Militarization and Regional Peace

In 1949 the first vanguard of the People?s Liberation Army entered Tibet. In the spring of 1950 China?s 18th Army entered Tibet through Dartsedo (Chinese: Dajianlu) in the east, and through Amdo in the northeast. The 14th Division entered through Dechen in the southeast of Tibet. After occupying Kham and Amdo, the advance party of the 18th Army entered Lhasa on September 9, 1951, followed by the unit?s main force on October 26, 1951. This was only the start of a vast programme of military build up in Tibet.

Military expansion on the Tibetan plateau

Until 1986 areas under Communist Chinese rule were divided into eleven military regions, and Tibet was put under the control of three regions. In 1986, when the total number of military regions was reduced to seven, the whole of Tibet was put under two military regions: Southwest Military Region with its headquarters at Chengdu and the Lanzhou Military Region with its headquarters at Lanzhou.

Today the "TAR", "Ganze (Karze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture", "Aba (Ngapa) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture", "Dechen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture", and "Mili Tibetan Autonomous District" fall under the Southwest Military Region; while Qinghai Province, "Ganlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture" and "Tianzhu Tibetan Autonomous District", fall under Lanzhou Military Region.

The Chinese military presence in the whole of Tibet is today conservatively estimated to number around 500,000 uniformed personnel. The Chinese official figure of 40,394 PLA personnel in the "TAR" is misinformation. According to our information, the strength of armed forces in the region is around 250,000. This does not include the local militia establishment which was set up in 1963.

There are six sub-military districts in the "Tibet Autonomous Region", having two independent infantry divisions, six border defence regiments, five independent border defence battalions, three artillery regiments, three engineers? regiments, one main signal station and two signal regiments, three transport regiments and three independent transport battalions, four air force bases, two radar regiments, two divisions and a regiment of para-military forces (referred to as Di-fang Jun or "local army"), one independent division and six independent regiments of People?s Armed Police. In addition, there are twelve units of what is known as the "second artillery (or missile) division". Out of the many air bases built, currently only four are in active use. The People?s Armed Police are regular PLA troops, redesignated as such recently.

The frontline PLA troop concentrations in the "TAR" are stationed at Ruthok, Gyamuk (Chinese: Siqenho), Drongpa, Saga, Drangso (Dhingri), Gampa-la, Dromo, Tsona, Lhuntse Dzong, Zayul, etc. The second line of defence stations are concentrated at Shigatse, Lhasa, Nagchukha, Tsethang, Nangartse district, Gyamdha, Nyingtri, Miling, Powo Tramo, Tsawa Pomdha, Chamdo, etc. In addition, China regularly deploys the Sichuan-based 149 Airborne Division in the "TAR", as it did in the wake of the Tibetan demonstrations in Lhasa in 1987 and thereafter.

China has also shifted the headquarters of the Tibet Military District from Chengdu to a site located to the south-west of Lhasa, along the highway to Gongkar airport. Reports say that the Lhasa PLA headquarters - stretching for more than a kilometre in length - may also see a "part of China?s South-Western command headquarters (the Chengdu military region) ... moving to Lhasa". The new complex, under construction, includes about forty three-storey buildings, each containing about forty rooms, and capable of accommodating up to 15,000 men.

The largest military bases in Amdo are in Xinning (Silling), Chabcha, and Golmud (Karmu). All three locations also have air force bases.

The once-deserted wasteland of Karmu has now been turned into a major military base. Located strategically to cover both Tibet and Eastern Turkestan, this region is connected by road, rail and air.

The Chinese military build-up in Kham and Ngapa regions is concentrated on Lithang, Karze, Tawu, Dartsedo, etc, in Kham, and Barkham in Ngapa. However, there are radar stations and dormant air strips at various strategic locations in Kham.

Nuclear bases

The existence of nuclear bases and nuclear weapons manufacturing centres in Tibet have been reported from time to time. China is believed to have nuclear manufacturing centres at Dhashu (Chinese: Haiyan) which is in the "Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture" and Tongkhor (Chinese: Huangyuan) in Amdo.

China?s primary weapons research and design facility in Dhashu was constructed in the early sixties. According to Nuclear Tibet, the facility is based near Lake Kokonor. It is known as the Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy, or the "Ninth Academy", because it was under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Bureau.

The facility is the most secret organization in China?s entire nuclear programme and remains today an important and high security military weapons plant. It was responsible for designing all of China?s nuclear bombs through the mid-seventies. It also served as a research centre for detonation development, radio-chemistry and many other nuclear weapons-related activities. It also assembled components of nuclear weapons.

Missile bases are located to the south of Lake Kokonor in Amdo, and to the northwest of Nagchukha.

According to Nuclear Tibet, the first nuclear weapon was brought onto the Tibetan plateau in 1971 and stationed in the Tsaidam basin, in northern Amdo. China currently has approximately three hundred to four hundred nuclear warheads, of which several dozen are believed to be in Tibet. As China?s ground-based nuclear missiles can be transported and fired from trailers, efforts to locate and count missiles in certain areas remain difficult.

To the west of Dhashu, China established a nuclear missile deployment and launch site for DF-4 missiles (China?s first inter-continental ballistic missile) in the Tsaidam basin in the early seventies. The report mentions that the Larger Tsaidam site has two missiles stored horizontally in tunnels near the launch pad. Fuel and oxidiser is stored in separate tunnels with lines to the launch pad. The Smaller Tsaidam site is presumed to be organized similarly to the Larger Tsaidam deployment and launch site.

Another nuclear missile site in Tibet is located at Delingha, about two hundred km southeast of Larger Tsaidam. It also houses DF-4s, and is the missile regimental headquarters for Amdo containing four associated launch sites. A new nuclear division has also been established in Amdo. Four CSS-4 missiles are reported to be based there, which have a range of 8,000 miles (12,874 km), capable of striking the United States, Europe and all of Asia.

In 1988 China carried out in Tibet what the Jiefangjun Bao of September 16, 1988 called "chemical defence manoeuvres in the high altitude zone to test newly-developed equipment". According to a TASS report of July 3, 1982, "China has been conducting nuclear tests in several areas of Tibet in order to determine the radiation levels among the people living in those parts".

Conclusion

Nuclear weapons are the very antithesis of the Tibetan cultural tradition and spirit. Free Tibet will have no place for such armaments of mass destruction. It is in view of this fact that the Dalai Lama said in his Strasbourg Proposal of June 15, 1988:

"My country's unique history and profound spiritual heritage render it ideally suited for fulfilling the role of a sanctuary of peace at the heart of Asia. Its historic status as a neutral buffer state, contributing to the stability of the entire continent, can be restored. Peace and security for Asia as well as for the world at large can be enhanced. In the future, Tibet need no longer be an occupied land, oppressed by force, unproductive and scarred by suffering. It can become a free haven where humanity and nature live in harmonious balance; a creative model for the resolution of tensions afflicting many areas throughout the world."