A major policy meeting on Tibet presided over by China\u2019s top leader \nXi Jinping concluded this week in Beijing, as security is tightened in \nLhasa in advance of a political anniversary on September 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tibet Work Forum on August 24-25, setting out Tibet policy for \nthe coming years, is the sixth such strategy meeting on Tibet to be held\n since the Chinese took over Tibet in 1949-50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attended by the entire Politburo, the Party leadership, the emphasis \nof the Work Forum was on \u2018stability\u2019, a political term associated with a\n dramatic expansion of military and police powers. According to the \nChinese state media, the meeting also emphasized the struggle against \n\u2018separatism\u2019, above economic development, in contrast to the last Tibet \nWork Forum in January, 2010. The official Global Times reported: \n\u201cStressing that national unity, consolidating ethnic unity, and \nrealizing long-term and comprehensive social stability should be \nregarded as the primary task for the region, Xi said that the country \nshould \u201cfirmly take the initiative\u201d in the fight against separatism, and\n adhere to the principle of governing Tibet under the rule of law.\u201d \n(August 27, 2015, Global Times). The Chinese authorities state that the \nDalai Lama is a prime cause of Tibetan \u2018separatism\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been an intensification of security in the Tibet Autonomous\n Region, including an increased number of checkpoints, stepping up of \nsurveillance and controls, and large-scale movement of troops in July.[1]<\/sup><\/a>\n This is likely to be a part not only of the renewed emphasis on \npolitical \u2018stability\u2019 but also in the buildup to the 50th anniversary of\n the establishment by the Chinese authorities of the Tibet Autonomous \nRegion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matteo Mecacci, President of the International Campaign for Tibet \nsaid: \u201cThe sight of armed troops in trucks displaying political slogans \nmoving through Tibet serves only to underline the failed policies of the\n Chinese Party state after more than half a century. These hardline \nmeasures, and the insistence of the Chinese authorities to ensure \nTibetans \u2018celebrate\u2019 this upcoming anniversary, reveal the CCP\u2019s \nuncertainties over lack of its authority in Tibet. This is a leadership \nthat needs to assert itself over a people who emphasise peace and \nnon-violence, through tanks, \u2018counter-terrorist\u2019 measures and rhetoric \nresonant of the Cultural Revolution. The anniversary on September 1 is \nan empty celebration, as there is no genuine autonomy in the \u2018Tibet \nAutonomous Region\u2019, as promised by Beijing in the 1950s. There is a need\n for a fundamentally new approach on Tibet. International governments \nmust signal its alarm over the priorities revealed by the Sixth Work \nForum, which undermine chances of achieving a genuine stability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n