MB Civic

Tibet is remade by hand of Chinese government

McClatchy Newspapers

July 29, 2007

ZENGSHOL, Tibet

In a massive campaign that recalls the
socialist engineering of an earlier era, the
Chinese government has relocated 250,000
Tibetans -nearly one-tenth the population-
from scattered rural hamlets to new
“socialist villages,” ordering them to build
housing largely at their own expense and
without their consent.

The government calls the more than year-
old project the “comfortable housing
program.” Its stated aim is to present a
more modern face for this ancient region
controlled by China since 1950. The new
housing is on main roads – sometimes a
mile from previous homes – and will enable
small farmers and herders to have access
to schools and jobs, as well as health care
and hygiene, the government says.

But the broader aim seems to be remaking
Tibet – a region with its own culture,
language and religious traditions – in
order to have firmer political control over
its population. It comes as China prepares
for an influx of millions of tourists in the
run-up to next year’s Summer Olympic Games.

A vital element in the strategy is
replacement of the revered Dalai Lama,
now 71, with a state-appointed successor
when he dies. The Dalai Lama won a Nobel
Peace Prize for advocating resistance to
the communist government.

Meanwhile, China has opened Tibet to
greater numbers of ethnic Han Chinese
and tightened control of religious activity.
It is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars
into road-building and development
projects, boosting the economy,
maintaining a large military presence and
keeping tabs on the citizenry through a
vast security apparatus of cameras and
informants on urban streets and in the
monasteries.

Some Tibetans, including farmers
interviewed in the village of Zengshol, say
they’re happy to be in better quarters than
 their primitive, ancestral homes of mud
brick. In other villages, Chinese escorts
prevented a visiting reporter from
speaking with residents.

Other than state media proclaiming
that “beaming smiles” were “fixed on the
faces of farmers and herders” as they built
and moved into new housing in what it
called the “socialist villages,” the Chinese
news media have given almost no coverage
to the forced relocation.

Foreign reporters, under tight strictures
that largely prevent them from traveling to
Tibet except on once-a-year trips under
Foreign Ministry guidance, risk being
removed from the region if they openly
interview people. The first critical account
of the remaking of the Tibetan landscape
came from New York-based Human Rights
Watch, which quoted Tibetans who fled,
trekking across the Himalayan mountains
into Nepal.

On several trips outside of Lhasa last
month, a McClatchy reporter traversed 800
miles of roads and witnessed the forced
transformation of the countryside. In the
new settlements, cookie-cutter houses
lined the roads at regular intervals,
striking in their uniformity.

The settlements varied in size but were
mostly towns, larger than the abandoned
villages. The red flag of China flew atop
every house. In Zengshol, faces weren’t
exactly beaming, but the farmers were
reluctant to complain.

Some experts say the relocations have
lifted up the impoverished peasantry and
could bring prosperity. “It’s created a
building boom,” said Melvyn Goldstein, a
social anthropologist and expert on Tibet
at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland. “I think it’s phenomenally
successful – more than I would’ve believed.”

Human Rights Watch’s witnesses told a
different story. Peasants must take out
loans of several thousand dollars to pay for
the houses, which cost an average of $6,000
even though annual rural incomes hover at
about $320 in this deeply impoverished
region. Farmers who can’t repay their bank
loans forfeit the right to occupy the homes.

“None of those interviewed reported being
given the right to challenge or refuse
participation in the campaign,” the
advocacy group said.

Local officials frequently embezzle
allocated funds, the group said, and some
vacated land is being used for mining and
other projects.

Probably the strongest criticism of the
program concerns the way it came about –
without consultation or consent. The
campaign has come with no public debate,
a throwback to past eras when rural
people served as pawns on a development chessboard.

SINCE THE INVASION

Sino-Tibetan relations have been strained
for years, but particularly since China’s
annexation of the ancient country.

1950: Chinese forces cross into Tibet,
destroying a small Tibetan force at Chamdo.

1951: China annexes Tibet, making it an autonomous region within China.

1954: Chinese begin destroying Buddhist
monasteries and imposing communism.
Tibetan resistance is born.

1959: Dalai Lama flees to India. Chinese
dissolve the Tibetan local government and
impose military rule.

1967-1976: China’s Cultural Revolution
destroys Tibetan temples, monasteries,
libraries and sacred monuments.
Revolution ends with Mao Tse-Tung’s
death in 1976.

1987-1989: China stifles pro-independence
efforts, Dalai Lama wins Nobel Peace Prize.

2001: First formal contact between China
and Dalai Lama since 1993.

2002: President George W. Bush signs
Tibetan Policy Act, affirming U.S. support
for Tibetan people.

2005: Completion of China-Tibet railroad
through Himalayas.

TIBET

Tibet, home to the Earth’s highest
mountains and the spiritual center of
Buddhism, was invaded by communist
Chinese forces in 1950 and annexed shortly
thereafter. Data below reflect pre-invasion
borders and population estimates within
those borders.

Size: 1.6 million square kilometers

Population: 6 million native Tibetans;
estimated 7.5 million Chinese

Government: Communist

Government in exile: Parliamentary

Traditional in exile: Lhasa

Political/spiritual leader: 14th Dalai Lama,
in exile in India

Highest peak: Mount Everest (29,028 feet)

SOURCES:International Campaign for Tibet; BBC; PBS; Official Website 
of Tibetan Gernment in Exile.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.