A top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official has called for a renewed struggle against the Dalai Lama’s influence, as well as strengthened controls over Tibetan Buddhism, state media reported yesterday.
The comments by Jia Qinglin (賈慶林) come weeks ahead of the third anniversary of the most widespread uprising against Chinese rule by Tibetans in decades.
China blamed followers of the exiled Dalai Lama for fomenting the disturbances on March 14, 2008, including a riot in Lhasa that left 22 people dead.
The Dalai Lama, who heads the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, has denied the charge.
“We must deepen the fight against the Dalai Lama clique, more circumspectly carry out each task in maintaining stability and do a solid job in regards to Tibetan Buddhism,” Jia was quoted by Xinhua news agency as telling CCP officials at a meeting on Thursday.
Officials must “create a positive environment for development” in Tibet and Tibetan regions of four neighboring provinces, said Jia, the party’s fourth-highest ranking official.
Jia’s remarks reflect China’s two-pronged approach toward Tibet that combines pumping in funds to boost incomes, while tightening controls over religious and political dissent.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1958, remains deeply revered among many Tibetans, despite Beijing’s campaign to vilify him and undermine his influence.
Successive rounds of talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Buddhist leader have made no apparent progress.
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, despite his claims to be working only for a high degree of autonomy under Chinese rule.
China says Tibet has been part of its territory for at least four centuries, while many Tibetans say they were effectively independent for most of that time.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique