China Tightening Control Over Tibet

[Ibby]

Even Amid Talks, Party Moves to Curb Influence of Dalai Lama
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 5, 2006; A16

BEIJING, Aug. 4 -- China's Communist Party has been tightening its
grip on Tibet in recent months, resorting to language and measures not
seen since the repression of the late 1990s, according to sources with
knowledge of the situation.

The pressure comes as the Dalai Lama's envoys continue to negotiate
with Beijing about his possible return to Tibet after more than 40
years in exile. The religious leader is regarded by the Chinese as
bent on independence for the region, and his followers are seen as
subversives.

"In the last few weeks, we have seen an increasingly repressive
political climate on Tibet as Beijing emphasizes its domination of the
region," said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based
International Campaign for Tibet. "It's difficult to discern the
intentions of the senior leadership on the ongoing dialogue between
the Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing."

Nongovernmental organizations in Tibet say they have started to feel
the pressure. Some contracts to work in the region reportedly have not
been renewed. Last month, a study program between American
universities and Tibet University was closed in the city of Lhasa
after 20 students arrived and were turned away, sources said on
condition of anonymity. The official reason for the closure was that
the teachers were too busy.

Also last month, authorities shut down the blogs of a well-known
Tibetan writer who posted a photograph of the Dalai Lama and wished
him a happy birthday, his 71st.

Some Tibet observers say the timing of the tightening could be a sign
that various factions in the Communist Party are engaged in a power
struggle, with hard-liners opposed to any deal that would bring the
religious leader back from his exile in Dharamsala, India. But others
argue that Chinese leaders have several cards and are playing them
simultaneously, essentially negotiating on Tibet while still cracking
down on the Dalai Lama's followers, said Robbie Barnett, professor of
modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University.

"Perhaps this is to wear down the Dalai Lama and threaten his power
base," Barnett said.

A story run in two Chinese newspapers and carried by the official New
China News Agency asserted late last month that, while the Dalai Lama
has told the world he seeks autonomy or a "middle way" rather than
independence, he is not to be believed. "Given the fact that the Dalai
Lama gives out different signals at different times and even at the
same time, one can hardly agree his 'middle way' is different from
'Tibetan independence,' " the article said.

The Chinese government has moved to block any influence the Dalai Lama
has over Tibetans. Earlier this year, after the religious leader made
a plea to protect endangered species and his followers began
destroying their fur-lined traditional robes, the Chinese government
banned Tibetans from burning fur pelts. Then, after monks clashed in a
dispute over clay statues of an obscure deity at a monastery near
Lhasa, the city's mayor accused the Dalai Lama of stirring up trouble
and trying to "sabotage the unity of Tibet."

There have long been cycles of repression and relaxation in Chinese
policy toward Tibet. The previous two party secretaries in the region
were considered technocrats who were more focused on economic
development, observers said.

But the current secretary, Zhang Qingli, who once served in the
Communist Youth League with President Hu Jintao, has a strong record
of making ideological statements against separatism. A former
commander of the paramilitary Xinjiang Production and Construction
Corps, Zhang had been charged with border security and presiding over
the migration of millions of Han Chinese to Xinjiang.

An informed source in Lhasa who spoke on condition of anonymity said
thousands of government workers in Phenpo, a rural area just northeast
of Lhasa, had been asked to write criticisms of the Dalai Lama.
Similar campaigns have targeted monasteries in the past, but the
source said it was unusual to involve civil servants.

After being named to the post in May, Zhang had quickly declared a
stepping-up of the Communist Party's patriotic education campaign in
Tibet, beyond monasteries and nunneries to the wider population. He
said it was a "fight-to- the-death struggle" with the Dalai Lama, who
was "the biggest obstacle hindering Tibetan Buddhism from establishing
normal order," according to state media reports.

Said Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet: "It was almost
Cultural Revolution language."

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry did not return a call seeking comment.

(c) 2006 The Washington Post Company

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