FW: [WTNN] World Tibet Network News -- January 18, 2011
Alex Bunjes
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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Issue ID: 2011/01/18Compiled by Nima Dorjee
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Contents
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1. Beijing and the (next) Dalai Lama
2. Holbrooke¹s Family Draws Attention to His Connection with Tibet
3. Multiple protests planned for Chinese president's state visit
4. Letter to President B. Obama from 39 Tibetan groups
5. China says no change in its Arunachal Pradesh policy
6. Nepal's king traded Tibetan refugees for US support: WikiLeaks
7. China: A seemingly interesting move on Arunachal Pradesh
8. A new era for Tibet¹s rivers
9. TIBET WILL LIVE AGAIN
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1. Beijing and the (next) Dalai Lama
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This is the first in a series of five columns written by Matteo Pistono
for the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Washington this week.
Pistono, a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, is the author of "In the
Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and Spiritual
Discovery in Tibet," an account of a human rights monitor operating
covertly in China and Tibet.
By Matteo Pistono
Since the 14th Dalai Lama turned 70 in 2005, the international media has
increasingly focused on the question of his successor. The Dalai Lama
himself has offered varying possibilities regarding how the 15th Dalai
Lama could be identified but has not publicly stated definitively how
the reincarnation would occur. How a young Dalai Lama might be invested
with spiritual authority would be a matter of interest primarily for
Tibetan Buddhists devotees if the Dalai Lama were not a prominent and
influential leader on the world stage whose Tibetan voice represents an
oppositional position to the ruling Communist Party of China.
It will be incumbent upon the United States and other governments who
support the Dalai Lama to pay close attention to how and to whom he
gives the authority to identify the next Dalai Lama. The reason should
be obvious; the Chinese government already has a plan to control the
15th Dalai Lama.
China maintains that the Dalai Lama wants an independent Tibet, although
since 1988, the Tibetan leader has officially and publicly stated that
he is seeking genuine autonomy for Tibetans within the People's Republic
of China. Chinese officials vilify and portray the Dalai Lama as the
single greatest threat to the unity of the Chinese nation. The Dalai
Lama has been said to have "the face of a man and the heart of a beast"
and is "a wolf in monk's robes." These words are not from some backwater
cadre; rather a spokesperson of the Chinese central government in
Beijing and the senior official of the Tibet Autonomous Region spoke
them. Not only does the Chinese government consider the Dalai Lama to be
a dangerous "separatist," they also see religious devotion to him as
seditious. Displaying a photograph of the Dalai Lama, praying for his
long life, wearing an amulet with his image, or having his voice
chanting mantras on a mobile ring tone, is a subversive criminal act in
China.
Authority and power within Tibetan Buddhism has historically been
decentralized among many different reincarnate lamas and monastery
abbots. However, since China invaded Tibet and the Dalai Lama fled into
exile to India in 1959, the Dalai Lama has been elevated by those
Tibetans who have been deprived of his presence as the preeminent
representative of their faith and their identity. Today, for the nearly
six million Tibetans living under Chinese rule in Tibet, the Dalai Lama
is their spiritual protector and political leader--and devotion to him
and his message is at an all-time high.
Beijing's future attempts to control the 15th Dalai Lama will be a
testament to their failure to dampen devotion to and influence of the
current 14th Dalai Lama, despite decades of dogged attempts to do so. In
March 2009, Jiao Zai'an, an official of the Chinese Communist Party's
United Front Work Department, said the Party must "decide what kind of
person is allowed to be reincarnated," because such approval is
essential to "ensure the political soundness of reincarnate lamas."
Tibetans reject these Party-appointed lamas, making Beijing's religious
politics a perilous path. Beijing argues that they are the sole
authority on choosing reincarnate lamas, ignoring the incongruity of an
atheist government involved in the mystical process of identifying a
reincarnate lama.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly stated that he will never reincarnate
inside territory where he could not be a free spokesman for the Tibetan
people. Not long ago, in Benares, India, he told me, "If the Tibetan
people want another Dalai Lama, then I will be reborn outside of China's
control. The purpose of reincarnation is to continue our duty, our work
from before. The Chinese do not like my work today, so why would they
want it again in my next reincarnation?"
After the Dalai Lama passes, Beijing intends to promote a child they
select to be their next Dalai Lama, as they have done with the 11th
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. This gross trespass against religious
freedom by the Chinese state has been a terrible tragedy for the young
Panchen Lama identified by the Dalai Lama (he was kidnapped and
disappeared) and the young boy chosen by China (who is regarded with
suspicion by the Tibetan people as a puppet of the Chinese government).
Similarly, we can expect that the Tibetan people will reject the search
and carefully managed ceremony overseen by the Chinese Communist Party's
leadership that purports to invest a young 15th Dalai Lama with
spiritual authority.
The Tibetan people will expect governments that have long supported the
Dalai Lama to reject a Chinese-appointed Dalai Lama and to stand firmly
behind those in whom the 14th Dalai Lama has entrusted the continuation
of his work for a peaceful and just solution for Tibet, and to affirm
that the institution of the Dalai Lama does not belong to the Chinese
government but rather to the Tibetan people themselves.
Matteo Pistono is a writer, practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, and author
of "In the Shadow of the Buddha: Secret Journeys, Sacred Histories, and
Spiritual Discovery in Tibet." Pistono's images and writings about
Tibetan and Himalayan cultural, political and spiritual landscapes have
appeared in BBC's In-Pictures, Men's Journal, Kyoto Journal, and HIMAL
South Asia. Pistono was born and raised in Wyoming where he completed
his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of Wyoming,
and in 1997 he obtained his master of arts degree in Indian philosophy
from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of
London. After working with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington
D.C. on Tibetan cultural programs, Pistono lived and traveled throughout
the Himalayas for a decade, bringing to the West graphic accounts and
photos of China's human rights abuses in Tibet. He is the founder of
Nekorpa, a foundation working to protect sacred pilgrimage sites around
the world, and he sits on the executive council of the International
Network of Engaged Buddhists, Rigpa Fellowship, and the Conservancy for
Tibetan Art and Culture.
Pistono and his wife, Monica, divide their time between Colorado,
Washington D.C., and Asia.
In the Shadow of the Buddha is Pistono's account of a human rights
monitor operating covertly in China and Tibet.
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2. Holbrooke¹s Family Draws Attention to His Connection with Tibet
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Monday, 17 January 2011 16:42 Tibetan Official Media: Tibet Net
Washington, DC: The widow and two sons of the late Richard Holbrooke
made references to his connection with Tibet during a memorial event in
Washington, DC on 14 January 2011 attended by President Barack Obama,
and a host of American and international dignitaries.
The event, celebrated as "A Tribute Honoring the Life of Richard C.
Holbrooke" was held at the Kennedy Center and began with the screening
of several photos depicting his life. Among them was one with the
Holbrooke family and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Then during her remarks, Kati Marton, Holbrooke's widow, referred to
causes from "Cyprus to Tibet" that he was concerned with. Son Anthony
Holbrooke, in his remarks, referred to his travel with his father to
Tibet and being with the nomads there. Another son, David Holbrooke,
recalled a guest commenting that theirs did not seem to be a normal
family after seeing photos of the family with His Holiness the Dalai
Lama as well as with American leaders at their home.
Those who paid tribute included President Barack Obama, stepdaughter
Elizabeth Jennings, former State Department official Strobe Talbott,
friends like James Johnson and Leslie Gelb, Ambassador Frank Wisner, NSC
Senior Director Samantha Power, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral
Michael Mullen, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Bill
Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Those who attended the event, according to a report, included Vice
President Joseph Biden, serving and former American leaders, including
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, State Department policy planning
chief Anne Marie Slaughter, Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy,
USAID administrator Rajiv Shah, NSC senior director Derek Chollet, NSC
senior director Doug Lute, Rep. Jane Harman, Madeleine Albright, Zalmay
Khalilzad, Robert Rubin, Pakistani President Asif Zardari, Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili, ambassadors of various countries and a
host of American and international VIPs. One media report said, "Three
heads of state, over a dozen foreign ministers, and hundreds more
familiar faces from around the foreign policy community were in
attendance at the event."
Special Envoy Lodi Gyari was invited to the event but as he was
traveling, Bhuchung K. Tsering attended on his behalf. Ambassador
Richard Holbrooke had passed away in Washington, DC on 13 December 2010.
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3. Multiple protests planned for Chinese president's state visit
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By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post
Posted at 3:35 PM ET, 01/14/2011
Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to the United States may not
go as smoothly as the Obama administration may have hoped.
At least 17 Taiwanese-American organizations have announced that they
will hold demonstrations in front of the White House. Students for a
Free Tibet is organizing a march from the Chinese Embassy to the White
House and will follow Hu around Washington, denouncing his country's
policies at eight separate rallies that coincide with his meetings. And
the Uyghur American Association is also planningprotests.
Also joining in on the anti-Hu rallies will be Reporters Without
Bordersand Amnesty International USA.
Unlike President Obama's previous guests during state visits--the heads
of India and Mexico, who are relatively non-controversial--China's
president is routinely criticized for human rights abuses including
censorship, jailing critics without due process and denying rights to
minority populations.
The status of Taiwan and China's treatment of its Tibetan and Uighur
minority have long been a source of tension between the U.S. and China.
China has firmly held on to the notion of "One China" and insisted that
Taiwan is a breakaway province rather than a sovereign state. The
Taiwanese-American groups are calling on China to dismantle the missiles
it has targeted at Taiwan and "renounce the threat or use of force
against Taiwan."
China has also responded harshly to U.S. officials' concern about
reports of repression and violence in Tibet and in the majority-Muslim
Uighur province of Xinjiang by telling the U.S. to stay out of China's
domestic affairs. President Obama further embroiled tensions over Tibet
in February when he opened the White House doors to the Dalai Lama, the
exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. The Chinese have also blamed a Fairfax
resident, a former Uighur businesswoman, Rebiya Kadeer, for
"instigating" the riots in the summer of 2009 in the Xinjiang capital of
Urumuqi that left hundreds dead. Kadeer rejects the charge and said that
Chinese security forces attacked peaceful demonstrators, turning the
incident into a bloodbath.
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4. Letter to President B. Obama from 39 Tibetan groups
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Phayul[Friday, January 14, 2011 12:07]
January 13, 2011
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We, the undersigned Tibetan Associations, organizations and Tibet
support groups, are writing to ask that you make Tibet a substantive
part of the agenda when President Hu Jintao visits Washington on January
19.
You have spoken often of the universality of fundamental human rights,
most recently to mark the awarding of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to
imprisoned Chinese writer and democracy activist Liu Xiaobo.
As you are aware, for the past six decades, the Tibetan people have been
denied their fundamental human rights. President Hu Jintao's visit to
Washington is a unique opportunity to engage him meaningfully on the
Tibet issue and showcase the ideals and values cherished by Americans,
including openness, democracy and individual liberty. These principles
underlie your remarks about rights that are universal to all human beings.
The United States has a long-standing history of supporting the Tibetan
people and their peaceful struggle for human rights and freedom. This
support has become institutionalized within the U.S. government through
the development of policies and programs designed to help Tibetans
preserve and promote their culture, identity and dignity. You have
commended His Holiness the Dalai Lama's tireless efforts to negotiate a
resolution for Tibet with the Chinese government, a position consistent
with long-standing U.S. policy.
Tibet is an integral part of the U.S.-China relationship for moral,
historical and strategic reasons. The position the United States has
adopted on Tibet creates an incumbent duty on this Administration to
continue to raise the issue with Chinese leaders at the highest levels.
Tibet must be on the agenda of your summit with President Hu.
The recent protests by Tibetan students objecting to the central
government's plans to subordinate the Tibetan language to Mandarin as
the language of instruction are emblematic of China's policy failures in
Tibet.
Moreover, there is a growing recognition of the potential impact China's
infrastructure projects on the Tibetan plateau will have on access to
water in downstream countries, as Secretary Clinton noted during her
visit to Cambodia. The role of Tibet, also known by scientists as the
"Third Pole," in global climate change is further evidence that
developments in Tibet are anything but the exclusive internal affairs of
the People's Republic of China. Without a multilateral framework to
address these issues, Chinese policies in Tibet could exacerbate
regional instability. A just and lasting solution for Tibet that
includes Tibetans as integral stakeholders will bring greater stability
for China, its regional neighbors and indeed the world.
These points underlie the central message that we ask you to convey to
President Hu - that the United States has, and will continue to have, a
strong interest in Tibet and will remain committed to facilitating a
just and lasting resolution for Tibet. This commitment comes with an
expectation that Tibetans must be freely able to exercise their basic
human rights and freedoms, preserve their distinctive culture, and
address the ecological, educational, political and economic consequences
of the Chinese government's failed policies in Tibet.
The U.S. government should continue to press China's leadership for
results-oriented negotiations to achieve a political solution for Tibet
and engage China in topical areas, including education policies
pertaining to Tibetans and regional discussions on water security.
Your proactive approach will demonstrate to the Chinese government that
Tibet is an integral part of the U.S.-China relationship as are basic
universal values of human rights and dignity. Again, we thank you for
your public expressions of support for the Tibet issue and for your
leadership in raising it with Chinese leaders, and look forward to your
continuing to exert this leadership when you meet with President Hu.
Sincerely,
Association Cognizance Tibet, North Carolina
Capital Area Tibetan Association
Indiana Tibetan Association
Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association
Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota
Tibetan Association of Boston
Tibetan Association of Charlottesville
Tibetan Association of Colorado
Tibetan Association of Connecticut
Tibetan Association of Idaho
Tibetan Association of Ithaca
Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey
Tibetan Association of North Carolina
Tibetan Association of Northern California
Tibetan Association of Ohio and Michigan
Tibetan Association of Santa Fe
Tibetan Association of Philadelphia
Tibetan Association of Southern California
Tibetan Association of Washington
Utah Tibetan Association
Wisconsin Tibetan Association
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
Boston Tibet Network
Committee of 100 for Tibet
International Campaign for Tibet
International Tibet Independence Movement
Los Angeles Friends of Tibet
Regional Tibetan Youth Congress of New York and New Jersey
San Diego Friends of Tibet
Santa Barbara Friends of Tibet
Seattle Friends of Tibet
Sierra Friends of Tibet
Students for a Free Tibet
Tibet Committee of Fairbanks
The Tibet Connection
Tibet Justice Center
Tibet Online
U.S. Tibet Committee
Western Colorado Friends of Tibet
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5. China says no change in its Arunachal Pradesh policy
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Economic Times 17 JAN, 2011, 03.19PM IST,PTI
BEIJING: China today said its policy that Arunachal Pradesh is a
"disputed area" remains "unchanged", days after it issued stapled visas
to two Indian sportsmen from the state which it claims as "Southern Tibet".
"China's position is consistent and clear about the China- India border
issue including the disputed area of Eastern section and the Indian side
is aware of it. The position has remained unchanged," the Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokesman's office told PTI here.
Eastern section of the India-China border covers the Arunachal sector
which is part of the dialogue mechanism to resolve it. India-China so
far held 14 rounds of talks without much of success.
The Foreign Ministry issued the clarification today to a question asked
last week over the controversy of issuing stapled visas to two Indian
sportsmen from Arunachal to take part in the Weightlifting Grand Prix at
Fujian province.
The two were turned away by the Indian immigration officials as India do
not recognise the stapled visas, while External Affairs Ministry stated
India will not honour such visas.
The Foreign Ministry, however, did not clarify whether the issuance of
stapled visas or paper visas as they are known meant any departure from
its purported previous policy of not to grant any visas to people of
Arunachal Pradesh in support of Chinese claim that the state is part of
its territory therefore its people did not need visas.
However Rong Ying, a Senior Research Fellow at the state-run China
Institute of International Studies, said while China's stand on the
dispute remained unchanged, perhaps the stapled visas were given as a
"pragmatic" step to allow people of Arunachal to visit China.
"Certainly we have to take the reality into consideration as it is a
disputed area and also we have to be pragmatic if people wants to travel
to China," Rong, an India specialist at the Institute told PTI.
He said personally he believes that the stapled visas were issued to
enable the people of the area to travel to China while the two countries
made efforts to resolve the boundary dispute.
Both sides have to be pragmatic keeping the reality into consideration,
he said, apparently meaning that India too should permit those with
stapled visas from Arunchal to travel to China.
"I think there is no shift in China's policy but it will be good to
facilitate their travel," he said, adding that otherwise the people of
the area cannot travel to China until the dispute is resolved.
Indian officials here say that it was difficult to say whether China
pursued a definite visa policy on Arunachal Pradesh as Vishal Nabam, now
advisor to Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, had visited China on a
month-long tourist visa in 2006 while an IAS officer from the state was
denied visa in 2007.
On the controversy over issuance of stapled visas to people of Jammu and
Kashmir, Rong said it was regarded as the technical issue.
During his recent India visit, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised to
address the issue.
Rong also denied that there was any shift in China's Kashmir policy as a
result of the stapled visa issue and Beijing continue to maintain that
India and Pakistan should resolve their outstanding disputes, including
Kashmir.
"I agree with the argument that China's relations with India and
Pakistan are on a different footing," he said, adding there need not
necessarily be any "inter linkages".
"It is not a change. It has been for many years, perhaps since the end
of the cold war," he said.
China would continue its partnership with India which will not be at the
expense of Beijing's close ties with Islamabad.
Similarly, China's partnership with Pakistan was not aimed at India, he
said, refuting perception that it was a New Delhi centric alliance.
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6. Nepal's king traded Tibetan refugees for US support: WikiLeaks
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Economic Times: Jan 15, 2011
KATHMANDU: After ordering the closure of the Dalai Lama's envoy's office
in Kathmandu and taking over absolute power with a military-backed
bloodless coup in 2005, Nepal's King Gyanendra dangled Tibetan refugees
as bait before the US in a bid to get American support, whistle-blowing
web site WikiLeaks said in its latest revelation.
Ramesh Nath Pandey, the man appointed foreign minister by the king, met
the then American ambassador to Nepal, James Moriarty, saying the royal
regime wanted a long-term relationship with the US and would respond
better to "engagement" rather than pressure.
The American ambassador emphasised that the Congress was considerably
concerned about the Tibetan refugees escaping to Nepal from China-held
Tibet and urged the royal minister to ensure the refugees' transit was
proceeded without hindrance.
At time, there were about 1,000 Tibetan refugees at the Tibetan Refugee
Reception Center, that facilitates the forward journey of the refugees
to India and other countries, and the envoy said Nepal needed to make
sure that the process of transiting refugees to India resumed.
The US had earlier proposed it would resettle the Tibetan refugees in
Nepal in American cities but the proposal remains stuck officially after
Nepal declined, due to Chinese pressure.
The ambassador also pushed for an NGO, the Tibetan Welfare Society , to
be given registration. The society, believed to be a new form for the
office of the Dalai Lama's representative in Nepal, was shut down in
January 2005. The leaked cables said the Nepal minister's response was
ambiguous.
He first said Nepal needed to have a close relationship with the US and
then indicated that given the Chinese support, Nepal might not act on
the issues raised by the ambassador unless Washington changed its Nepal
policy.
The king's messenger reportedly said Nepal's long-term interest was in a
relationship with the US, not China or India. He also claimed that
though India and the US had stopped providing military assistance to
Nepal after the coup, "Nepal would not be short of arms" and that "a
plane of material from one of your best friends" would arrive.
The American ambassador advised the king, who was waging a war on the
Maoists with little result, to declare a cease-fire with international
monitoring and to reconcile with the political parties.
The royal minister countered that saying the party leaders were a major
problem and the king should bypass them and ally with middle-tier
leaders. He also said the Maoists would exploit the parties against the
king and dump them when they had their way. The ambassador noted that
Pandey's proposal meant "essentially... decapitating the parties and was
unacceptable".
The ambassador also emphasised that Tibetan refugee issues were one of
the administration's and Congress's key concerns regarding Nepal, and if
there were no progress, Nepal could put at risk other parts of the
relationship, including development assistance.
The new revelation comes even as the controversial memoir of a former
military secretary to the palace claimed China wanted Nepal to deploy
its army to prevent Tibetan refugees from escaping and proposed the army
should be strengthened for that.
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7. China: A seemingly interesting move on Arunachal Pradesh
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Uploaded by adminB.Raman, China, Diplomacy, India, Indian,
worldview9:45:00 AM
by B.Raman
Arunachal Pradesh is the easternmost state of India. Arunachal Pradesh
shares a border with the states of Assam to the south and Nagaland to
the southeast. Burma/Myanmar lies towards the east, Bhutan towards the
west, and Tibet to the north. Itanagar is the capital of the state.
Though Arunachal Pradesh is an Indian State, the People's Republic of
China and the Republic of China claim portions of the state as South
Tibet. - File Photo
(January 16, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) China has made a seemingly
interesting move on Arunachal Pradesh, the meaning and message of which
has to be carefully analysed instead of treating it with suspicion as
another anti-Indian move or as connected to the recent change in its
policy relating to Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). An interaction on this subject
between the officials of the two countries would add value to the analysis.
2. Arunachal Pradesh in our North-East is an integral part of India, but
China does not recognize it to be so. It calls it southern Tibet and has
been insisting that historically this area belonged to China and hence
should revert to China. The border dispute between the two countries
arising from the conflicting claims of the two sides has been under
negotiation between designated special representatives of the two Prime
Ministers. There has been no transparency either from Beijing or from
New Delhi as to how the negotiations are going on. The general
impression in the community of non-governmental analysts is that there
has been no forward movement.
3. In the meanwhile, the two sides have been strengthening their
strategic infrastructure in their territories in this area---- China in
its so-called Tibet Autonomous Region and India in Arunachal Pradesh.
China has made better progress in this regard than India. It has
constructed a railway line to Lhasa from Qinghai and has now undertaken
its extension towards the Arunachal border. There is an unconfirmed
report that it is planning to construct a second line from Qinghai to
Lhasa to be dedicated to freight movement. It has strengthened its civil
aviation infrastructure in Tibet. It has built more airports and is
trying to make Tibet the hub of aviation traffic in Western China.
4. Simultaneously, there has been a departure from Beijing¹s past
practice of avoiding any major military exercise in Tibet in order not
to create unnecessary alarm in India. The first pan-China exercise
(Stride--2009) conducted by the People¹s Liberation Army (PLA) in August
2009 did not include the Chengdu Military Region whose jurisdiction
covers Tibet. For the first time, one saw three military exercises
relating to Tibet in 2010---- two by the PLA (Air Force) in Tibet itself
and one by the Army involving the Chengdu and Lanzhou Military Regions
and co-ordinated by the Beijing Military Region. The Chengdu and Lanzhou
Military regions share the responsibility for the defence of Tibet and
Xinjiang. Any anxiety over causing concern in India is no longer an
inhibiting factor influencing the timing and nature of China¹s military
exercises relating to Tibet.
5. In the diplomatic field, China lost no opportunity of asserting its
claim to Arunachal Pradesh. It continued with its policy of not
recognizing the Indian passports of the residents of Arunachal Pradesh
and not issuing them visas---- regular or stapled--- to visit China for
official or non-official purposes. It protested every time an Indian
dignitary or His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Arunachal
Pradesh---particularly Tawang. It strongly opposed the Asian Development
Bank funding electric power projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
6. At a time, when it appeared to be becoming increasingly rigid in its
attitude on Arunachal Pradesh, it has shown a seeming ray of flexibility
by issuing stapled visas on Indian passports to two sports officials of
Arunachal Pradesh to enable them to attend a sports-related event in
China. Indian Weightlifting Federation's Joint Secretary Abraham K Techi
and a weightlifter, both residents of Arunachal Pradesh, were stopped
recently by the Immigration at the New Delhi airport because their
Indian passports had Chinese visas on plain papers stapled to their
passports. They were going to Fujian in China at the invitation of the
Chinese Weightlifting Association President Menguang to attend a
weight-lifting contest from January 15 to17. The immigration did not
allow them to board the flight in accordance with the practice of not
allowing Indian citizens to travel to China with stapled and not regular
Chinese visas.
7. The media has quoted a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA) as stating that India considers Arunachal Pradesh as an integral
part of India and has conveyed to the Chinese side that a uniform
process of issue of visas to Indian citizens be followed regardless of
the applicant's ethnicity or place of domicile.
8. According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), an unidentified official
of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, when contacted by it on this
subject, stated as follows on January 13: "There is no change in our
visa policy for residents of Arunachal Pradesh. China does not issue
visas to officials from that state and will still not do it. For
non-officials, we only issue stapled visas,"
9. It is not clear whether the agency has quoted the Chinese official
correctly. It is unusual for a Chinese official to refer to the state as
Arunachal Pradesh. Normally, he would have said so-called Arunachal
Pradesh. His comments indicate that the issue of stapled visas to two
residents of the State was a deliberate act and not the result of any
mistake committed by the visa officer of the Chinese Embassy. The
instructions to issue the stapled visas must have come from the Chinese
Foreign Office in Beijing whose prior clearance is necessary for the
issue of visas to persons traveling to China in response to a local
invitation. Only for tourists no prior clearance is required.
10. In the past, Beijing did not recognize the legality of the Indian
passports of the residents of Arunachal Pradesh. That was why it was
refusing to issue them any visa----regular on the passport or on a
stapled plain piece of paper. By issuing the stapled visas to the two
sports personalities of Arunachal Pradesh holding Indian passports, it
has implicitly recognized the validity of their Indian passports. This
does not mean any change in its claim of sovereignty over the territory.
It only means it is trying to adopt a more flexible line in asserting
its sovereignty.
11. How should India react to it: Reject the stapled visas even in
respect of the residents of Arunachal Pradesh as it has been doing in
respect of the residents of J&K? Or adopt a more flexible line in
respect of the residents of Arunachal Pradesh without linking them to
the residents of J&K? Encourage the Chinese to continue with their
flexibility and expand it? These questions should be carefully
considered by the Government of India before deciding on its response.
12. In an interesting dispatch in the ³Times of India² of January 14,
its Beijing correspondent Saibal Dasgupta has said as follows: ³China's
decision to issue stapled visas to Arunachal Pradesh residents is a good
omen, observers of India-China border negotiations said. It means China
accepts people of Arunachal to be Indian citizens, which is major policy
change for a country that describes it as its own province of "South
Tibet". "If this news is correct, it is a setback for our stand. Or, a
major concession given to India," Hu Shisheng, deputy director in the
State-run Institute of South and Southeast Asian Studies, told TNN. Some
Indian observers have taken a different view claiming that stapled visas
were continuation of China's policy of putting up obstacles in the way
of a negotiated settlement of the boundary problem. But there are signs
that the Indian government is secretly happy over the new development as
China did not give any visas to residents of Arunachal earlier. "We have
been saying that people of Arunachal Pradesh do not need any visa as it
is part of China. If stapled visa has been given, there must be a mutual
agreement between the two countries," he said. There was a "slim chance"
of stapled visas being issued by mistake by some official because it is
a sensitive issue. "There must have been a change in policy for such a
thing to happen" Hu said. He said the case of Arunachal should not be
linked with Kashmir. Residents of Jammu and Kashmir are being given
stapled visa because of the dispute between India and Pakistan. "China
has said it is ready to change its policies and even redraw the border
around Kashmir once India and Pakistan settle their disputes," Hu said.²
13, Unless there has been a mistake somewhere in the Chinese
visa-issuing hierarchy, this action of the Chinese Embassy is
significant and needs an imaginative response from the Government of India.
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat,Govt.
of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical
Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies.
E-mail: seven...@gmail.com )
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8. A new era for Tibet¹s rivers
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? 11-1-17 ?? ChinaDialogue Latest Articles ???Jiang Yannan, He Haining
Construction of a massive dam on the Yarlung Zangbo marks a turning
point for Tibet, write He Haining and Jiang Yannan. A development boom
is coming.
The rushing waters of the Yarlung Zangbo, the last of China¹s great
rivers to remain undammed, will soon be history. On November 12 last
year, the builders of the Zangmu Hydropower Station announced the
successful damming of the river the first public announcement on a
matter that, until now, has been kept under wraps.
The Zangmu hydroelectric power station is being built on the middle
reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (known as the Brahmaputra when it reaches
India) between the counties of Sangri andGyaca. Around 7.9 billion yuan
(US$1.2 billion) is being invested in the project, located in a V-shaped
valley 3,200 metres above sea level. At 510 megawatts, the plant is much
smaller than China¹s 18,000-megawatt Three Gorges Dam, but still
equivalent to the entire existing hydropower-generating capacity of Tibet.
The construction workers have now reached the centre of the river. The
water is being diverted into sluiceways and rows of grouting machines
and stone crushers are working at full pace, while trucks come and go.
One worker said that the winter here is mild, so there¹ll be no need to
stop work. Geologist Yang Yong said the activity represents the start of
a new age: ³Hydropower development on the Yarlung has begun, marking the
start of a hydropower era for Tibet¹s rivers.²
A series of hydropower stations is proposed for the Yarlung Zangbo. If
they are all built, Zangmu will be the fourth in a row of five on the
Sangri to Gyaca stretch of the river, between the Gyaca and Jiexu
plants. There has been no official confirmation that the construction of
these will go ahead. But Yan Zhiyong, general manager of China
Hydropower Engineering Consulting, said in a recent media interview: ³By
about 2020 most of China¹s hydropower projects outside of Tibet will
have been completed, and the industry¹s focus will shift to the Jinsha,
Lancang, the upper reaches of the Nu River and the Yarlung.²
Several well-known Chinese hydropower firms have already made their way
into Tibet. The backer of the Zangmu project, the Tibet Generating
Company, has already built a residential area on the open spaces
alongside the river at Zangmu and a flourishing town is taking shape,
with a supermarket better-stocked than those in the county¹s main town.
The boss, from Zhejiang, moved here from the Xiaowan dam in Yunnan,
south-west China, two months ago and is positive about the future:
³There¹ll be loads of workers next year, business will be great.²
The Zangmu dam is located in the southern Tibetan county of Gyaca, which
has a population of around 17,000. ³The economy here is going to be
among the fastest-growing in Tibet,² said businessman Li Hua, who has
already invested in a three-star hotel here a five-storey building
that is now the tallest in the area.
Work on a highway to the administrative centre of Lhoka prefecture is to
start in 2011, cutting travel time in half. ³Hydropower development will
very quickly spur mining, and there¹ll also be very rapid growth in road
and railways. The Tibetan hinterland will see a new development boom,²
predicted Yang Yong.
Guan Zhihua is a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences¹
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research. In 1972
the academy established a survey team to study the Qinghai-Tibetan
Plateau, and Guan now in his seventies was the head of the group
charged with calculating the hydropower potential of the Yarlung Zangbo,
China¹s highest river. As if describing a family heirloom, he said: ³The
river flows for 2,057 kilometres within China¹s borders, and its
hydropower potential is second only to the Yangtze. It has more
power-generating potential per unit of length than any other river in
China.²
Guan¹s was the first comprehensive and systematic study of the plateau
a four year field project carried out by more than 400 people across 50
different disciplines. But the study of the Yarlung Zangbo and its
tributaries was only a part of the survey, and at the time nobody had
any idea of the extent of the river¹s potential. The entire basin was
found to have hydropower potential of 114 gigawatts 79 of which was on
the main river. And this potential was highly concentrated, with the
possibility of a 38-gigawatt hydropower facility at the Great Bend in
Medog county, equal in power to the Three Gorges Dam.
In 1980, a nationwide survey of hydropower resources was carried out and
12 possible dam locations identified on the Yarlung Zangbo. ³This would
have been the first hydropower plan for the Yarlung,² recalled Guan.
In the 1980s, Tibet twice planned to dam the Yarlung Zangbo, but in
neither case did the project get off the ground
Zhang Jinling, a 76-year old retiree from the Tibet Surveying Institute,
recalled the first bid to build a dam here: ³In the 1980s, Shigatse [a
city in southern Tibet] wanted to build a hydropower station at
Jiangdang and that would have been the first attempt to dam the river.²
But there were concerns: this part of the river carries a lot of silt
and the project would have required swaths of land to be inundated and
many people to be relocated and the dam would only generate 50
megawatts of power. The plan was submitted to Beijing, but was not
approved.
On another occasion, plans were drawn up to dam the river outside Lhasa.
Zhang¹s team carried out preliminary surveys, drilling rock samples out
of the mountainsides to acquire geological data. But a large reshuffle
of officials in both 1981 and 1982 saw the team lose two-thirds of its
manpower. Plans were shelved.
Those plans were spurred by a shortage of electricity in Tibet. Zhang
recalled that the Tibetan government was seeking a quick way of
providing power by any means diesel-fired and geothermal power
generation were also used.
During the 1980s, Lhasa, with 120,000 residents, only had 20 or 30
megawatts of power-generating capacity, mostly provided by several
hydropower stations each providing a few megawatts. In winter there was
no choice but to rotate power supplies to different areas of the city,
with those cut off using kerosene for heating.
When Zhang retired in 1995, the electricity grid in eastern Tibet was
just beginning to take shape, but it has remained isolated from the
national grid. A connection between Tibet and Qinghai is due to be
completed in 2012, which will relieve the electricity shortages Tibet
suffers in winter and spring.
³It wouldn't have been possible to build a large dam on the Yarlung
before the Qinghai-Tibet railway was completed you need a rail line to
move the building materials,² said He Xiwu, who was head of the survey
team¹s water-resources group at the time.
In 1994, work started on the Three Gorges Dam, but plans for the Yarlung
Zangbo were kept quiet. The low-key approach was unusual given the
river¹s huge potential. Even recently, a water-resources official with
the Tibetan government stressed that developing hydropower in Tibet was
mostly about self-sufficiency.
Since the early 1990s, Tibet has built a series of medium-sized
hydropower stations, of about 10 megawatts each, such as the
pumped-storage hydropower station at Yamdrok Lake and the dam at
Zhikong. These are intended to relieve electricity shortages in the
Lhasa area.
Although government work reports mention it every year, hydropower
development on the Yarlung Zangbo was never made a priority. But in the
final years of the 11th Five Year Plan, things changed. ³The current
proposal is an appropriate degree of industrialisation, with a process
of capacity building, then focusing on priorities, and then overall
development,² said He Gang,research fellow at the Tibet Academy of
Social Sciences¹ Institute of Economic Strategy. ³The priorities most
often proposed are mining and hydropower.²
Behind the scenes, preparations for hydropower development on the
Yarlung Zangbo have been constant. In a recent media interview, Zhi
Xiaoqian, head of the Chengdu Surveying Institute, said that plans had
been drawn up for all of Tibet¹s major rivers, including the middle
reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo. But a lack of clear policy direction has
meant approval for those plans has been slow and the projects have not
commenced. ³Now the time and conditions are ripe. China¹s energy supply
is becoming ever more pressured, and there¹s an urgent need to develop
the rich hydropower resources of Tibet,² Zhi said.
Currently less than 0.6% of Tibet¹s hydropower resources have been
developed. In comparison with the rest of China, this is virgin territory.
The Zangmu Hydropower Station is only the start. The huge potential of
the Yarlung Zangbo is concentrated at the Great Bend in Medog county,
where two or more dams the size of the Three Gorges could be built. This
is also the most spectacular section of the river, where it falls
steeply as it makes a u-turn, and is regarded as one of the world¹s most
striking river sections.
As early as 1998, Chen Chuanyou of the Institute of Geographic Sciences
and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences
published an article in Guangming Daily entitled ³Could the world¹s
biggest hydropower station be built in Tibet?² He proposed building a
reservoir on the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo to raise the water
level, and then drilling a 16-kilometre tunnel to carry the water to its
tributary, the Duoxiong a drop of 2,300 metres that would allow for
three hydropower stations. For the sake of safety and the environment,
they could be built underground, he said.
In 2002, Chen published another paper in Engineering Sciences, looking
at the positive impact that a hydropower station at the Great Bend would
have on electricity generation in south-east Asia, and pointing out
that, if there were financial issues, funds could be raised both
domestically and abroad, and that electricity could be exported to
south-east Asia.
He Xiwu said: ³I¹ve heard there is still no plan for the Great Bend. The
state should spend a bit every year on long-term research. There¹s
38-gigawatts of potential there, but the geology is complicated and
construction would be difficult. It has to be done carefully.²
³Hydropower development in Tibet has come late, but it is on the agenda
now,² said Fan Xiao, chief engineer for the regional geological survey
team at the Sichuan Bureau of Geological Exploration. What worries Fan,
however, is this: ³Tibet¹s ecology is extremely vulnerable, and would be
very hard to restore if damaged. This kind of full-river development
can¹t just see the Yarlung Zangbo as a hydropower resource everything
needs to be taken into consideration.²
This article was first published by Southern Weekend.
He Haining is a reporter and Jiang Yannan an intern at Southern Weekend.
Feng Jie, also a reporter, contributed to this article.
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9. TIBET WILL LIVE AGAIN
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By Tsoltim N. Shakabpa
Our snow peaks are melting
Our forests are wilting
Our rivers are putrefying
Our animals are starving
Our monasteries are crumbling
Our people are mourning
Our nation is dying
And China is celebrating
But have no doubt
Our peaks will be white with snow again
Our forests will flourish again
Our rivers will cleanse again
Our animals will eat again
Our monasteries will rise again
Our people will rejoice again
And Tibet will live again
If only we do not lose hope
And continue our struggle for freedom
Copyright: Tsoltim N. Shakabpa - 2011
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