The Chinese government applauded itself yesterday for overturning Tibet's feudal hierarchy 50 years ago and bringing in economic development with a celebration of a newly created anniversary that has added to tensions in Tibetan areas.
Senior Communist Party leaders, the Panchen Lama they installed and former Tibetan serfs gathered in the Great Hall of the People on the eve of “Serfs Liberation Day” — which marks Beijing's crushing of a 1959 Tibetan uprising and the Dalai Lama's flight into exile.
The change in government “achieved a historic leap in Tibet's social system,” said the Panchen Lama, a high-ranking Buddhist cleric who was enthroned by Beijing and is scorned by many Tibetans.
“Serfs Liberation Day” was created by the government in the wake of last year's violent anti-Chinese uprising across Tibetan communities to highlight the progress China's rule has brought Tibet. The month of March has become a flash-point in recent decades — a time when Tibetans mourn the Dalai Lama's exile to India and tensions rise.
The new anniversary — which has been publicized on TV and state-run media — has underscored the deep, emotional chasm between the way many Chinese and Tibetans view their recent shared history.
While Chinese rule has brought economic development and infrastructure to the remote area where people traditionally eked out a living by farming and herding, Tibetans say they have lost religious and cultural freedoms and become marginalized in their homeland.
To quell last year's protests, Beijing poured paramilitary forces into Tibetan regions, and security has been tightened again in recent weeks for the volatile anniversary period.
More celebrations for the new anniversary were planned for today in Lhasa. To start the festivities, the meeting in Beijing featured a half-dozen speakers who reflected on the improvements in Tibet in the last 50 years and the crucial role of the Communist government.
Special emphasis was given to the serfs and slaves who once served Tibet's Buddhist monasteries and nobility, but who then benefited from land reform and the purging of the traditional elite.
“I began doing adult's work when I was 10 years old, sometimes I was so tired I couldn't even get up,” 73-year-old former serf Yixi Luozhui said in Chinese.
These days, he said, food is abundant and modern conveniences like cars and cellphones are common in ordinary Tibetans' homes.
“The people say 'the Communist Party's policies are like the sun on a clear day in Lhasa.' It's so good. You are rich even if you don't want to be rich,” he said.
FRIDAY, SATURDAY: While Typhoon Champi might weaken, officials warned about large waves, while some transport services and tourist spots have been affected Typhoon Champi is forecast to have the greatest effect on Taiwan tomorrow and on Saturday, with a sea warning issued late last night and a land warning expected afternoon today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm’s projected track has shifted slightly westward and it could begin moving away from Taiwan toward Japan’s Kyushu island on Saturday, with the warnings potentially lifted as early as Saturday afternoon, CWA forecaster Chang Cheng-chuan (張承傳) said. As of yesterday afternoon, Champi was about 910km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, CWA data showed. Its maximum sustained winds had weakened slightly to
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday urged China not to exploit typhoons to assert jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait. The CGA issued the remarks after it found that China was shadowing eight Japan Coast Guard ships that sheltered in Taiwan proper’s western waters due to Typhoon Champi. Eight Japan Coast Guard (JCG) vessels sailed southward along the Taiwan Strait median line from 6am on Thursday, reaching waters southwest of Penghu County’s Cimei Island (七美島), outside Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the territorial sea baseline, it said. As the Japanese ships prepared for the typhoon, they were followed by
STAY CAUTIOUS: Rain is expected to begin easing this afternoon, but a CWA forecaster said that if the storm stalls or loops on its approach, heavy winds are likely Typhoon Champi, which caused widespread damage and injuries, and prompted road closures and evacuations across Taiwan yesterday, is expected to continue to bring heavy rain this morning, with up to 900mm of rain forecast for mountainous areas of New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. At one point a super typhoon and one of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi was packing gusts of about 191kph near its center as of 8:30pm, the CWA said. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Hsinchu city and county, Taichung; and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin
TOTAL COVERAGE: Champi’s outer band is expected to blanket the entire nation, with the center coming closest tonight or tomorrow before leaving tomorrow evening School and work across most of the nation has been canceled today, as Typhoon Champi is expected to skirt the northeast edge of Taiwan proper. As of 9pm, all municipalities except for Kinmen County had announced cancelations. Taitung County last night announced closures on Green Island (綠島) and Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼), but did not announce for the rest of the county until 6am today. Stock market settlements scheduled for today would be postponed to the next business day, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said. The announcements came after the Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday expanded its land warning for Champi to 19 regions
RSS