Faced with riots and
bloodshed in Tibet, the Chinese government responded by casting the blame on
the Dalai Lama and the campaign by Tibetan exiles to raise the Tibet issue
internationally, in advance of the Olympic Games. Undoubtedly the Dalai Lama,
with his followers and friends, have an interest in using these events to exert
political pressure on Beijing in the media spotlight, but that alone cannot
explain what is happening in Tibet today.
| Tibet Autonomous Region
|
Chinese reporters at
the Xinhua news agency reported the scene in Lhasa:
"Dense smoke blanketed the cloud dotted blue
sky, burning wreckages emitted an irritating smell and hundreds wailed over the
bloodshed."Vandals carrying backpacks filled with stones
and bottles of inflammable liquids smashed windows, set fire to vehicles, shops
and restaurants along their path."
Friday March 14th
in Lhasa is described as
"a day when the
capital was left in chaos after an outburst of beating, smashing, looting and
burning, which officials say, on ample evidence, was ‘masterminded by the Dalai
clique’."
Although the attacks
on people and property had no political content, they were sparked off by monks’
protests on March 10th. According to the Peoples’ Daily 300
monks from Zhaibung Monastery confronted security forces and provoked physical
clashes. Onlookers then took up the torch and mobs
"set off on a destruction rampage and spared nothing and nobody on
their way. Rioters set fire to buildings, torched dozens of police cars and
private vehicles and looted banks, schools and shops. Innocent civilians were
stabbed, stoned and scourged. At least 10 died, mostly from burns."
All reports of the
violence speak of youths in their 20s being involved in the rampage. A Muslim
steamed bun shop owner, who was stabbed, reported that several vandals broke
into his shop in the tourist zone. "They
came to beat us directly and we didn’t dare put up any resistance, only
begging," he said, "I know some of
them. They were nice people before."
The explanation
offered by the national and local Communist Party is hollow, although the spark
for the riots and bloodshed was the monks’ and the Dalai Lama’s campaign; the cause of the riots was
something totally different. Tibet
has seen an influx of Chinese businesses; the wealth accumulated all over China by the
newly rich has opened opportunities for investments large and small. Those who
fail to benefit are the Tibetan unemployed and migrant workers from the
villages.
In the state sector in
Tibet,
where employment opportunities are booming, Tibetan nationals are unlikely to
get the jobs. They are easily out-skilled by the vast pool of potential
recruits from every corner of China,
thus fostering nationalist resentment.
The
‘average wage’ in China
represents the earnings of a specific group of employed people in China, known as
‘staff and workers’, including layers of public employees from upper-ranking
cadres down to workers in public utilities or state-owned factories. It
therefore excludes migrant workers or workers in small factories or workplaces.
The
‘average wage’ in China’s cities as a whole is 14,000 Yuan a year, (US$1800)
but wages in Tibet are nearly double the average, higher than in Shanghai and
second only to Beijing. State sector employment accounts for nearly
94 percent of employment in Tibet
as opposed to 66 percent in China’s
cities on average.
The
problem is that such relatively well-paid state employment is
disproportionately allocated to people of ethnic Chinese backgrounds. Higher
wages are justified on the basis that living in Tibet takes you far from family and
friends and often causes serious health problems due to the effects of high
altitude. Tibetans, whose skills are generally lower than the ethnic Chinese
migrants, look on them as a deliberately privileged layer.
Alongside
the influx of state employees, engaged in administration and infrastructure
projects, has come an influx of ethnic Chinese traders and to a lesser extent
Hui Muslims, whose businesses thrive on the high spending power of state
employees and tourists. Their nationwide networks mean Tibetans can’t compete
with them. The boom in Tibet
has encouraged all manner of migrant entrepreneurs to open shop, including
beggars’ rackets and sex workers. Tibetans often think they too are subsidized
by Beijing.
Thus it is easy to see wherein the roots of ethnic discontent lie.
All over China the wage
levels of workers have not risen in line with the economic boom. Under pressure
from the army of migrant workers and the rapaciousness of private sector
employers, wages for many have been frozen. According to the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) 26% of China’s workers
have not received a pay rise for five years despite the economy growing at an
average of 10.6%. Profits have been boosted not only by new machinery and work
methods but also by holding down wages. The ratio of overall labour costs to
GDP has fallen from 53.4 percent in 1990 to only 41.4 percent in 2005.
Officials
in Lhasa and Beijing, claim that the ‘Dalai clique’, "organized, premeditated and masterminded" the
bloody riots and discontent of young Tibetans. This claim is pure foolishness!
It is the growing income and opportunity disparities that foster explosions of
discontent, here in an ethnic riot or a labour conflict, there in a peasant
revolt. It is almost comical, that with absurd income disparities fuelling the
anger of tens of millions, the slogan of "build
a harmonious society" should have become the Party mantra.
A genuine
Communist, i.e. Marxist, policy would sensitively and harmoniously develop the
nation and its minority regions on the basis of a democratically planned
economy. Instead of this the leadership of the Communist Party of China pursues
a bureaucratic plan to open up Tibet
to the market.
The riots
are not simply a plot by the ‘Dalai Clique’. Although it is clear that the
major Western imperialist powers have an interest in weakening China and will
exploit the discontent of the minorities in this vast country. The real, and
most direct cause of this conflict is to be found in the policies of
pro-capitalist forces in control of the party. This will bear bitter fruit all
over the nation. While looking at the burnt out scene in central Lhasa, a Tibetan trader
by the name of Rawan told the People’s Daily, "It was once a shopping haven,
but now it is all deserted, like a hell."
On the road to capitalism disparities of
income and investment inevitably stir up regionalism, ethnic and national
conflicts, resulting in violence and turmoil. Should Tibet
ever successfully break away from China, then, as in the past, it
would fall prey to one or other of the imperialist powers, "Tibetan
Independence" under capitalism is a pipedream.
A united struggle by the Chinese workers
together with the Tibetans and other minority groups against the capitalist
transformation of China
can lay the basis for a voluntary union of the peoples based on a genuinely
democratic plan of production under the control and supervision of the workers
and peasants themselves.
