Tibet Digest July 2019 FOUNDATION FOR NON-VIOLENT ALTERNATIVES Tibet Digest is a monthly publication brought out by FNVA containing relevant news pertaining to Tibet, Chinese politics and Sino Indian relations that appear mostly but not restricted to the Chinese state media. www.fnvaworld.org (under update) 143, 4th Floor, Uday Park, New Delhi, 49 offi[email protected] TIBET DIGEST, JULY 2019 ! !1 July 2019 1 China’s Tibet Policy 6 320 villages listed as key rural tourism spots 6 China dispatches 2,307 young cadres in aid for Tibet, Qinghai 6 Tibet relics to be exhibited in Beijing 7 Tibetans Beaten, Detained in Kardze Over Dalai Lama Photos 7 11th Panchen Lama goes to Ngari for Buddhist activities 8 Tibetan Jailed in Qinghai For Listening to Foreign News Broadcasts is Freed Early For ‘Good Behavior’ 9 26 prehistoric human activity sites discovered on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 9 Tibet funds poor students through paper recycling 10 Reservation required for visiting Potala Palace 10 Top political advisor stresses ethnic, religious affairs, poverty alleviation 10 Tibetan Buddhism Suppressed: Lamas Closely Monitored, Temple Destroyed 11 Lhasa posts double-digit increase of visitor arrivals 12 Travel Restrictions Imposed on Sichuan’s Yachen Gar Buddhist Center 12 Communist China to provide ‘guidance’ to temples, churches 13 China denies reports of having Xinjiang-like mass detention camps in Tibet 14 Top political adviser praises work of religious committee 14 China forces tourists to install an app that steals data 15 Thousands of Monks, Nuns ‘Politically Re-Educated’ After Eviction From Sichuan’s Yachen Gar 15 Environment 16 China Establishes AI monitoring platform to protect wildlife 16 Air pollutants from South Asia linked to glaciers melting 17 Scientists launch survey on depth of major lake in Tibet 17 Yueyang's diligent protection of the Yangtze River 18 Chinese scientists launch survey on depth of major lake in Tibet 18 China’s Three Gorges Dam Surrounded by Geological Faults 19 China says Three Gorges Dam safe after satellite images show structure ‘at risk of collapse’ 20 Chinese scientists launch program to tackle glacier melting on Tibetan Plateau 21 East and South Asia Are the Largest Sources of Black Carbon Blanketing the Tibetan Plateau 21 China cleans up rural environment 23 Qinghai-Tibet Plateau plays key role in enhancing East Asian monsoon under global warming 23 Lhasa launches 80 new energy buses to protect the environment 24 China Focus: Herdsmen guarding China's "water tower” 24 Tibet combats severe drought using artificial rain 25 TIBET DIGEST, JULY 2019 ! !2 New buoy system adopted to monitor lake environment in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 25 Military and Infrastructure Development 26 10 Chinese officers promoted to rank of general 26 Xi stresses focusing on reform to strengthen military 26 Earth’s largest radio telescope identifies 86 pulsars 27 Chinese Navy increases aircraft carrier pilot recruits 27 China launches new remote sensing satellites 28 White paper expounds on missions, tasks of China's armed forces in new era 28 Number of noncombatants in Chinese military almost halved 28 Russia, China To Cooperate On Creation Of Ultra Powerful Lasers - Russian Scientists 29 China #1 in quantum entanglement 30 India building 61 strategic roads along Pakistan, China borders 30 Tibet Military Region forces mobilize to Xinjiang for live-fire mock combat exercise 30 Sichuan-Tibet Railway progress picks up steam 31 China to launch constellation of remote sensing satellites 32 China Politics 32 China to unveil more measures to boost consumption, tourism 32 CPC meeting analyzes economic situation, reviews accountability regulation, inspection report 32 Xi presides over symposium for soliciting advice on economic work 34 Sino-Indian Relations 35 India-China talks on vexed LAC issue on track: Eastern Army Commander 36 India-China border trade through Lipulekh Pass gathers pace 37 India, China to hold joint military drill in Meghalaya in December 37 Amended India-China tax treaty protocol enters into force 37 China Returns To Dirty Tricks Over Arunachal Pradesh, Claims Bomdila Earthquake In Tibet 38 Trade point planned at India-China LAC 38 Number of transgressions along India-China border have 39 Centre To Connect 496 India-China Border Villages With IMSAT Satellite 40 Did Chinese Troops Really Enter Deep Into Ladakh To Stop Dalai Lama’s Birthday Celebrations? 40 ‘LAC protests not possible without China support’ 41 Army chief refutes report of Chinese incursion in Demchok 41 Sikkim: Bust of Iron man of Natula Inaugurated at Natula 41 India keeping close watch on Chinese dams on Brahmaputra 42 China and the Region 42 The elusive China-Nepal rail link: High costs and risks, uncertain benefits 42 TIBET DIGEST, JULY 2019 ! !3 Needed: A trilateral pact on the Brahmaputra river 43 In new pact, Nepal and China agree to increase weekly flights to 98 44 China majorly increasing footprint in Nepal: Experts 45 China gifts warship to Sri Lanka 46 ‘Liberal’ policy chief unlikely to mean a softening on Xinjiang from China 47 India & Nepal: China Lurks But Here Is How We Can Deal With It 49 Tibet in Exile 51 The Dalai Lama legacy: India needs diplomatic policy on the succession issue 51 China Says It Must Select Next Dalai Lama; India Warned Not To Interfere – Analysis 52 US congressman warns China not to meddle in Dalai Lama's succession 53 China can’t pick the new Dalai Lama, say Tibetans 53 Tibet: China's Oppression of Minority Groups Goes Beyond Its Own Borders 54 Taiwan's ruling party calls for close cooperation with Tibet 57 UK Lawmaker Proposes Bill For Reciprocal Access to Tibet 57 Tibetans won’t recognize China-appointed Dalai Lama 58 Special Tibetan general meeting in Oct to discuss reincarnation 59 Tibetans decry Chinese claims on Dalai Lama successor 59 Pompeo: China Pressured Some Countries to Stay Away From the Religious Freedom Meeting 60 China has no right to choose my successor says Dalai Lama 61 Nyima Lhamo urges President Donald Trump for U.S. support for Tibet 61 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Calls for Sanctions Against Xinjiang Party Boss Chen Quanguo 63 Dalai Lama Representative Dismisses Chinese Pressure on India Over Reincarnation 65 China just explicating power showcase: Tibetan administration 66 China says Dalai Lama’s successor should be chosen within the country, India should not interfere 67 Disregard for China's Dalai Lama could affect ties: Beijing 67 Slovak president attacks Beijing’s human rights record 68 Nepal bans spiritual events of Tibetan refugees, further undermining their rights 69 Prague mayor Zdenek Hrib defies Beijing with support for Taiwan and Tibet 71 UNESCO fails its mission to protect unique landscape of Three Parallel Rivers in Tibet 72 Commentaries 74 China’s Military White Paper 2019 – OpEd 74 Inside China’s national defence White Paper 75 Himalayan Blunder : When India gave up on Tibet and what it needs to do now 77 Huawei Technologies’ Links to Chinese State Security 81 Climate emergency in Tibet 81 The Increasing Security Focus in China’s Arctic Policy 82 TIBET DIGEST, JULY 2019 ! !4 How WeChat Conquered Tibet 88 Melting glaciers could destabilize Asia 90 ‘We’re Almost Extinct: China’s Investigative Journalists Are Silenced under Xi’ 92 The World Needs a Water Treaty 92 The Dalai Lama is within his rights to visit Arunachal Pradesh 94 Which way will the Tibet-Nepal railway go? 97 New Publications 99 In China Dream 99 The State of Ecology of the Tibetan Plateau 99 The McMahon Line: A Century of Discord 99 China’s New Red Guards: The Return of Radicalism and the Rebirth of Mao Zedong. 99 Will Tibet Ever Find Her Soul Again?: India Tibet Relations 1947-1962 - Part 2 99 Tibet: When the Gods Spoke India Tibet Relations (1947-1962) Part 3 (July 1954 - February 1957) 99 TIBET DIGEST, JULY 2019 ! !5 providing a 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) China’s Tibet Policy credit limit to the nation’s key rural tourism villages in the next five years. Social capital is also welcome to take a part in the construction of countryside homestays, the 320 villages listed as key rural head of the ministry said. tourism spots According to a report on national rural tourism chinadaily.com development released at the conference, the July, 30, 2019 total number of rural tourism visits reached 1.51 billion in the first half of 2019, an China will support the development of increase of 10.2 percent year-on-year, while homestay accomodation in the countryside the total income of rural tourism stood at 860 and will regard it as an important factor in the billion yuan, an 11.7 percent increase over the transformation and upgrading of the country’s same period of 2018. rural tourism, according to a rural tourism In addition, the total number of people (homestay) works conference held Sunday in employed in rural tourism in China reached Chengdu, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, 8.86 million by the end of June, an increase of Xinhua reported. 7.6 percent year-on-year. A list of key rural tourism spots was also released at the conference, containing 320 villages in China that were jointly selected by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the China dispatches 2,307 young National Development and Reform cadres in aid for Tibet, Qinghai Commission. Xinhua, July 30, 2019 The head of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism stressed at the conference that the A total of 2,307 Chinese young cadres were standardized development of homestays in the selected to support the local development of countryside should be taken as an important Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai starting point for the transformation and Province, with those from central units arriving upgrade of rural tourism.