By Claude
Arpi
Perhaps because a posting on the ‘roof of the world’ seems to
bring Communist officials good luck in their career.
The latest senior cadre to experience this is the
47-year-old Qin Yizhi who served as a vice-chairman of
Tibet’s regional
Government. He has just been appointed as the head of the Communist Youth
League, “A training ground for future party and Government officials with
nearly 80 million members” as the South China Morning Post put it.
The Hong Kong newspaper adds: “His appointment indicates
he could play a bigger role in China’s leadership in the future, as most of his
predecessors in the post have done so.”
Guangdong party secretary Hu Chunhua, often considered the
future leader of China in 2022, had earlier followed the same trajectory: first
Vice-Chairman of Tibet’s regional Government in 2003 and then Youth League boss
in 2006. Hu (not a relative of former President Hu Jintao) is now a member of
the all-powerful Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Qin had taken his job in Lhasa in 2005 as Lhasa Party
Chief; he later became Vice Chairman of the Tibetan Government.
Blogger Tsering Woeser considers Qin a hardliner who,
during his tenure, consistently pushed for ‘patriotic education’, in other
words, ‘sinisation’ of education. Woeser, quoted by the SMCP, added: “His
promotion could give a very bad indication to the current Tibetan officials
that only hardliners can get promoted.”
Qin has an illustrious predecessor. In September 1987,
Lhasa witnessed a series of large-scale riots. As the Chinese leadership felt
they were losing face in the world’s eyes, Beijing became more and more
nervous. The monks, the very same people who were supposed to have been
‘liberated’ from the clutches of the high clergy, were now revolting against
the ‘motherland’. Beijing reasoned that if the situation were allowed to drift,
China could follow the Soviet Union on the way to disintegration. Something had
to be done.
The strong men in the Politburo, Li Peng and Qiao Shi,
visited Tibet in July 1988. Soon after, it was decided to appoint the young
cadre Hu Jintao as Tibet’s Party chief. It was to be the crucial turn in Hu’s
career. He probably knew he had to show results in a very short time to repay
the confidence placed in him by the senior leaders; he could not afford to
fail. Hu took charge of the rebellious region on January 12, 1989.
Soon after, a Beijing newspaper Zhongguo Xinwen She
published an interview with Hu in which he described his two main tasks in
Tibet: “To safeguard the unification of the motherland, adopt a clear-cut stand
to oppose separatism, and stabilise the situation in Tibet,” and then: “to
continue to carry out economic construction.”
This would later be known as Hu’s strategy of ‘grasping
with both hands.’
On January 23, Hu visited the Tashilhunpo monastery in
Shigatse. He was accompanied by the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking
Tibetan Lama after the Dalai Lama. The official occasion was the consecration
of a stupa containing the mortal remains of one of the previous Panchen Lamas.
To everyone’s surprise, during the function, the Panchen Lama denounced the
Communist Party’s role in Tibet. He said, “Although there had been developments
in Tibet since its liberation, this development had cost more dearly than its
achievements. This mistake must never be repeated.” Four days later, he passed
away in mysterious circumstances. Though it has never been proven, many
Tibetans believed that he was murdered.
When a demonstration erupted on March 5, the People’s
Armed Police quickly took control of the situation; it was there that the
future President of China showed his skills.
Some information which filtered out of Tibet affirmed that
on March 6 alone, 387 Tibetans were massacred around the Central Cathedral in
Lhasa.
Martial law was clamped on March 8. The tragic 1988 events
in Lhasa seem to have been a rehearsal for an even more important episode: the
student rebellion on Tiananmen Square three months later.
In Beijing’s eyes, Hu saved Chin, which could have plunged
into the ‘chaos’ so feared by the Chinese emperors. Had Tibet been lost, no
doubt other provinces such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia would have followed
in quick succession.
Today at least 10 members of the 25-member Politburo are,
or have been, connected with Tibet, in one way or another. Just to give a few
examples.
President Xi Jinping is connected through his father Xi
Zhongxun who was one of the senior officials ‘in charge’ of the Tibetan affairs
the 1950s and later the 1980s.
One of the two lady-members, Liu Yandong has been
associated with the United Front Work Department which looks after Tibet; she
headed the organisation between 2002 and 2007.
Yu Zhengsheng, number 4 in the hierarchy, will soon be
nominated Chairman of Central Working Coordination Small Group on Tibet,
overlooking the restive region’s affairs.
I have already mentioned Hu Chunhua, the Party’s rising
star.
Another PB member is Liu Qibao; he was Party Secretary of
Sichuan province, responsible for large areas of Tibet (2008-2012), also a
hardliner.
Guo Jinlong has been posted as Secretary of Tibet
Autonomous Regional Committee from 2000 to 2004. He was pivotal in the Lhasa Railway
project. The list is long and though not in the top 25, Zhang Qingli, the Party
boss in Lhasa till 2011, who called the Dalai Lama a ‘wolf in monk’s garb’, has
now been promoted to the prestigious post of Secretary General of the Chinese
People’s Consultative Conference. He will be the main advisor of Yu Zhengsheng
for Tibet issues.
The ‘good luck’ of high Chinese officials is not that
providential for the Tibetans. Most of these leaders took a harsh stance while
posted on the ‘roof of the world’.
One can doubt that so many knowledgeable cooks, even if
they are experts on steaming momos, can translate a ‘cool’ policy for Tibet.
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