Hindustan Times
Chinese nervousness about the situation in Tibet has been especially noticeable during this period of enhanced military tension between India and China.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stepped up activities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to achieve President Xi Jinping’s directive of “one people, one culture, one language and one country”. Visits in July-August by Xi and Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People’s Consultative Conference, underscored this priority. However, the contours of major obstacles that loom ahead are already visible.
A stream of senior CCP cadre visits has followed. Their visits add emphasis to the major projects approved by the 14th five-year plan and long-range objectives — 2030. The visits also indicate that the 20th Party Congress will endorse Xi for another term next year.
Senior cadres visiting TAR include Chongqing Party secretary and politburo member Chen Min’er, politburo member and Guangdong Party secretary Li Xi, whose delegation included Guangdong governor Ma Xingrui, who is a CCP central committee (CC) member; Cai Qi, party secretary of Beijing; and Yu Wenxia, vice-minister of the CCP CC propaganda department.
Most recently, Chen Wenqing, minister for national security, arrived in Lhasa with a high-level delegation and convened a meeting attended by TAR party secretary Wu Yingjie, commander of the Tibet military region lieutenant-general Wang Kai, and others. Among the topics discussed were maintaining unity, “diluting the influence of religion”, and eliminating the 14th Dalai Lama’s “negative influence” among the masses. Click here to read more.