The ****trait of a Volcanically Calamitous "Olympic Host" -- Simmering
Resentments Led to Tibetan Backlash
The New York Times
March 18, 2008
Simmering Resentments Led to Tibetan Backlash
By JIM YARDLEY
BEIJING ¡ª Chinese leaders have blamed ¡°splittists¡± led by the exiled
Dalai Lama for spurring violent protests in Tibet and orchestrating a
public relations sneak attack on the Communist Party, as they gear up to
play host to the Olympics Games this summer.
But to many Tibetans and their sympathizers, the weeklong uprising
against Chinese rule in Lhasa reflects years of simmering resentment
over Beijing¡¯s interference in Buddhist religious rites, its tightened
political control and the destruction of the environment across the
Himalayan territory the Tibetans consider sacred. If there is a
surprise, it may be that Beijing has managed to keep things stable for
so long.
Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing
has sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic
development and by inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan
Buddhism. But an influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense
among Tibetans that China is irreparably altering their way of life,
produced a backlash when Communist Party leaders most needed stability
there, analysts say.
¡°Why did the unrest take off?¡± asked Liu Junning, a liberal political
scientist in Beijing. ¡°I think it has something to do with the long-term
policy failure of the central authorities. They failed to earn the
respect of the people there.¡±
Tibetans staged anti-Chinese protests in several parts of China on
Monday before a midnight deadline to surrender or face harsh
consequences. Even in Beijing, Tibetan students held a sit-in to sup****t
demonstrators in Lhasa. Around the world there were sympathy protests
outside Chinese diplomatic missions.
The unrest is a blow to President Hu Jintao, who personally directed a
crackdown on Tibetan protests in 1989 and who has considered the Tibetan
region part of his core political base within the Communist Party since
then. It will fall to Mr. Hu to figure out how to restore order in Tibet
without undermining the Olympics coming-out party that China has
meticulously planned for years.
For now, Beijing¡¯s line on Tibet is likely to harden. Military police
officers are pouring in to stifle new protests. Nor are the
demonstrations winning much public sympathy in a nation where Tibetans
are a tiny minority. The state media has tightly controlled its coverage
to focus on Tibetans burning Chinese businesses or attacking and killing
Chinese merchants. No mention is made of Tibetan grievances or re****ts
that 80 or more Tibetans have died.
Less than five months before the opening of the Olympics, Beijing is
acutely worried about an international reaction and is arguing that its
response to the protests has been reasonable. Qiangba Puncog, the
taciturn chairman of Tibet¡¯s government, said during a hurriedly
convened news conference on Monday that the military police and other
officers were not carrying lethal weapons and had not fired a single
shot ¡ª despite multiple witnesses re****ting gunshots.
¡°What democratic country in the world could tolerate this violent
behavior?¡± Mr. Puncog asked, framing the crisis as a law-and-order issue.
Yet even if the protests are extinguished soon, China¡¯s leaders will be
left with a shattered Tibet. One foreigner who witnessed the violence in
Lhasa said Tibetans were covering the streets in white toilet paper.
Traditionally, Tibetans offer white silk scarves to welcome guests. But
the toilet paper was intended to symbolize that the Chinese were no
longer welcome ¡ª even though there was little possibility they would
leave.
Beginning in 2002, China tried to soften its image on Tibet by holding
reconciliation talks with emissaries of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama,
in turn, has explicitly stated that he is interested only in greater
autonomy for Tibet within China, not independence.
But some analysts say Mr. Hu ruled out any compromise that would allow
the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet, which he fled after a failed uprising
in 1959. Instead, China appeared to want to keep talking until the Dalai
Lama, who is 72, died and left Beijing more firmly in control. Beijing
has also infuriated many Tibetans by trying to monopolize the most
sacred rituals of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Communist Party, atheistic by doctrine, has insisted that it has the
sole authority to approve incarnations ¡ª the divine process by which a
¡°living Buddha¡± is chosen in boyhood. Beijing had already selected a boy
as its own Panchen Lama, the second ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism,
and re****tedly jailed a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama.
Last November, the Dalai Lama countered with his own surprise. He
proposed that instead of waiting for senior religious figures to search
out his incarnation following his death, he might choose his own
reincarnation ¡ª a possibility that has enraged Beijing. The Dalai Lama
proposed a referendum among Tibetan Buddhists on whether to change the
current reincarnation practice, in a way that could allow him influence
in picking his own successor.
Meanwhile, Beijing has steadily been taking a tougher line on religious
practices and cultural expressions of Tibetan pride. In November 2005,
Zhang Qingli was appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibet
Autonomous Region. Mr. Zhang came from the Communist Youth League
organization, part of the political stronghold of Mr. Hu. Mr. Zhang has
made no attempt to disguise his paternal attitude toward his charges.
¡°The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is
always considerate about what the children need,¡± Mr. Zhang said last
year. He later added: ¡°The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha
for Tibetans.¡±
Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, said Mr.
Zhang had taken a tough line. Tibetan government employees faced
periodic requirements to write denunciations of the Dalai Lama. Mr.
Zhang reintroduced a policy that forbade Tibetan students and government
workers from visiting monasteries or participating in religious
ceremonies or festivals.
By 2006, Mr. Zhang had revived an ¡°anti-Dalai¡± campaign and intensified
¡°patriotic education¡± at Buddhist monasteries. Monks are now required to
attend long sessions listening to recitations of China¡¯s interpretation
of Tibetan history and also denounce the Dalai Lama.
¡°The party must surely know these monks are not going to change their
minds¡± about the Dalai Lama, said Tsering Wangdu Shakya, a Tibet expert
at the University of British Columbia. ¡°So the whole point of the
meetings is to intimidate the monks.¡±
Mr. Shakya said Chinese leaders must be stunned by the Lhasa riots
because Tibet, under Mr. Zhang¡¯s firm hand, had been thought to be
pacified. In 2006, China opened the world¡¯s highest railway, which cost
$4.1 billion and traverses the Tibetan plateau to connect isolated Lhasa
with the rest of the country. Beijing described the railway as a vital
tool in developing the Tibetan economy, the poorest in China.
But many Tibetans regard the railroad as a threat. China has poured
money into Tibet in hopes that economic development and higher incomes
would win over a younger generation. For many Tibetan families, life has
improved. But China has also encouraged huge numbers of Chinese
migrants, whose presence has diluted the Tibetan majority.
¡°That is one of the biggest sources of resentment,¡± Mr. Shakya said of
the Chinese migration. He said Tibetans believed Chinese were given more
op****tunities for jobs, and Tibetan unemployment is high. Beijing surely
noticed that the younger generation it hoped to entice was rampaging on
the streets of Lhasa.
Economic development also has brought environmental exploitation. The
railway is regarded as a critical spur for China to extract and
trans****t the rich deposits of copper, iron, lead and other minerals in
the large unspoiled Tibetan highlands.
Last year, Tibetans in Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan Province held angry
protests to stop a mining company that was shearing off a mountain
considered sacred by Buddhists. Eleven days ago, just before the Lhasa
riots, about 100 monks and other Tibetans attacked Chinese cars and
shops and clashed with the police there.
Several analysts say China cannot win the hearts of Tibetans if it
continues to demonize the Dalai Lama. But China¡¯s rhetoric about a
sinister ¡°Dalai clique¡± orchestrating the protests from behind the
scenes suggests that its attitude is hardening. Mr. Shakya said
restricting the flow of Chinese migrants would be a major concession.
But few analysts believe Beijing is in any mood to make concessions.
For now, Lhasa will remain in the grip of the military police and
soldiers. And, by one account, covered in white toilet paper.
New York Times
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