Mar
27
Why China fails to tame Tibet with GDP
March 27, 2008 | | 1 Comment
By Emily Tsang
Tibet’s GDP growth rate stay above 12% for the past seven years, thanks to the bringing in of new infrastructure and publicized tourism under the People’s Republic. For their material well-being, Tibetan is of benefit to be a part of China. However, the recent “free Tibet” riots in Lhasa has left the central government, the biggest believer in “good economy leads to stability”, clueless in why its appeasement policy fails to establish peace following a rapid growth in Tibet economy.
This may not be difficult to explain, when Chinese still holds unspeakable grudge over the Japanese 71 years after the Nan-king Massacre. Similarly, the same kind of hatred is shared among Tibet, but towards the Community Government since the old days.
Tracing back the history, the first remarkable association between China and Tibet dated back to Tang dynasty where Emperor Taizong (唐太宗李世民) marrying off his daughter Princess Wencheng (文成公主) to Tibet as a peace treaty. The legendary marriage was inspiration to many folk songs and stories confirming the friendly relationship between China and Tibet in old age. Tibet did not become a part of China until the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty (元朝), which leaders ruled with strong military force finally led an invasion. Even so, Tibet was still allowed to enjoy a considerably high degree of autonomy administrated by the Dalai Lama system under Yuan empire. According to the teaching in many Chinese’ mind in their history, Tibet has always been a part of China’s territory since then.
Until the end of Qing Dynasty (清朝), the Nationalists and the Communists led to the Chinese Civil War. Mao Zedong (毛澤東) who was on his way overthrowing Kuomintang to Taiwan, ordered ten thousands of soldiers from Communist Party of China to conquer Tibet. Together with the thousands of Tibetans being slaughtered, the destructive nature of Community Party against religion also led to the vandalism of hundreds of sacred Tibetan temples. Tibetan language was later banned. The ruthless and disrespectful behaviours sparkled the long-grudge being held against Han Chinese, which never be able to abbreviate despite the subsequent policy with determined effort and good will from central government to restore authority.
It did not take long for the governor to realise that the sense of Chinese identity never fits perfectly in Tibet as they hoped. In 1959, the bloody Lhasa rebellion finally broke out. Tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed during the suppression under the Community Party. The 14th Dalai Lama and other government principals fled to exile in India with the support of USA and other Western powers. The central government tightened its grasp on any independent movement in Tibet, while, at the same time, trying to charm the beauty by squandering money.
However, the Tibetan remains unenchanted. As their spiritual leader Dalai Lama preaching in India, “material wealth cannot help us if we’re heartbroken”, he said. “genuine harmony must come from the heart. It cannot come from the barrel of a gun”.
As Beijing Olympic is counting down, the recent uprisings may be a lesson for the ruler that supremacy in hard power only conquered the land, but it requires a lot more subtlety in its soft power to capture the hearts.
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Thanks for the background Emily,and you’ve raised an intersting point on the relationship between economic growth and social stability- the two do not always go hand in hand.