China’s Tibet

China’s Tibet is a bimonthly magazine, yellow-bordered like the National Geographic and aimed at the overseas English-reading market. It covers tourism, culture and economy-related issues. The latest issue (No.3, 1994) carries a special feature on governmental policy, human rights and “the policy on Dalai Lama”. Below are two excerpts.

On Han influx: Raidi, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet People’s Congress, referred to settlement of Han Chinese in an interview while attending the Second Session of the Eighth National People’s Congress in Beijing:

There are indeed rumours that the Central Government has moved 7.5 million members of the Han nationality into Tibet. However, before expanding my views, I must make it clear that Tibet is part of China and thus it is perfectly proper for the Han to move into Tibet. People in all sovereign countries often move from one region to another. Therefore, what then is wrong of the Han to do the same? Moreover, the majority of Han in Tibet are skilled workers, technicians and scientists. They have come to Tibet to work for specified periods of time, during which they must endure the hardships resulting from the high altitude. They are in Tibet to help us build our economy, with many having contributed their youth, the most precious period of their lives. Some have even died heroic deaths. In order to further develop our economy, culture, science and education, and public health, we need more people like these to move to Tibet. They are by no means what the Western press call “immigrants”.

Over the past few years, Tibet has witnessed a huge influx of traders and builders from China’s hinterland. They in fact come and go in torrents, and are by no means what the Western media also calls “immigrants”. It is therefore groundless for the Western media to make such accusations.

The composition of Tibetans in the Tibetan population also dispels the lies of the Western media and disproves the accusations of the Dalai Lama… The Central Government has never formulated a plan to move members of the Han nationality into Tibet, which in fact is a much less than ideal place for Han to settle.

Human rights: Basang Norbu, Deputy Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the Tibet People’s Congress, on human rights in Tibet:

In building democratic politics, China has absorbed all the civilized achievements of mankind, including the positive factors underlying bourgeois human rights ideas. In China, the people, and only the people, are the masters of the state and society. The system of people’s congresses has proved to be an effective form and functioned as the country’s supreme power organ in which people wield their power as masters of the state.

Through deputies elected in a democratic way, citizens exert their sway, organise the government and administer state affairs. They are empowered to supervise and remove government members at all levels. This constitutes primary and fundamental rights, and an embodiment of the fundamental spirit of human rights.

The 1993 elections at four levels in Tibet were conducted in accordance with the Constitution… Statistics for the 1993 elections indicate that there were 1,311,085 voters in Tibet, or 57.36 percent of the regional population and 98.6 percent of citizens above 18 years old. Those stripped of or temporarily denied their democratic rights accounted for only 0.34 percent of potential voters. Specifically, those who had their political rights taken away came to only 0.01 percent…

According to an analysis of the election results, the composition of deputies is becoming more reasonable. Deputies of Tibetan and other ethnic groups amounted to 99.92 percent at town and township levels, 92.62 at county level, 82.35 at city level, and 82.44 percent at the level of the Tibetan Autonomous Region…

Some people at home and abroad have little knowledge about socialist democracy and human rights in Tibet. The truth about the situation there has been distorted. But those who failed to win a post had totally different feelings, saying, “Democracy is truly carried out in the people’s congress.”