MINING TIBETAN GOLD, MINING BEIJING’S PATRIOTIC SUBSIDIES Chinese announcements of mineral bonanzas under the Tibetan surface have been made for decades, but in only a few areas has this led to mining. Now, in remote Lhuntse county, well to the southeast of Lhasa, we are told of the latest treasure, although the South China […]
Blog three of four on POVERTY, IMMISERISATION and DESTITUTION in TIBET HOW TIBETANS EXPERIENCE POVERTY China has for many years insisted that Tibet, usually meaning only Tibet Autonomous Region, is in fact progressing in great leaps, everyone benefits from China’s massive investment in Tibet, and incomes are rising rapidly, even if they lag far […]
Blog four of four on POVERTY, IMMISERISATION and DESTITUTION in TIBET The more closely one looks at poverty and its remedies, the more problems arise. In 2018, as part of a major reorganisation of China’s party-state power, a new approach has been announced, in the hope of better coordination among the many ministries and agencies […]
TIBET AS A LAND OF INEVITABLE, INTRACTABLE, INCURABLE HUMAN MISERY Blog one of four on POVERTY, IMMISERISATION and DESTITUTION in TIBET Note: these blogs are adorned by classic Tibetan proverbs on poverty and wealth.[1] “The CPC Central Committee has drawn up a plan for poverty elimination. By 2020 all impoverished people in rural areas will […]
MAPPING DESTITUTION ONTO THE GEO-BODY OF TIBET Blog two of four on POVERTY, IMMISERISATION and DESTITUTION in TIBET China’s official designation of the whole of the Tibetan Plateau as inevitably and incurably poor is grounded in a line across the map of China drawn by a geographer in 1935, still hailed today as a […]
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR TIBETANS? Top seven relaunched ministries, and their new era of impacts on Tibet How does the 2018 reorganisation of China’s government affect Tibet? Although the reorganisation is the biggest in decades, with hardly any ministry unaffected, there has been no commentary on how this impacts on Tibet. Further, the commentaries […]
“Is it true that in your country you can touch the clouds?” The question was composed by a Han Chinese student practicing his English, in a conversation class in Xining, to be answered by the guest for this class, a Tibetan fluent in Chinese, English and of course Tibetan. The questioner’s English was halting, tentative, […]
NATIONAL PARKS & SKIING THE EMPEROR’S HUNTING GROUND When China was conquered by the Mongols, areas north of the Great Wall, close to Mongolia, were declared imperial hunting grounds, where the new emperors of China could exercise their Mongolian passions for open space, especially hunting. While, in order to rule, the ruling Mongols adopted many […]
ETHNIC MINORITY IDENTITY IN NEW ERA CHINA Blog one of two on China’s new ideology The 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress, in October 2017, not only anointed Xi Jinping as dear supreme leader, his Thought is now enshrined as the ideology governing China for the foreseeable future, and well beyond. What did this decisive […]
CHINA’S NEW GRAND NARRATIVE Blog #2 of 2 on China’s new ideology for a new era Unfashionably, we need to take ideology seriously. These days, we seldom consider ideology, beyond sketching a thumbnail of the belief system of the enemy, only to prove how crazy bad Trumpism, or Islamic fundamentalism are, so we […]