{"id":12003,"date":"2016-02-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/tightening-of-an-invisible-net-new-security-measures-in-eastern-tibet-heighten-surveillance-control\/"},"modified":"2016-02-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T23:00:00","slug":"tightening-of-an-invisible-net-new-security-measures-in-eastern-tibet-heighten-surveillance-control","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/tightening-of-an-invisible-net-new-security-measures-in-eastern-tibet-heighten-surveillance-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Tightening of an invisible net: new security measures in eastern Tibet heighten surveillance, control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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An image from the state media showing a Public Security Border Defense Corps Detachment officer in Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, talking to Tibetan Buddhist nuns about \u2018scientific knowledge and cultural education\u2019, according to the article.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nNew systematic and long-term security measures are being rolled out in the eastern Tibetan areas of Kham and Amdo as part of an intensified control agenda set at the highest levels in Beijing and in line with a \u2018counter-terror\u2019 campaign.\n\n\u201cIt has gone beyond a simple \u2018crackdown\u2019 now, and is much more sophisticated, and terrifying,\u201d a Tibetan source told ICT after speaking to a number of Tibetans from different parts of Tibet. \u201cSecurity is invisible and everywhere. It is no longer only armed police patrolling the streets; often we don\u2019t know who the police are as they blend into society, and officials are in our homes, asking about every part of our lives.\u201d\n\nThis report documents new and intrusive systems of security being imposed in Tibetan areas of the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu.[1]<\/sup><\/span> While rigorous and oppressive measures including an increase in Communist Party personnel at \u2018grass roots\u2019 levels have been in place since the 2008 protests in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), these measures to eliminate dissent and enforce compliance to Chinese Communist Party policies are now being increasingly observed in the eastern Tibetan areas of Kham and Amdo.\n\nThis dramatic expansion of the powers of military and police \u2013 backed by grass roots propaganda work and electronic surveillance \u2013 comes under the general rubric of \u2018stability work\u2019 as emphasized by China\u2019s President and Party Secretary Xi Jinping. A meeting of the Chinese Politburo on July 30 last year presided over by Xi asserted the continued \u201canti-separatist\u201d hardline approach by the authorities in Tibet, with Xinhua stating that \u201csafeguarding national unity and enhancing ethnic unity\u201d should be emphasized in order to achieve \u201clong-term stability\u201d.[2]<\/sup><\/span>\n\nWith a more overt military presence across the plateau and consistently hostile official stance against the Dalai Lama \u2013 now openly compared by Chinese officials to dictators and terrorists[3]<\/sup><\/span> \u2013 local authorities have greater scope in enforcing oppressive measures. In this political climate, almost any expression of Tibetan identity or culture not directly sanctioned by the state, no matter how moderate, can be characterized by the authorities as \u201ccreating instability\u201d or \u201csplittist\u201d and therefore \u201ccriminal.\u201d Definitions of what constitutes \u201ccriminal\u201d activity are deliberately opaque, giving leeway for lower-level officials and security personnel to apply severe penalties.[4]<\/sup><\/span>\n\nIn two recent and dramatic examples of this trend, Tibetan shopkeepers in Draggo, Kardze, were ordered by a county-level \u2018Comprehensive Culture Enforcement Squad\u2019 to hand in all pictures of the Dalai Lama.[5]<\/sup> <\/span>And in Dzoege, Ngaba, Sichuan, in December, black balaclava-clad special forces raided internet cafes and Tibetan tea shops.\n\nThe new measures are linked to a more systematic approach by the Chinese authorities aimed at controlling and managing the process of the Dalai Lama\u2019s next reincarnation, in order to ensure the dominance of the Party state. An important function of the CCP\u2019s powerful \u2018United Front Work Department\u2019 is seeking to ensure the co-option of Tibetan lamas in serving the Party\u2019s political objectives. Official media reports have confirmed that the CCP authorities view the matter of the Dalai Lama\u2019s reincarnation as \u201can important issue concerning sovereignty and national security.\u201d (Xinhua, July 19, 2015).[6]<\/sup><\/span>\n\nMatteo Mecacci, President of the International Campaign for Tibet, said: \u201cThe Chinese authorities have moved from instilling an oppressive environment in monasteries, nunneries and lay society in Tibet to a totalitarian one \u2013 an approach in which the state recognizes no limits to its authority, imposes a climate of fear, and seeks to regulate every aspect of public and private life. The Orwellian measures documented in this report of enhancing coercive capability and grass roots control are alarming in their implications not only for Tibet\u2019s future but also in terms of understanding the CCP\u2019s priorities. International governments must expose and counter China\u2019s narrative about its governance of Tibet \u2013 these measures demonstrate a breath-taking absence of any genuine rule of law or bid for genuine stability.\u201d\n\nReferencing official documents obtained from Tibet, state media reports, provincial and prefectural websites, and interviews with Tibetans, this report documents the following:\n