Chinese President Xi Jinping claps his hands at the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on 22 May 2020. File photo/Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Reuters
SHANGHAI, China, 29 August 2020
China must build an “impregnable fortress” to maintain stability in Tibet, protect national unity and educate the masses in the struggle against “splittism”, President Xi Jinping told senior leaders, state media said on Saturday.
China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” that helped the remote Himalayan region throw off its “feudalist” past. But critics, led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, say Beijing’s rule amounts to “cultural genocide”.
At a senior Communist Party meeting on Tibet’s future governance, Xi lauded achievements made and praised frontline officials but said more efforts were needed to enrich, rejuvenate and strengthen unity in the region.
Political and ideological education needed to be strengthened in Tibet’s schools in order to “plant the seeds of loving China in the depths of the hearts of every youth”, Xi said in remarks published by state news agency Xinhua.
Pledging to build a “united, prosperous, civilised, harmonious and beautiful new, modern, socialist Tibet”, Xi said China needed to strengthen the role of the Communist Party in the territory and better integrate its ethnic groups.
Tibetan Buddhism also needed to adapt to socialism and to Chinese conditions, he added.
Advocacy group the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said Xi’s remarks showed Chinese rule still needed to be imposed with an “iron fist”.
In emailed comments, its president, Matteo Mecacci, said, “If Tibetans really benefited as much from Chinese leadership as Xi and other officials claim, then China wouldn’t have to fear separatism and wouldn’t need to subject Tibetans to political re-education.”
China’s policies towards Tibet have come under the spotlight again this year amid worsening ties with the United States.
In July, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would restrict visas for some Chinese officials involved in blocking diplomatic access to Tibet and engaging in “human rights abuses”, adding that Washington supported “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet.
Tibetans have never entertained the idea that we are “Chinese” or that our nation was “part of China”. We have ALWAYS thought ourselves as a proud nation with a historical empire that conquered parts of China and even set up a puppet regime there.
Owing to religious orthodoxy and isolation, Tibet was unable to move with the rest of the world. It was caught up in sectarian wars instead of building the nation. Communist China, an anti-religious and fascist movement overtook Tibet by armed invasion that sealed Tibet’s independence.
The exile Govt. pursued appeasement policy of abandoning independence for an autonomous entity comprising of all Tibetan territories under Chinese occupation. As laudable as it may seem, the Chinese have shown nothing but disdain.
In the process, the Tibet issue has faded away in the international conscience while Chinese occupation of Tibet has gained legitimacy. However, as the report shows, the fate of the Tibetans inside Tibet has not improved during these many years as was expected by pursuing this policy of appeasement.
It has polarised the exile Tibetans to the point of no return and has incidentally assisted in legitimising Chinese illegal occupation of Tibet. The CCP has not acknowledged the mammoth concession and instead continues to bark about “splitism”.
Despite such overtures of reconciliation, there has been no reciprocity whatsoever from the CCP and only harks on the same old tactic of “Dalai Clique” to extract more concessions. It has emboldened the CCP and the more they use violence and intimidation, the Exiles are pressed to make more concessions.
Coming as it does before the Tibetan Exile elections, it’s a signal to suppress the Rangzen advocates in exile by accusing them of provoking the CCP.