their into Tibet (3m). Tightened restrictions on the use assertions of Tibetan identity challenging dominant of communication tools including internet and narratives of the Chinese government’s policies in telephones were added to new measures described Tibet. The threat to ‘stability’ posed by these young, by TAR Party Secretary as necessary educated Tibetans, who have been brought up “to ensure the absolute security of Tibet’s ideological under the communist system, puts them at great and cultural realm”. Further restrictions on the risk of arrest and subsequently torture – over 80 publication of literature, including photocopying, Tibetan intellectuals have been either imprisoned, and music publishing have been increased and disappeared or faced torture due to expressing government propaganda heightened via new TV their views (3h). channels, village education sessions, film showings and distribution of official books. In March 2012 a new Chinese government directive was issued calling on the public to “expose and In addition to imposing a media blackout, China report on anyone committing illegal activities has refused all requests from foreign diplomats for harming social stability”, offering a reward of 5,000 access to Tibet in recent months. In response to yuan (about US $796) to “anyone who reports such the increasing self-immolations in eastern Tibet, the criminal activities to public security organs” (3j). European Union, Australia and other governments The directive, posted publicly throughout Amdo, have sought permission to investigate the situation eastern Tibet where numerous protests including on the ground, so far without success.

8 Recommendations for Xi Jinping

The International Tibet Network calls on Xi Jinping and 5th generation leaders to adopt a paradigm shift in the Chinese Communist Party’s approach to Tibet that gives full agency over formulating future policies to the Tibetan people, by first acknowledging its failures and the illegitimacy of its military rule over Tibet. Xi Jinping must commit to a just and lasting resolution that recognizes the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination under international law. Xi Jinping must implement the following recommendations immediately:

• Stop the Chinese government’s use of military • Stop environmentally destructive mining and force to crackdown on the Tibetan people. As a damming projects, and engage with downstream matter of urgency, withdraw all security forces nations to implement bottom-up participatory from monasteries and places where protests have management of Tibet’s water resources. taken place. • Release all political prisoners detained for • Allow immediate and unfettered access to engaging in peaceful protest, arbitrarily detained Tibet by foreign media, diplomats, international or sentenced without a just trial in accordance observers and foreign tourists. with international law immediately and unconditionally. • Cease the harsh and systematic repression of religious and cultural life in Tibet, and suspend with immediate effect the Chinese government’s patriotic education programme.

• Remove all Party cadres from monasteries in Tibet with immediate effect, and suspend policies concerning interference by Chinese authorities in the selection of reincarnate lamas.

• Ensure the Tibetan people’s right to practice and promote their language is respected by restoring the Tibetan language as the primary medium of instruction in schools and universities.

• Halt all economic and development policies detrimental to safeguarding the prospects and livelihood of the Tibetans. Reduce the dependency of the Tibetan economy on Chinese government subsidies by favouring bottom up, sustainable development models that offer opportunities to disadvantaged Tibetans and cease all financial incentives for Chinese settlement onto the plateau.

• End and reverse the coercive policy of nomad settlement; suspend all ongoing settlements and allow those nomads already settled to return to their land and way of life if they wish, and their cancelled long term land leases restored. Allow the Tibetans to be full partners in all decisions over land use in Tibet.

9 Recommendations to world governments

• Establish and participate in a contact group or and demand from China assurances that foreign multilateral forum by world governments to devise journalists be allowed unfettered access to the and implement new, more robust, coordinated TAR and Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu strategies for resolving the Tibet crisis. and Yunnan.

• Vigorously pursue actions in appropriate • Expand capacity to monitor the situation in Tibet, international forums that will focus the attention of including continuing to push for greater access the government of the PRC on the severity of the to Tibet. Initiate or elevate efforts to establish a situation in Tibet and on the legitimate concern diplomatic presence in Lhasa, and expand existing of the international community that Tibetans resources within Beijing embassies for monitoring. enjoy the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other • Raise strong concerns over the failure of economic international covenants to which China is a party. and development policies in Tibet, including the lack of Tibetan participation in shaping these • Utilize all opportunities to raise bilateral concern policies. about Tibet, emphasizing the failure of security, economic and development policies to achieve • Call for a halt to the forced resettlement of Tibetan stability in Tibet and urge the immediate adoption nomads and the loss of an ancient, sustainable of measures to address the legitimate grievances way of life and urge China to adopt best practice of the Tibetan people. models of participatory governance of Tibet’s fragile environment and water resources. • Express strong public condemnation of China’s intensifying religious and cultural repression • Increase programmatic support for Tibetans in Tibet, with specific reference to widespread in Tibet and for programmes that facilitate programmes of “patriotic education” and harsh information exchange between Tibetans in exile measures to punish individuals for peaceful and in Tibet. expression of their cultural and political freedom.

• Urgently seek to send diplomats to affected areas

…more visible, public and coordinated diplomacy is necessary for the “Chinese government to feel pressure to alter its conduct. US Congressmen James P McGovern and Frank R Wolf to Secretary” of State Hillary Clinton

10 Sources

Introduction 2o. Qin Jingfa, Vice Minister of Agriculture, quoted in Xinhua (i) BBC, ‘Xi Jinping: China will “smash” Tibet separatism’, 18 March 1998. Available from here See page 8 July 2011 2p. , 16 January 2011 (ii) Reuters, ‘Does China’s next leader have a soft spot for 2q. Southern Mongolian Human Rights Center Tibet?’, September 2012 2r. Oliver W Frauenfeld and Tingjun Zhang, ‘Is Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau Driven by Land Use/ China’s military occupation Cover Change?’ 2005 1a. Tibet Justice Center 2s. Feng Yongfeng, ‘The Tibetan Plateau: the plight of 1b. Tsering Shakya, ‘Dragon in the Land of Snows’, 1999 ecological migrants’, 2008 1c. On 30 March 2011, Court No. 2 of Spain’s National High 2t. Catherine Ashton, ‘Speech on the situation in Tibet’, Court, the Audiencia Nacional, acknowledged Tibet is an 12 June 2012 occupied state under international law 1d. , first China Tibetan Culture Forum October Crisis at the Third Pole 2006 (II) International Campaign for Tibet ‘Tracking the Steel 1e. China White Paper 28 September 2009 Dragon’, 2008, pg 231 1f. Delaney, Cusack and van Walt van Praag, ‘The Case (III) The Guardian, 24 May 2010 Concerning Tibet’, 1998 (IV) Geologist quoted by the South China 1g. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘Jampa, the Story of Morning Post, 1 May 2010 Racism in Tibet’, 2001, page 24 (V) Conservation International 1h. Radio Lhasa broadcast, 1 October 1960 (VI) State Council Meeting chaired by , 30 March 1j. The Times, 10 March 2009 2011 1k. Blog post by James Reynolds, BBC, 19 January 2009 (VII) Tibet: Environment & Development Desk, ‘Resource 1l. Lhadon Tethong, ‘China’s favorite propaganda on Extraction and Development’, 2012 Tibet... and Why it’s Wrong’ 1m. Tsering Shakya, ‘Tibet and China: the past in the Rule by fear and intimidation present’, 2009 3a. Freedom House, ‘Worst of the Worst 2012: The Most 1n. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘FAQ: The Dalai Repressive Societies’ Lama’s Relinquishing His Political Role’ 3b. Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, May 1o. Tibet Justice Center 2006 1p. Resistance in Tibet: Self-immolation and Protest 3c. Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, 1q. In 2010 public security spending was RMB 549bn Annual Report 2009 ($84bn) and defence spending RMB 533. 4bn, Reuters, 3d. US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights 5 March 2011 Practices for 2011 1r. International Campaign for Tibet Report, 22 April 2011 3e. Human Rights Watch, ‘China: End Crackdown on Tibetans Who Visited India’ Self-immolation case study, Tsering Kyi 3f. The Guardian, 19 October 2011 (I) Free Tibet, ‘Tibetan Schoolgirl Dies’, March 2012 3g. US State Department, ‘International Religious Freedom Report 2011’ China’s colonial rule 3h. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘A Raging Storm: The 2a. Tibet Information Network, ‘China’s Great Leap West’, Crackdown on Tibetan Writers and Artists after Tibets 2000 Spring 2008 Protests’ 2b. Tibet Watch Special Report, ‘Perversities of Extreme 3j. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘Chinese government Dependence and Unequal Growth in the TAR’, Andrew addresses unrest with threats and cash to informants’, M Fischer, August 2007 March 2012 2c. International Campaign for Tibet, ‘Tracking the Steel 3k. Reporters Without Borders, ‘Authorities Tighten Grip, Dragon’ Isolating Even More From The Outside World’, March 2d. China Data 2010 census is intended to count the 2012 floating migrant population. See here 3m. Human Rights Watch, ‘China: Attempts to Seal off Tibet 2e. New York Times, 8 August 2002 from Outside Information’, July 2012 2f. A M Fischer, ‘Perversities of Extreme Dependence and Unequal Growth in the TAR’, 2007. Available from here Ethnic ‘Autonomy’ versus Cultural Assimilation? 2g. International Institute of Social Studies, ‘The Revenge of (VIII) James Leibold, La Trobe University Australia, May 2012. Fiscal Maoism in China’s Tibet [working title]’ by Andrew (IX) Minnie Chan, SCMP, 15 February 2012, quoting Zhu M Fischer, 2012 Weiqun’s article in Study Times 2h. Padma Choling, 16 January 2011 (X) Liu Ling, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute 2j. St Regis opens in Lhasa of Ethnology and Anthropology, “Persist in the Basic 2k. Gongmeng Law Research Center, ‘An investigative Political System, Resolve Ethnic Issues Through report into the social and economic causes of the 3.14 Development – An Outline of the Chinese Ethnic Theory incident in Tibetan areas’, 2009 Association Symposium”, 23 February 2012 2l. Tsering Woeser’s Blog, ‘When Tibetan Students fight for the Tibetan language’, 2010, translated by High Peaks Growing Tibetan Resistance Pure Earth (XI) International Tibet Network, ‘Resistance in Tibet: 2m. BBC report, 20 October 2010 Self-immolations and Protest’, 2013 2n. Tsering Shakya, ‘The Politics of Language’, December 2007

11 We are the sharp wisdom that your speeches and lectures haven’t reached We are the smooth darkness that your flame and power hasn’t absorbed We are the response with playfulness that makes your heart ache We are the infection and fright to your livelihood!

The new generation has a resource called youth The new generation has a pride called confidence The new generation has an appearance called playfulness The new generation has a temptation called freedom

Song Lyrics by Yudrug, a popular Tibetan band from Machu, eastern Tibet, 2010

October 2012 www.tibetnetwork.org