Author: Claude Arpi
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: March 30, 2008
What does 'people's war' mean in Tibet?
A S Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao were reelected
to their posts of President and Premier of the People's Republic of China
at the end of the 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC), bad news was in store for them.
As in March 1989 in Lhasa (and three months
later on the Tiananmen Square), 'people' demonstrated against the Beijing
regime. Today, there is only a minor difference: Premier Wen Jiabao, who was
seen with his mentor Zhao Ziyang on the side of the students in June 1989,
is now with the apparatchiks.
After riots erupted last week in Lhasa and
spread to different parts of Tibet during the following days, the immediate
reaction of the Chinese authorities was the customary Party line: "We
must wage a people's war to expose and condemn the malicious acts of these
hostile forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai Lama group to the
light of day."
What is this 'people's war'? For many China's
watchers, this has been one of the unanswered questions since the Communists
came to power in 1949.
It was in the name of the 'people' that Mao
started the Great Leap Forward during which more than 30 million perished
of starvation; it was 'for the people' that the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution left millions of 'people' dead and devastated an entire generation;
it is again in the name of the 'people' that war is being today waged against
pacifist Tibetan monks.
The People's Liberation Army entered Tibet
in October 1950 to 'liberate' the Roof of the World. In March 1959, the entire
population of Lhasa rose against the colonisers by assembling around the Summer
Palace to protect their leader. Sensing bloodshed, the Dalai Lama escaped
at night, heading towards India. A couple of weeks later, he was given refuge
by the Indian government.
In the repression which followed his departure,
thousands were massacred by the People's Army in Lhasa.
A first rapprochement between Beijing and
Dharamsala happened in 1979 when Deng Xiaoping met Gyalo Dhondup, the Dalai
Lama's brother. He told him that he was ready to discuss everything except
Tibet's independence. This meeting was followed by the setting up of four
fact-finding delegations.
After twenty years, the Chinese Communist
government was under the impression that the 'backward Tibetan people' had
finally been liberated. The local Communist authorities briefed the Tibetan
population in Lhasa about the forthcoming visit of the Dalai Lama's delegates:
"You should not resent this visit. You should not insult the delegates;
you should not spit on them, just receive them as your own countrymen,"
were the strict Party instructions.
They had, however, misread completely the
people's feelings, their deep resentment, as well as their will to resist
colonisation. The three first delegations visited Tibet between 1979 and 1982;
wherever the Dalai Lama's envoys went, they were mobbed by crowds of Tibetans.
One delegation member remembers: "The Tibetans tried even to tear our
chubas (Tibetan dress) to have them as relics." The entire Lhasa population
was in the streets; everybody wanting a darshan of the Dalai Lama's envoys.
By the time the fourth and last delegation
journeyed to Tibet in 1984, the Communist authorities had learned their lesson.
Spies were everywhere, infiltrating crowds: "At first Tibetans came forward
to speak to us. But one discovered that some of the Chinese dressed in a Tibetan
chuba, were spying (on us) with a small walkman in the chuba sleeves. People
became nervous, they knew they were taped and would be interrogated later.
People became more cautious."
Twenty four years later, the surveillance
is more sophisticated with video cameras strategically located all over Lhasa
and other big cities. All the mobile phone calls are monitored and it is today
rumoured that people who have sent files (pictures or videos) to their relatives
in India are being arrested.
During the visit of the 1984 delegation, the
'liberated people' of Tibet had their own way to show their unyielding respect
for the Dalai Lama: "Because we were sent by His Holiness (the Dalai
Lama), to get something touched by us was (for them) a blessing. when our
cars would leave, the Tibetans would collect the soil out of the prints of
the tyres of our cars and keep this dust as prasad to eat or preserve it."
During the last few days, tens of thousands
have taken to the streets knowing fully well that they are being videoed and
that they will eventually have to pay for their act of bravery. It shows the
state of despair and desperation of the people of Tibet. And Beijing has now
decided to wage a 'people's war' against them.
While doing so, the Communist leadership is
taking a risk. During the next few months, they were supposed to uphold the
spirit of Olympism and respect the traditional truce, not to wage a war against
people, whether they are 'minorities' or not. How will the international community
react?
Interestingly, the Communist leaders have
not always responded with such brutality. In May 1980, the politburo decided
to send a high level fact-finding delegation to the so-called 'Tibet Autonomous
Region' (TAR). The delegation was headed by the top Party functionary, Hu
Yaobang, who was then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
Reaching Lhasa, Hu Yaobang was shocked to see the level of poverty in Tibet.
During a meeting with the Party cadres, he asked "whether all the money
Beijing had poured into Tibet over the previous years had been thrown into
the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) river." He said the situation reminded
him of colonialism. Hundreds of Chinese Han cadres were transferred back to
China.
Unfortunately, this sensible policy did not
last long. In 1988, Hu Jintao took over as Tibet Party Chief. In January 1989,
the new Tibet boss visited the Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse. He was accompanied
by the Panchen Lama, the second highest ranking Tibetan Lama after the Dalai
Lama. To everyone's surprise, during the function, the Panchen Lama denounced
the Communist Party's role in Tibet.
"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," he said. Four
days later, he passed away in the most mysterious circumstances.
On March 5, when some demonstrations erupted,
the People's Armed Police quickly 'took control of the situation.' A Chinese
journalist Tang Daxian witnessed some of the events. He later wrote in The
Observer that on March 6 alone, 387 Tibetans were massacred around the Central
Cathedral in Lhasa.
The next day, Hu Jintao declared: "The
PAP following the instructions of the Central Committee had maintained the
unity of the Motherland. the majority of Tibetans who had joined the disturbance.
must be made to feel guilty and promise they would never do so again."
Nineteen years later, the population of Lhasa
did it again. Retrospectively, the tragic events of 1989 in Lhasa seem to
have been a rehearsal for an even more serious incident: the student rebellion
on Tiananmen Square in June.
A few days after the incident Hu Jintao told
Xinhua news agency: "We should maintain vigilance against possible activity
by the handful of separatists and strike them with relentless blows."
His ruthless implementation of his bosses' orders and the subsequent replay
of Lhasa events at Tiananmen Square proved he was a leader who could be relied
upon.
What is a 'people's war'? It is still not
clear to me.
