Tibet: the CCP sighs with Emotion

Main link: Xinhua (via Enorth), July 17, 2011

The article’s main motivation would appear to be the commemoration of May 23, 1951, but it was only published this Sunday (by Enorth, anyway):

The scroll painting of history, the surge forward with great momentum,
let the people of the world sigh with emotion;
the troubles of the past testify the miracle [of today], let the world gasp in admiration.

历史画卷,波澜壮阔,让世人感慨; 岁月沧桑,见证奇迹,让世界赞叹。

Sixty years are only a short moment in the great river of history, but in Tibet, this old and mystical territory, the course of social development has strided across more than a thousand years. New and old Tibet are two different worlds. During the past sixty years, under the care of the CCP’s central committee and the hard work of the Tibetan cadres of all nationalities and masses, a united, democratic, prosperous, civilized and harmonious socialist new Tibet has emerged to a bright future of development, from the darkness to the light, from backwardness to progress, from poverty to prosperity, from isolation to openness.

60年,在人类历史长河中不过是短暂瞬间,但在西藏这片古老而神奇的土地上,社会发展进程却跨越了上千年——
新旧西藏两重天。60年来,从黑暗走向光明,从落后走向进步,从贫穷走向富裕,从封闭走向开放,在党中央关心下,西藏各族干部群众奋发努力,一个团结、民主、富裕、文明、和谐的社会主义新西藏,正在雪域高原上呈现出光明的发展前景。

After the poetic “scroll painting of history”, another appetizer (via Enorth) begins with a short collection of “oral history”, from a former “local government chief plenipotentiary” and/or his wife who witnessed the signature of an agreement which “safeguarded the dignity and reunification of the motherland”, on May 23, 1953. The plenipotentiary was Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (ང་ཕོད་ངག་དབང་འཇིགས་མེད་, 阿沛·阿旺晋美). The history of his authorization is contested.

The rest of the article is history as authored by the CCP, including anecdotes like this one:

The people will not forget the scene of 19 years ago: early in 1992, comrade Deng Xiaoping (邓小平) inspected Wuhan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shanghai and other places. [Standing in front of the Potala Palace model at Shenhen’s “Splendid China” park,] he stood for some time, and with an emotional sigh he said: “I won’t make it to Tibet in this life – just to take a picture in front of this “Potala Palace” will have to count as a souvenir.”

The anecdote follows many paragraphs devoted to Mao Zedong’s (毛泽东) care for Tibet, and leads into the paragraphs devoted to Deng’s. After that, it’s Jiang Zemin’s (江泽民) turn, who, despite being in his sixties and despite the territory’s high altitude, immersed himself in factories, rural and pastoral areas, schools, hospitals, and “People’s Liberation Army” and police barracks and stations there.

Picture 1: party and state chairman Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) speaks on the “fifth meeting on the work of Tibet” in January 2010.

Picture 2: a Xinhua interview with Padma Choling (པདྨ་འཕྲིན་ལས་།, 白玛赤林), chairman of the government of the “Tibet Autonomous Region”, on June 8 this year, with Xinhua.

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Related

» Obama meets with Dalai Lama, The Age, July 17, 2011
» “Legal Education”, Arrests and Sentences, July 14, 2011
» NPC Tibetan Delegates visit U.S., March 20, 2009

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17 Responses to “Tibet: the CCP sighs with Emotion”

  1. Ah gee. The river of Sino-Tibetan inter-ethnic goodwill flowing into the sea of prosperity.

    Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama does it like a pop star here in Oz, meeting football teams (I gagged on this one) and making an appearance on Master Chef. Given the public perception of Abbot (opposition leader) and Gillard (PM), the DL would have no trouble being elected as the next PM if he put himself on the ballot.

    And while I’m dealing with theological matters, Beijing has now picked a fight with that authoritarian hard ass in the Vatican. Not a good move when one recalls Poland. Somehow I think the Vatican franchise will be around long after the Beijing crowd has fled to Switzerland with its bling and bank accounts.

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  2. Wait! Are you saying that Jiang was in his sixties, and even despite this, and the high altitude, he actually went and visited some factories? I’m stunned! Those Chinese old people never cease to amaze me with the astonishing feats they perform.

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  3. Oh, and check out this reporting from AP: “Obama’s meeting came at an extra sensitive moment for China, the United States’ biggest creditor, with leaders in Washington at odds over how to raise the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling in time to avoid default.”

    So how is the Dalai Lama tied to the US debt ceiling? And when is it ever not a sensitive moment in US-China relations? There is always an upcoming visit or a summit to be held, or some tricky domestic situation in China. Why do papers (and politicians) have to fall over themselves to fabricate reasons why China is so licensed to throw a hissyfit every time someone does something they don’t like? What ever happened to the concept of agreeing to disagree and leaving it at that?

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  4. Oh and here’s another from AP: “This year is made even more sensitive for China as the government marks 60 years since Tibet’s “peaceful liberation” and 90 years since the founding of the Communist Party.”

    Um, excuse me? I thought 2009 was extremely sensitive because it was the year of the 20th anniversary of June 4th. Or that 2008 was the sensitive one because it was the year of the Beijing Olympics. Or that 2012 would be the sensitive year because it would be the year of the 18th Party Congress. Or maybe it was 2007, the year of the 17th Party Congress.

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  5. That would be a recorded show, the Master Chef episode, KT? I seem to remember that the Dalai Lama visited Australia last month.
    I’m not terribly fond of the authoritarian hardass in the Vatican, but I admire his scholarship, and I appreciate that the world’s most durable dictatorship has confined its rule to theological matters more recently.

    I agree that the fuss about “China’s sensitivities” is wrong, Tommy. However, the preparedness of political leaders to meet or not to meet with him is a nice indicator as to how far they have been bought off by the China business connections. So in that way, the noise routine from Beijing is quite useful. Not to care about it would be even more useful.

    The opportunity costs of a high-level meeting with Tibet’s supreme monk were analyzed at the Georg-August University in Goettingen, apparently some time last year (brought to my attention by a commenter from Japan).

    Btw, I was much more moved by Deng Xiaoping‘s emotional sigh in Shenzhen, than by Jiang Zemin‘s mountain hike. I mean, Jiang would go to the North Pole if there was an opera house named after him, wouldn’t he? OK, maybe no more.

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  6. Master Chef. You are probably tight JR. Basically, I cant stand television except for Japans big win just now. Here is a more fodder for us cynics:

    http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/17/c_13990879.htm

    Having to deal with drivel like this is a good enough reason for me to permanently stop commenting on the PRC.

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  7. “China is leading the way of a lower carbon culture as a new study by the Stockholm Environment Institute will show that China’s emissions reductions could nearly double those of the USA”… (your Xinhua link, KT.
    Kind of a blank cheque for China’s climate policies… Anyway, the guy’s name is Bertie, not Berti, and one of his old colleagues, Gerhard Schröder, also found it convenient to express his desire to listen to some red songs in Chongqing, last month (if only he had the time ;)). The preparedness to utter flatteries is usually reciprocal to a client’s economic growth rates – and his desire to be flattered (which is basically unlimited in China’s case).

    What shall I do with an article which doesn’t even list these eco-ambitious provinces (fourteen of them)? All beautifying talk for the better atmosphere, but not that atmosphere or troposphere above us.

    Having to deal with drivel like this is a good enough reason for me to permanently stop commenting on the PRC.
    Hehe – you’ll never stop, KT!

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