Opinion
Tibetan Unrest: Growing Disquiet
in the Chinese Periphery
by
Arun Sahgal
The unrest in
Tibet, particularly the spontaneity and the scale of rioting, has made
the worst Chinese fears come true. The scale of protests and violence in
Lhasa and other predominant Tibetan settlements has unnerved the Chinese
leadership. This is discernable by the stridency in the remarks of
Premier Wen Jia Bao, who heaped fulsome abuse on the "Dalai Lama clique"
for what he called were orchestrated events. He did so while holding an
olive branch with the Dalai Lama provided he accepts unconditionally
Chinese sovereignty over Tibet and calls for a halt to the ongoing
protests.
These protests need to be seen as a part of the growing disquiet around
the Chinese periphery and the timing of an opportunity to raise voice
against Chinese repression.
On March 7, the Chinese media reported an attempt by the Xinjiang Ughirs
belonging to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement to crash a China
Southern airline plane flying from Beijing to Urumqi. The announcement
came in the backdrop of remarks made by the Communist Party chief of
Xinjiang, Wang Lequan, on the sidelines of the parliament session in
January when he remarked that the security forces had smashed a Uighur
militant cell in Urumqi plotting an attack against the Olympics. Wang
added that the government would strike first against the "three evil
forces": terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists.
Adding to the Chinese discomfiture is the fact that the violence that
has broken out in Tibet comes just two months before the Olympic
celebrations kick off with the arrival of the Olympic torch in Lhasa,
capital of Tibet. China's fears that more violent riots could disrupt
the Olympic torch relay - a highly symbolic event of the Beijing Summer
Olympic Games in August.
Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the
Olympics Games (BOCOG), said recently that preparations for the torch
relay in Tibet, including a planned ascent of Mount Qomolangma (Mount
Everest), "have been progressing very smoothly and according to
schedule". Sun added that the organisers opposed the linking of any
political campaigns to the Olympics in August, amid renewed calls to
boycott the Games after the recent crackdown on Tibetans protesting
against the Chinese rule.
According to the torch relay route announced by BOCOG on its website,
the Olympic torch will arrive in Tibet's Shannan Diqu region June 19,
from the neighbouring Sichuan province, and pass through Lhasa June
20-21. Given the stakes involved, China is expected to step up vigilance
and security to ensure the relay passes through the Himalayan region
smoothly in June.
Chinese authorities are convinced that the riots are part of an
orchestrated campaign aimed at jeopardizing the torch relay to humiliate
the Beijing Olympics by the supporters of the Dalai Lama and other
groups who are expected to stage more violent protests in the run up to
the Olympic torche's journey to Lhasa as indeed to embarrass Chinese
authorities. The manner in which the local and national authorities have
handled the protests, including induction of large PLA contingents,
restrictions on media and television and bundling out of tourists,
signify that the Chinese have made up their mind to undertake tough
measures against detractors even as they allow a little rope to the
detractors.
Beijing has mobilised officially favoured religious figures to denounce
the riots and discredit international calls for a lenient response. The
11th Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking monk in the complex
Tibetan hierarchy, issued a statement in which he "resolutely supported
the party and the government efforts to ensure the safety and stability
of Lhasa".
Gyaincain Norbu is the Panchen Lama recognized by Beijing, but not by
the Dalai Lama and his followers in exile. The six-year-old Tibetan boy,
Gendun Choekyi Nyima, chosen by the Dalai Lama, to take the title of
Panchen Lama, disappeared soon after the choice was made public in 1995
and has not been heard of since.
Beijing has put on top priority the need to hold successful Games,
seeing it as a matter of national pride. But the riots in Tibet and the
attempted hijack of a passenger airplane by a Uyghur girl have sparked
off concerns over security and safety. The authorities in China have
been prepared to tackle possible troubles created by pro-independence
elements in Xinjiang and Tibet ahead and during the Beijing Olympics.
The violence in Lhasa is the worst in the past two decades.
The central government's long-standing paranoia with its ethnic
minorities is at the core of Chinese stridency and reaction. The home of
the Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group who dominate the country,
comprises the area around the three major rivers in the East: the
Yellow, Yangtze and Pearl. This fertile area has long provided the food
and industry for the various Chinese states that have emerged over the
centuries.
But this same area, which nurtures a sedentary society, has always been
vulnerable to invasion by the various nomadic peoples around it. It is
this fear that has made China to expand its territorial limits and over
time expand its borders to absorb a de facto buffer zone - including
Tibet, Xinjiang, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.
These buffer states are marked by ethnic and cultural diversity and have
instead of enhancing security created multi dimensional problems of
integration and absorption into the Chinese cultural milieu. Control of
the ethnic minorities and incorporating the buffer zones into China has
been a struggle for the Chinese government. It has constantly been found
wanting in maintaining control over minority groups that are the
majority in their own lands, distant from the Han dominated central
core. Chinese have been employing force and transmigration policies as
also inducements and massive infrastructure development with typical
Chinese characteristics to control and ensure security of these buffer
territories.
It is obvious that the experiment of building a harmonious society in
Tibet as indeed in Xinjiang has not succeeded given the stridency and
widespread rioting and disturbances. The lingering prejudices and
inequalities have been matched by long-lasting resentments and
occasional uprisings. This is primarily because the Chinese have failed
to assimilate these minorities in the cultural mainstream. Added to
above is the fact that additional ethnicities were added to the country,
not primarily by immigration, but rather by conquest of surrounding
territories -- and these ethnicities were never assimilated into a
greater Chinese culture.
This is because the fundamental tenet of Chinese political philosophy is
not "diversity" but "uniformity". This lack of integration has left the
core of China with a constant sense of insecurity that continues to be
reflected today in its national policies. It also leaves China less
concerned overall about security threats from abroad than about domestic
ones - whether they are real or imagined.
(Arun Sahgal heads the Centre for Strategic Studies and Simulation,
United Services Institution of India (USI), New Delhi. He can be
contacted at brigarun.sahgal@gmail.com)
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