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Tibet

STRENGTHS OF TIBETAN CIVILISATION THAT CANNOT BE SILENCED

  #3 in a series of three blogs on self-immolation and the roots of the blindness of China’s central leaders   The Buddhists of Tibet are used to being misunderstood. Even people who think of themselves as Buddhist often misunderstand Buddhism. Lamas these days write provocative books challenging their students to go beyond using Buddhism […]

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China Tibet

COME OUT AND GO OUT: CHINA’S REVEALING KEY WORDS

China’s behemoth global investment strategy   #18 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET Chinese, for all its subtlety, can be a blunt language. Two key terms, to “go out” and to “come out” reveal a simple desire for more. The directness of these keywords tells us much about what China wants, and how […]

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China

The China Model and its stake in Tibet

 State Capitalism is supposed to fade away, but it keeps on growing #17 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET The state-owned enterprises (SOEs) which own the key mineral deposits of Tibet, such as Zijin and Western Mining, are not yet familiar names outside China, but soon they will be. That’s the plan. This […]

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Tibet

China in a world of Resource Nationalism

STATE CAPITALISM & PRIMITIVE CAPITALISM IN TIBET #16 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET Resource nationalism is a worldwide trend. Those endowed with plentiful resources of minerals and energy struggle to control and profit from managing their extraction for maximum national benefit. Increasingly the world’s nation-states resent handing over their resources to multinational […]

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China Tibet

TIBET OR ZAMBIA? PERU OR TIBET?

DILEMMAS OF CHINA’S STATE OWNED MINING GIANTS #14 in a series on the FUTURE OF TIBET In the worldwide scramble for resources, Chinese state owned corporations seek to guarantee supply on a planetary scale. From the perspec tive of the corporate boardroom, the real choice is between exploiting minerals in Tibet, or in Peru, or […]

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China

Chinese characteristics of the world’s factory

CHINA’S INSATIABLE APPETITE #14 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET For Many Tibetans, all that is needful is to know that “China does this or that.” Sometimes this is stated even more sweepingly as: “the Chinese are doing such-and-such.” This blames all Chinese for the actions of the party-state elite, which is not […]

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Tibet

Does China need Tibet, when it has the world?

TURTLES, TIBETANS, TONNAGES: MAKING TIBET PERFORM IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY #13 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET China is learning fast how to do deals globally, working its way up the value chain, able to not only buy mineral deposits and mines but do mergers and acquisitions with major competing players. The dealmakers […]

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China

China’s unfinished agenda in Tibet

CAN A COMMAND ECONOMY BUY THE WORLD? #12 in a series on the FUTURE OF TIBET   Would a truly market economy want to mine Tibet? If China has truly become a market economy there is little reason, on a strict cost/benefit rational calculus, to go to the enormous expense of integrating remote, mountainous Tibetan […]

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Tibet

Industrialising Tibet

CHINA’S FIRST WAVE OF INDUSTRIALISATION OF TIBET: THE THIRD FRONT #11 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET Mention the word “Tibet” and all too often people think only of central Tibet, the provinces of U-Tsang, which includes Lhasa and the historic heartland of the ancient kings. This is also what China means by […]

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Tibet

IS TIBET FOR SALE?

TRAFFICKING IN MINERAL RIGHTS TO TIBET  NEW SOURCES OF PROFIT #10 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET No longer does the Chinese state claim all rights and benefits. Now there are counterparties, in complex rolling transactions enabling mining rights to be bought, sold and onsold, as in those market societies where freehold property […]