Of the 3,000 leaders elected to China’s rubber-stamp Parliament, Tibet has only 20 delegates. Among these, most are not even ethnic Tibetans but Han Chinese, while others have nothing to do with the region at all
Padma Choling is not only a deputy to the 12th National People’s Congress, he is also deputy secretary of Tibet’s Communist Party. More importantly, he is the only Tibetan in the elite 205-member Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. In other words, he is the senior most Tibetan in the hierarchy today. When he speaks, it is the Party which speaks.
A day before the beginning of the National People’s Congress, Mr Choling told the Press with a straight face that, “No local residents, monks or nuns in Tibet Autonomous Region have self-immolated so far, despite a string of similar incidents in neighbouring Tibetan-inhabited regions.” Either Tibet’s deputy boss (as always the Number One, Mr Chen Quanguo, is a Han Chinese,) is poorly informed of what is happening in the region or self-deluding.
While it is true that most of the self-immolations have occurred in the former Provinces of Amdo and Kham (now administrated by the Provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan and Sichuan), a few immolations were reported from the Tibet Autonomous Region. let us remember that 107 Tibetans are known to have self-immolated in different regions of Tibet since February 27, 2009.
A few days later, during an NPC panel discussion, Mr Choling accused the ‘Dalai clique’ of encouraging self-immolations: “We have evidence that the Dalai clique is involved in it. Self-immolation is inhumane. Convincing others to commit such acts is even more inhumane.” He is, of course, unable to provide any proof.
At the same time, Beijing propaganda affirms that Tibet is the happiest Province in the Middle Kingdom. A Chinese official publication said: “Tibet, the snow-covered holy land in southwest China, topped a survey of residents’ sense of happiness in Chinese inland areas, with the most satisfying index of air [pollution].” This was found during a survey, ‘China Happiness Index Map’, conducted by Tencent.com with 34 local media involving 10 million voters from 34 Provinces, cities and autonomous regions. The outcome of the survey was: “Tibet was graded with 6.7 points (full marks was 10 points), followed by the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region with a score of 6.2 points and three other Provinces — Hainan, liaoning and Jiangsu Fujian — ranking third with the same score of 6.0 points. Guizhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, with 5.0 points, became the least happiness areas of Chinese inland.” The website added: “Happiness index shows social systems and people’s life, and it is also the indicator of social development and people’s opinion. The survey clearly showed that the ‘happiness map’ was affected by the pace of life, environment and many other factors in a city.”
But if Tibet is such a happy place, why is there so much resentment against China’s Central GovernmentIJ One could give a long list of reasons. Here is one: As ‘The Two Meetings’ (the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) are held in Beijing, I came across the list of delegates from Tibet to the NPC. Tibet is entitled to a meagre quota of 20 delegates out of nearly 3,000 members ‘elected’ to the rubber-stamp Parliament. You may be under the impression that the 20 ‘Tibetan’ delegates were born and live on the Roof of the World. You are wrong! Among them several are Han Chinese. Bloomberg News mentioned: “China Unicom Hong Kong ltd, the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier, said its chairman and chief executive officer, Mr Chang Xiaobing, has joined the National People’s Congress as a member of the Tibet delegation.” WhyIJ Nobody seems to know. Bloomberg adds: “Chang is not ethnically Tibetan, and China Unicom has no information on why he was chosen for that delegation.” The connection between Mr Chang and Tibet is a billion yuan question.
What about Mr Ding Zhongli, the vice-president of the Chinese Academy of SciencesIJ Though as a scientist and a board member of International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a Kathmandu-based organisation, Mr Ding is certainly aware of the environmental problems faced in the Himalayas, is it a criterion for representing TibetIJ Well, Mr Ding could perhaps suggest measures to stop the melting of glaciers and advise his colleagues in Beijing about the dangers of building too many dams on the Tibetan plateau.
Another ‘Tibetan’ is Mr Wang Huning. He is one of the rising stars of the Party and recently accompanied China’s new leader Xi Jinping on his ‘inspection tour’ of Gansu Province. Already a member of the Politburo, he will probably make it to ‘Communist Heaven’ — the Standing Committee — in 2017. Can Mr Wang with his proximity to President Hu Jintao and Mr Xi do good to TibetIJ It is doubtful. Other Han ‘Tibetans’ include Mr Chen, Mr Choling’s boss, who was appointed party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2011 and Mr Wu Yingjie, another Deputy Secretary like Mr Choling. President Hu himself used to be a member of the Tibet delegation — probably because he had been Party boss in Tibet at the end of the 1980’s when he introduced an extremely harsh martial law.
Today, the Party’s leitmotiv is ‘let us fight corruption’. One wishes that the Indian Government would take up the same one-point programme but unfortunately there is often a large gap between the theory and the practice. last November, Mr Xi was elected General Secretary of the Party; since he assumed his new job (as well as the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission), in every speech he speaks of the ‘Chinese Dream’ and asserts that he wants to clean up the Party. He recently told the CPPCC’s delegates: “The Communist Party would be able to mark its 100th birthday in eight years time, only if officials can learn from the selfless sages of the past”. Though the Communist Party is scheduled to celebrate its centenary a year before the end of the second of Mr Xi’s two five-year terms, the question on many lips is: Will the Party still existIJ At another function, Mr Xi asserted: “Only if the capabilities of all party members unceasingly continue to strengthen, can the goal of ‘two 100 years’ and ‘the dream’ of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people be realised.”
That is the theory. Take Mr ling Jihua, a former close collaborator of Mr Hu. He did not get a seat in the coveted Politburo in November 2012 because he tried to cover up his son’s death in a Ferrari accident. On March 18, 2012, Mr ling’s son is said to have died in the car while having sex with two young Tibetan (or Mongol) women. As The South China Morning Post put it, the accident was “an embarrassment for the ruling Communist Party, sensitive to perceptions that children of top party officials live rich, privileged lifestyles completely out of touch with the masses.” As a result Mr ling was ‘demoted’ and appointed head of the United Front Work Department, a less influential position, though overlooking the ‘minorities’ (read: Tibetan and Uyghur) and Taiwan affairs. But Mr ling did not remain in the semi-purgatory for long; he has now been promoted as one of 10 Executive Chairmen of CPPCC; in a few days he will automatically become a Vice-Chairman of the august body.
Who can then believe that Mr Xi is serious about fighting corruptionIJ The other point is that it is a ‘demoted’ leader who is responsible for the ‘minorities’. Tibetans are no fools; they are aware of all this.