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Resources scarcity
Hissing Dragon-Squirming Tiger:
Comparisons, Negotiations
and Attitudes
continues....
Natural Resources of Tibet: Tibet is a source of many very useful
and rare minerals, including uranium and other minerals needed for her
nuclear and related high-technology military and civilian programmes.
Retaining control of these is naturally a priority issue for the PRC.
Many of Asia’s greatest rivers emanate in Tibet, the Indus, the Sutlej,
the Brahmaputra, the Salween, the Mekong, the Yangtse and the Yellow
River. With China’s demand for water increasing as its newest
‘Industrial Revolution’ goes into even greater growth and consumption,
the water of many of her own rivers are completely used up by agricultural and industrial demand well before they can reach the sea.
China has already made plans to divert the waters of many of these Tibetan rivers to mainland China, spelling long-term problems both for lower-riparian states such as India and for the ecology of the entire region.
The Tibetan Population of Tibet and the Dalai Lama: The unhappiness of the Tibetan population in Tibet at being part of the
PRC worries China. They are, of course, taking all possible steps to
reduce this by harsh control and economic inducements, which includes development (though these greatly benefit the Han immigrants more than the Tibetan natives). Education opportunities for Tibetan children in Mandarin-medium schools give these students hope for a
better future in terms of job opportunities, as well as help in the process
of Sinicization of the Tibetans.
No doubt the PRC hopes that with the
passage of time, Tibet will become another Manchuria, in which the
Manchurian language and culture has been forgotten, and the people
have even taken Chinese-style family names. Similar assimilation has
taken place in other countries too, such as in the U.K., where the Scots, after fighting fierce battles against the English, and contained within a country they don’t want to be part of, have after 300 years mostly lost their language, and are now unable to secede.
To be continued...