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President Xi Jinping visited Tibet as this is the 70th anniversary of the region’s “liberation” in 1951. He had been there last in 2011, as vice-president. But this is the first presidential visit in about three decades. So what explains a sense of unease and anxiety over the trip? Xi reached there Wednesday, but the state media did not announce it till Friday. [http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-07/23/c_1310079262.htm] What could be behind this silence? Arguably, the winds blowing in Tibet are not as friendly as the ruling party would like the world to believe.
China claims it “peacefully liberated” the high-Himalayan Buddhist territory of Tibet in 1951. (Other calls it invasion: see a history tutorial: https://www.umass.edu/rso/fretibet/education.html) Under an accord called “the 17-point agreement”, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, ceded sovereignty over Tibet to China, in return for a promise of autonomy. China has not delivered its part, and the Dalai Lama had to flee to neighboring India where he has been in asylum since. In the seven decades, China has diluted the ethnic composition of the place. It is alleged that many techniques of repression now allegedly put to use in the Uyghur Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province were first tried out in Tibet. The Dalai Lama and his supporters across the world have been fighting for at least human rights if not ‘Free Tibet’ altogether.
Meanwhile, China has invested heavily in the infrastructural development of the region. The highlight of Xi’s visit was that he arrived in the region travelling on a new railway line, built at a cost of some $ 5.7 billion, which China calls “the project of the century”. The official media thus talks of a “new chapter” and “development” in the region.
Document: How China sees ‘Tibet’:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-05/21/c_139959978.htm
The Chinese Communist Party wants to win over Tibetans with such economic initiatives, but they remain equivocal at best. The ruler is seeking acceptance from the ruled, but is not at all sure of its legitimacy.
That could be why there was something cagey about the Xi visit on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of “peaceful liberation”.
Also read:
https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/07/23/why-has-chinas-president-xi-jinpingvisited-tibet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/23/xi-visits-tibet/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57941893
Image courtesy: Xinhua