Brahma Chellaney Column | China Expansionist Policy & Tibet Identity

Brahma Chellaney Professor Emeritus, Center for Policy Research

The self-immolation by exiled Tibetan activist Lobga Rangjen outside the United Nations Headquarters on July 2 was not an expression of personal despair. It was a desperate attempt to shake the world’s growing indifference towards one of the most important international issues of our time – the destruction of Tibet.

Tibet was occupied by China soon after the establishment of the People’s Republic. This is often viewed from a human rights perspective, and there are good reasons for this. But it should also be understood as an attempt to stake claim to one of Asia’s most valuable geopolitical assets. The vast and resource-rich Tibetan Plateau is situated in the lap of the Himalayas. It is the origin place of the great rivers of Asia. And it is a place of strategic importance from the perspective of South, Central and South East Asia.

In recent decades, China has invested heavily in Tibet. It has built extensive military infrastructure and huge dams and has also expanded the mining of strategically important minerals. But for Xi Jinping, physical control over Tibet is not enough. They want complete and permanent control over the entire Tibetan plateau.

Xi concludes that the best way to achieve this is to erase the identity of the people there. The Tibetan people are a distinct ethnic group, with their own language, traditions, food and dress. To strip Tibetans of their identity and ensure that they no longer consider themselves Tibetans – with one goal in mind: to eliminate all resistance to permanent Chinese rule on the ‘Roof of the World’.

To fulfill this objective, China has expanded the system of government hostels and started sending Tibetan children there at an early age. China calls these residential schools engines of development. Whereas the reality is that their curriculum is designed to erase the children’s Tibetan identity and in its place create loyalty towards China.

UN experts report that more than one million Tibetan children aged 6–18 attend these schools. They are separated from their families and culture for most of the year, taught in Mandarin, exposed to Han culture, and conditioned to view their own culture, religion, and language as inferior. In other words, China is raising a generation of Tibetans who will assimilate into China and forget their culture.

China has also taken other steps to eradicate Tibet. Since late 2023, China has changed the official name of Tibet to Shijang in its government documents, diplomatic communications and media. The name is derived from the Manchu Qing dynasty’s terminology for Tibet. Its adoption is to emphasize that Tibet is not a separate historical entity, but a part of China.

If you look at it, the international community has also helped in these efforts. Some museums, universities, and research institutions outside China have accepted this imperial name-change. A museum in Paris has labeled Tibetan artefacts as coming from Shizang. The British Museum mentions Tibet or Shijang Autonomous Region in an exhibition on the Silk Road.

Now China is taking this effort to the next level. A new law promoting ethnic unity and progress went into effect on July 1, in line with Xi’s drive to force Tibetans and other ethnic minorities to assimilate into a Chinese identity centered on loyalty to the Communist Party. By criminalizing perceived threats to ethnic unity, the law could serve as yet another weapon to intimidate Tibetan activists, scholars and diaspora communities.

More than a million Tibetan children are being taught by China in the Mandarin language, exposed to Han culture and conditioned to view their actual culture, religion and language as inferior.

(@ProjectSyndicate)

Make Dainik Bhaskar your favorite source on Google ➔