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The need to preserve the culture
“We Tibetans are not pursuing a high standard of living or more money, but rather, the existence and development of the Tibetan race,” said exiled government official Ghangkar. He believes that the existence of the Tibetan-Buddhist culture is essential for the people.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on the other hand, emphasizes economics and suppresses Buddhism. “In reality, it is trying to buy the disappearance of our culture with money,” Ghangkar said. He believes that Tibetans will not accept these terms.
Beijing’s new policy includes promoting free childhood education, free education and medical care for school-age children until high school, free medical treatment for nomads, and an increase in the cost-of-living allowance. This policy will be implemented not just in the autonomous region, but in all Tibetan regions.
The regime’s approach in Xinjiang varies slightly. According to reports by Radio Free Asia, Beijing is hastily transporting Uyghur students to other provinces.
A teacher in Urumqi says that mainland Chinese high schools and junior high schools are open for enrollment to Xinjiang students each year. “The result is that our young people leave Xinjiang for the mainland, where they stay permanently after completing their education. The population is thus slowly diluted. The class of Xinjiang students in the mainland expands each year—it started with 700 and has now expanded to 5,000. Even more are expected this year.”
The teacher said that 80 percent of the students in these mainland classes are Uyghurs, with Hui and other ethnic minorities making up the remaining 20 percent. They pursue jobs in the mainland after completing their education. “The government has its agenda—the Uyghur population will slowly decrease,” the teacher said.
These mainland classes are the result of a policy launched in 2000. The stated purpose is to provide a better education for minority Xinjiang students. Minority students with the best grades are transferred to a mainly Han ethnic secondary school, and are given first priority for good jobs, thus encouraging Uyghurs to adapt to the Han culture.
“No Islam means no Uyghur race,” a resident of Urumqi said. “Beijing disallows religion among the students to diminish the effect that Islam has on binding Uyghur culture."
The Western crisis will continue
The Fifth Tibetan Work Conference and the First Central Conference on Xinjiang found nothing wrong with the Chinese regime’s current policy, though regime leaders say that local officials have not fully carried out the policy.
Tibetan officials in Lhasa warn that suppressing Tibetan Buddhism will actually lead to a deterioration of Han-Tibetan relationships.
Wang Juntao, a political scientist in the U.S., believes that Beijing’s approach of using economics to suppress religion and culture is “Beijing using its atheistic ideas to tackle the problems in Xinjiang and Tibet.” He says the popular thought in mainland China is no faith, no values, and no morals, with complete domination through violence and money. He asserts that the CCP believes money and violence can solve any problem.
“This approach, however, would have no effect on groups that are deeply rooted in religion and culture,” he added.
Exiled Tibetan government official Ghangkar also feels that Tibetan culture is religious culture, in which Buddhism plays a distinct role. Therefore, he said, it is absurd for the CCP to think that they can trade money for this.
Communist officials, speaking anonymously in Lhasa, said that the CCP has also realized this problem. “In 2008, the people of the Tibetan regions had a motto, ‘Long live the Dalai Lama.’” He told the New Epoch Weekly that “the government has also realized that discrediting the Dalai Lama will only arouse more resentment among the Tibetan people.”
He also said that using economics as bait has not yielded positive results. “The past ten years have proven that corruption is a serious problem at all levels of the government, and so the general public never reaps the benefit. All the money in Beijing could not satisfy the greed of the officials.”
Wang Juntao said he personally hopes that Xinjiang and Tibet will develop within a larger Chinese framework, where all ethnic groups can solve problems together.
“However, the CCP itself is a big problem,” he added. “We cannot ignore this fact when considering the future of Xinjiang and Tibet. Therefore, the crisis in western China will continue.”
Read the original Chinese article
