CHINA'S CHARADE: SPILLING THE BEANS

"Keep this under your hat, OK? The Motherland's ultimate victory depends on it." "Sure thing boss!" Wang Lequan (L), mastermind of the communist party's minority policies and Party Boss of the Uyghur "Autonomous" Region, confers with Nur Bekri, the Xinjiang "governor" at the National People's Congress in March 2008.

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love it when colonialist thug regimes can't keep a secret. It happened last week when some unnamed Chinese spokesperson blabbed about the CCP's true intent in their "talks" with Tibetan representatives, thereby exposing the world's misapprehension that these shows have any worth.

While numerous world leaders have expected meaningful discussions, China will consider nothing outside of Dalai Lama's personal future (which the Tibetans have said is not an important issue). So far, the world hasn't yet been inclined to notice this fundamental charade.

One of my favourite journalists, Michael Sheridan in Times UK, has had the April and May editions of "Tibet Communications" (a classified publication restricted to Party officials) handed to him in Hong Kong. Containing transcripts of speeches to party members by such luminaries as Tibet party boss Zhang Qingli, the documents outline a secret programme of severe political repression concealed behind the mask of diplomatic talks presented in public. These policy speeches have been kept out of the Chinese media.

Despite Zhang's public assurances that conditions in Tibet were "normal," behind the Party's closed doors he admits that Chinese authorities in Lhasa are facing "a tide of encirclement" and that the March events have "destroyed social stability." He warns the party that "final victory" is far off.

Zhang has now outlined a Mao-era system of "administrative committees" to control the monasteries, revived officious "street committees" to watch over the city and co-ordinated an intensive military operation...

However, Zhang’s words make it plain the talks are a diplomatic mask to conceal China’s actual policy. His speeches, which are remarkably frank, show the government’s chosen response is a classic Marxist-Leninist propaganda and re-education campaign backed up by armed force.

Zhang's mentor is the politburo's ideologue for minority issues, Wang Lequan. Wang has taken on the overall ideological direction of policy in Tibet, having built the model in Xinjiang -- pour in millions of Han settlers, boost resource extraction, and have lots of political trials and executions (the latter feature saw two Uyghurs executed last week).

Tibet's Communist Party boss Zhang Qingli has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Zhang is a hardline party cadre in the mold of now-President Hu Jintao, who earned his stripes doing Zhang's job in the 1980's -- imposing martial law and a violent crackdown against Tibetan national sentiment in the population. He's also famous for his quotable sayings, such as the immortal "The Party is the true Buddha of Tibet," and "Olympics must not be politicized." And who could forget, "We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique," uttered at the official Olympic torch ceremony in Lhasa.

There is also plenty of paranoia in these policy speeches by Tibet's most powerful man.

"But we are far from final victory because the Dalai Lama group, which was exploited by western enemy forces, is making a new plan for separatism," he said. "So you, the leaders of work units, must guard your gates and manage your people well. Let leaders of street committees be vigilant and keep watch on all outsiders.

"Propaganda and education are our party’s greatest advantages. These are the most useful weapons with which to defend ourselves against the Dalai Lama group. So let the propaganda department work more actively to expose its plots."

All police units, party branches and the state's religious bureau are ordered to "earnestly impliment" Zhang's instructions. The chief of propaganda in Tibet, Lie Que, seems to be fully onboard.

"We must clean out the monasteries and strengthen the administrative committees," he said, "After that we will absolutely control them."

The last time these Jokhang monks have been seen was at their March 27, 2008 unauthorized press briefing. Photo: AFP

The "cleaning out" of the monasteries (and nunneries) has been noted here for at least a month, and seems an important component in the policy prescriptions. Precisely how such measures can be rationalized within "autonomous" regions and prefectures is never explained. Unless these "autonomies" are simply a sham -- in which case no explanation is necessary.

In reality, Tibet is governed by the party and the army. The outskirts of Lhasa are ringed by barracks. Every road in is blocked by checkpoints. Real power rests with Zhang and the military commander of Tibet, General Tong Guishan.

If Lhasa is under a military lock-down, Tibet's great monasteries in the holy city are in lock-down within a lock-down. At least 1,000 monks remain sealed up under armed guard inside their monasteries (those that haven't been taken away to far distant prisons). Drepung, Tibet's largest monastery, is no exception (but rather the rule).

Nobody may go in or out. Photography is banned and passers-by are shooed away.

A camp of olive-green tents and two rings of roadblocks surround this sanctuary of meditation. Local people say the monks pay the army for food to be sent to them.

Basically, the Buddhist monks of Drepung (and countless other religious institutions) are being held hostage by a military force, at the orders of a criminal regime with far more experience at lying than telling the truth. Hostage-taking, extortion, murder -- the occupiers of Tibet have far more in common with organised crime than with any sort of legitimate governance.
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Labels: China, Tibet

- posted by Agam @ 8:56 PM 2 comments

2 Comments:

That's the way! Violent protests and riots must be mercilessly suppressed. Otherwise it will happen again. The best policy is to ban the monasteries in one way or another. Other monasteries will be allowed to prosper, provided they don't cause troubles. The Dalai Lamas were enthroned by the Chinese Emperors; The Dalai Lamas had also been deposed by the Chinese Emperors. This is the way to deal with political monks to show them the limits of their power.

By  Anonymous, at 30 July, 2008 22:49  

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anon: Is that how they do things in Singapore? I used to be amazed that the most extreme Chinese nationalists seemed to be from Singapore and Malaysia. Not any more.

If you have any familiarity with the news this blog has been reporting for the past four months (and for four years before that), you would certainly know that the Chinese violent suppression inevitably follows immediately after slogan chanting, flag waving and/or leaflet distribution.

Chinese emperors had no authority to choose Dalai Lama, that's a fiction the Chinese invented for themselves. They were sometimes invited, and then they would inflate their egos by claiming far more authority than they had any right to.

You have a hankering for that good old Imperial authority, eh? It's not all it was cracked up to be.

You will not get people to respect you by trying to beat it into them. It doesn't work that way.

By  Agam, at 30 July, 2008 23:46  

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