PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER MARKET SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS #7 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET The 1990s saw great changes, as China emerged as the world’s factory. Industrialisation accelerated, powerful enterprises grew, vested interests resisted central efforts at reform, the idea of property rights began to take hold, and central leaders tried to […]
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Copper-coloured Mountain
MINERALS IN THE NEW CHINA MODEL: RULE OF LAW? #6 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET Tibetans, in Tibet and in exile, frequently express dismay about mining. When one sees the damage done by immigrant, nonTibetan gold rush miners all over Tibet, it is not hard to see why mining causes such […]
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DECODING XI JINPING’S INSIDER LANGUAGE
CHINESE ROCKET SCIENCE AND THE “WICKED” PROBLEMS OF TIBET #5 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET The engineers of the old Politburo that retired in 2012 had a secret religion, called metasynthetic engineering. It worships computerised modelling of reality, believing that there is a rational, scientific solution to all social problems. The key […]
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Glue ear, and the one-eyed camera gaze
PERVERSE OUTCOMES FOR CHINA AND FOR TIBET #4 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET Why are Tibetans so unhappy? Why have 70 Tibetans burned their bodies in protest? Is it possible to understand this solely as a question of religious repression and individual rights? China’s policies are failing to meet China’s own goals […]
ALLOCATING TIBET A ROLE IN THE GLOBAL DIVISION OF LABOUR #3 in a blog series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET If China succeeds in enmeshing Tibet with the lowland economy of China, Tibet will not only be re-oriented to look east for all economic connection, it will also be globalised. China is deeply enmeshed in […]
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China’s big plan for Tibet
CHINA’S SCALED UP INTERVENTIONS IN TIBETAN LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS #2 in a series on CHINA AND THE FUTURE OF TIBET China has big plans for the Tibetan Plateau. China has long had big plans for Tibet, but often they failed to materialise, or eventuated in unexpected and perverse ways that did not meet Chinese expectations, […]
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China’s new central leaders: a new start?
INTRODUCING A NEW SERIES OF REPORTS ON TODAY’S CHINA & IMPACTS ON TIBET CHINA’S NEW LEADERS: CAN THERE BE A RESTART ON TIBET? China has new leaders. A new generation has replaced the engineers who believed all problems have an engineering solution, including human engineering on a large scale, shifting entire populations away from ancestral […]
GEOLOGISING THE ROOF OF THE WORLD In 2013 the 25,000 worldwide members of the Geological Society of America will celebrate the organisation’s 125th birthday. GSA is a global fraternity of the profession of geology, and is flourishing. Fed by competitive resource nationalisms, fears expressed by governments that they should not have to depend on other […]
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AN ELECTRIFYING END TO IMMOLATIONS?
HOUSING TIBET IN COMFORT: CHINA’S ULTIMATE SOLUTION TO ALL TIBETAN PROBLEMS Paper for TIBET POLICY INSTITUTE SEMINAR ON TIBET THIRD POLE 11 APRIL 2012 In the middle of a lengthy 2012 polemic against self-immolations in Tibet, a senior Communist Party leader said: “To improve the living standards of monks and nuns in the Tibet autonomous […]
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Fire in the Mountain
THE SHORT LIFE OF JAMPHEL YESHI A shower of white silk scarves thrown from even the farthest edges of the great crowd, rethrown and rethrown, fluttered inwards to the bier atop which lay the charred body of Jamphel Yeshi, an unknown Tibetan of no country, and no home, his life taken by his own hand. […]