{"id":12104,"date":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/wall-of-steel-in-tibet-with-major-military-drill-in-buildup-to-march-10-anniversary\/"},"modified":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T23:00:00","slug":"wall-of-steel-in-tibet-with-major-military-drill-in-buildup-to-march-10-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/wall-of-steel-in-tibet-with-major-military-drill-in-buildup-to-march-10-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Wall of steel\u2019 in Tibet with major military drill in buildup to March 10 anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_7492\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7492\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-7492 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/chinese-troops-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"chinese-troops-300x213\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7492\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Chinese state media images of PLA soldiers training at high altitude in Ngari.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>On the same day as a major prayer festival in Tibet on March 2 (2018), the Chinese authorities held a major military drill in Lhasa termed as a \u2018wall of steel\u2019 in the buildup to the sensitive political anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day, March 10, in 1959. This week is also the tenth anniversary of a wave of overwhelmingly peaceful protests that swept across Tibet from March 10, 2008.<\/p>\n<p>The joint military drill on March 2 (2018) consisted of a mass show of force of \u2018combat-ready\u2019 troops from the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People\u2019s Armed Police (PAP), underlining the heavy militarization of Tibet and the political importance at the highest-levels in China of Tibet\u2019s \u2018stability\u2019. In its extreme nature, this massive show of force \u2013 which has become an almost annual ritual at this time of year \u2013 is also an indicator of CCP anxieties over its authority in Tibet.<\/p>\n<p>The military drills coincided with the mass presence of troops at prayer festivals in monasteries in eastern Tibet, giving the impression of a war zone. Despite the heavy show of force, thousands of Tibetan pilgrims still came to monasteries and religious sites to offer prayers.<span style=\"color: #b81a1a;\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Chinese state media reported that the drills were held in order to demonstrate the resolve of the authorities to ensure \u2018social stability\u2019, political language for the crushing of any dissent and ensuring allegiance to the CCP authorities in order for the authorities to pursue their strategic and economic objectives on the plateau without impediment. Intensive militarisation is backed by systematic grass roots propaganda work by thousands of Party cadres working in towns and remote rural areas across the plateau, and comprehensive surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese Party officials connect political \u2018stability\u2019 in Tibet with the security of the entire PRC, and Xi Jinping has emphasized that: \u201cTo rule the country, it is imperative to rule the frontiers; to rule the frontiers, stabilizing Tibet must be done first\u201d.<span style=\"color: #b81a1a;\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Last month, China released images of fighter jets flying over the Tibetan plateau conducting aerial combat training exercises and announced its upgrading of Tibet\u2019s military capabilities \u201cin order to confront any threat from India\u201d, according to a Chinese military specialist. \u201cThe Western Theater Command of the PLA is mainly responsible for mountain warfare at the border area with India,\u201d an article in The Global Times stated. The state media publication cited Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, as saying that it is \u201csignificant for China to strengthen control of airspace over the mountainous region.\u201d<span style=\"color: #b81a1a;\"><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The state media has emphasized both border security in Tibet and the importance of \u2018social stability\u2019 since the beginning of the year; last month it posted images of PLA soldiers carrying out intensive training at -15 temperatures in the border area of Ngari (Chinese: Ali) in the Tibet Autonomous Region.<span style=\"color: #b81a1a;\"><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s rubber stamp Parliament, the National People\u2019s Congress, is meeting in Beijing from today (March 5), and has announced a military budget of 1.11 trillion yuan ($175bn) for the coming year, an 8% increase on last year.<span style=\"color: #b81a1a;\"><sup>[5]<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"footnote wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Footnotes:<\/strong><br><strong>[1]<\/strong> Images at International Campaign for Tibet report, \u2018Images of repression and resilience from Tibet on Day of Miracles\u2019, March 3, 2018, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/images-of-repression-and-resilience-from-tibet-on-day-of-miracles\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/images-of-repression-and-resilience-from-tibet-on-day-of-miracles\/<\/a><br><strong>[2]<\/strong> This is known as a \u2018strategic thought\u2019 of Xi Jinping.<br><strong>[3]<\/strong> Global Times, February 20, 2018, \u2018China upgrades airspace defense in west to counter threat from India\u2019, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/eng.chinamil.com.cn\/view\/2018-02\/20\/content_7947571.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/eng.chinamil.com.cn\/view\/2018-02\/20\/content_7947571.htm<\/a>. Last year, during serious border tensions over the Doklam area between China and India, China released footage of a major military live-fire assault exercise in the Tibet Autonomous Region. During the exercise in July (2017), soldiers used flame-throwers, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns to strike bunkers and various types of heavy weapons, including mortars, self-propelled howitzers, multiple rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles in the display of fire-power, which also trialled a new type of tank. See: International Campaign for Tibet report, \u2018Major live fire drill testing new tanks in Tibet highlights political imperatives, military capacity on plateau\u2019, July 21, 2017, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/ict-inside-tibet-major-live-fire-drill-testing-new-tanks-in-tibet-highlights-political-imperatives-military-capacity-on-plateau\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/ict-inside-tibet-major-live-fire-drill-testing-new-tanks-in-tibet-highlights-political-imperatives-military-capacity-on-plateau\/<\/a><br><strong>[4] <\/strong>Xinhua, February 26, 2018, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/en.tibetol.cn\/html\/Photos\/ES\/2018\/0226\/891.html#4\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/en.tibetol.cn\/html\/Photos\/ES\/2018\/0226\/891.html#4<\/a><br><strong>[5]<\/strong> Xinhua, \u2018China to increase 2018 defense budget by 8.1 percent\u2019, March 5, 2018, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/english.chinamil.com.cn\/view\/2018-03\/05\/content_7959827.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/english.chinamil.com.cn\/view\/2018-03\/05\/content_7959827.htm<\/a><br><br><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the same day as a major prayer festival in Tibet on March 2 (2018), the Chinese authorities held a major military drill in Lhasa termed as a \u2018wall of steel\u2019 in the buildup to the sensitive political anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day, March 10, in 1959. This week is also the tenth anniversary of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categorie":[45,691],"news_tag":[674],"class_list":["post-12104","nieuws","type-nieuws","status-publish","hentry","categorie-inside-tibet","categorie-news","news_tag-chinese-policy-and-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Wall of steel\u2019 in Tibet with major military drill in buildup to March 10 anniversary - Campaign for Tibet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/wall-of-steel-in-tibet-with-major-military-drill-in-buildup-to-march-10-anniversary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Wall of steel\u2019 in Tibet with major military drill in buildup to March 10 anniversary - Campaign for Tibet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the same day as a major prayer festival in Tibet on March 2 (2018), the Chinese authorities held a major military drill in Lhasa termed as a \u2018wall of steel\u2019 in the buildup to the sensitive political anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day, March 10, in 1959. 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