The Ides of March

Welcome to March! The most beautiful and terrible of all months for a whole host of reasons which can sometimes (as our tyrannical friend Caesar found) be political. To be more direct on Tuesday twenty people were killed in a riot in north-western city of Kashgar in Xinjiang province in China.

Courtesy of the BBC

Wait what? Well for those of you who don't know Tibet is not the only region which China has colonized. The Xinjiang autonomous region of China was reconquered in 1949 and half of its population are Uighurs. China has always been a large ethnically diverse country (there are over nine different versions of spoken Chinese after all) and its various governments have used various policies to deal with this issue. The current policy under the PRC has been to create a large overwhelming ethnic majority of Han Chinese (which has recently absorbed groups like the Cantonese) and spread that group throughout China (and while I support the building of China's high speed rail network on environmental grounds, this policy is one of the reasons its being built in the first place) in order to create a false (or perhaps real) sense of cultural, ethnic, and national hegemony allowing for easier governance. 

However, in many cases the exact opposite is happening. Groups like the Uighurs, Tibetans, and Cantonese are beginning to question these policies claiming that they are active forms of discrimination that decrease likelihood of employment as well as a form of destructive cultural erosion. However, The CCP doesn't really take all that well to criticism so the complaints, through normal channels, go unheeded. Resulting in: 

2008 Lhasa unrest

2009 Xinjiang unrest 

Which forces the CCP to do the only thing it knows how to do:

Since the 2008/2009 urrest in both Tibet and Xinjiang China has increasingly tightened security. And with China's parliament meeting frighteningly close to the anniversary of the Lhasa riots this coming week, certain members of the government are calling for even tighter control. With officials like the party's secretary to Tibet, Chen Quanguo, calling for tight monitoring of  "Mobile phones, the internet and other measures for the management of new media need to be fully implemented to maintain the public's interests and national security."

Which raises a rather interesting issue that I'll let Princess Leia voice:

Preach Friend, Preach!

It'll be interesting (and probably horrifying considering the PRC track record on these things) to see what unfolds in the next few weeks. Are the fears of the CCP unfounded? Or are things going to exploded and if so what will that explosion mean. 

I guess will just have to wait and see (but I'm beginning to think there more to that geomancer's story then ever before)

Till next time 

Jacob 

Articles: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17195886 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17211909

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17216650

Catching Fire: Political Unrest and Oppression in Tibet

I think those two photos sum it up best. Tibet is burning and tensions are beginning to mount. According to the BBC currently 21 monks have set themselves on fire in the past few months in protest of myriad of issues concerning Tibetian Chinese relations, but, in this situation at least, there are two of cardinal importance. As I mentioned last time the recent restrictions in the area around Tibet 'proper' has sparked this second wave of protest, but what are the restrictions? Well that's the second point many of the monks, nuns, and Tibetans in general feel that China is deeply restricting their freedom of expression, religion, speech, and movement.  China's response to these claims? 

Notice the fire extiquisher 

There are dozens of photos and this post could could become a photo journal from here on out, but that would miss the point. China is cracking down hard against the Tibetians labeling them separatists and terrorists and they will continue to do so until their goal of security is reached. Regardless of who you think is right in this situation people are being beaten, restricted, watched, and (perhaps most importantly) dying by their own hand or otherwise. And China's actions aren't helping. But then again China has dealt with religious protests similar to this before and in a similar manner I might add. 

Each time China has successfully put down the protests and, for the most part, managed to eradicate the memory of what happened from the public's mind. So, in many ways, this crackdown makes a lot of sense it worked before so it will work again, at least that's what the Chinese government is banking on. And while a large part of me if fearful that this will be a replay of what's gone before part of me is hopeful for some change.After all if you'll remember Chinese geomancers did predict that several Party officials would wind up behind bars by years end.

Take away questions? Well this time I guess I'm very interested to see how this situation develops and I'll be watching it as closely as I can in the days and weeks to come.

In loving memory of the dead, may you find what you seek:

Jacob 

Further Reading:

A good profile of Lama Sobha (one of the first to light themselves on fire) warning the article contains graphic images of his body: http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/photos-lama-sobha

Articles mentioned

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17153328

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17134560

Video courtesy of the Guardian 

Here we go

Well it seems that my first post on China is going to be a depressing one. For those of you haven't heard things are getting heated in Tibet once again. Early last year Tibetian monks set themselves on fire in protest against China's increasing grip over religious and political freedom. Since then 20 more Tibetans have followed suit, five last week alone, and now its getting a bit more intense.

In response to the increase in protests the Chinese government has effectively locked off access to Tibet and western Sichuan through an extensive series of roadblocks and check points. Areas within the lock down have been getting more tense by the day, at one point the police opened fire on a crowd of protesters. Many locations within this region have been closed to non-Chinese and reporting teams in the region are followed closely and are arrested if they attempt to make contact with any Tibetans.

As you all know I am always interested in issues of political injustice, protest, and resistance so I immediately jumped at the chance to blog this story. But at the same time I must say that I am deeply disturbed and concerned for the people of Tibet in that modern China does not have a history of handling dissent all to well (after all most people my age in China do not know what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989). So it will be interesting, albeit most likely frightening, to watch this develop from a far. 

In terms of what I'd like to learn next I guess I need to brush up on my history of Tibet and China and their relationship as well as the current policies China has in relationship to the autonomous region.

Till next time
Jacob

Article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-16908985