China 'beating' Tibet separatism

Protestors remain active outside Tibet

By Adam Brookes in Beijing

Chinese state media say that the government is beating separatism in Tibet through the setting up of what it called small security communities and political campaigns in monasteries.

A report broadcast recently on Lhasa Tibet television detailed several facets of current Chinese policies in Tibet aimed at quashing separatist sentiment and loyalty to the exiled Dalai Lama among Tibetans.

The report said that the local authorities in a county called Gyangze had met with success in resisting separatism by setting up small security communities.

Media report says Tibetans are taking down pictures of Dalai Lama

These are grassroots organisations designed to mobilise Tibetan villages into resisting separatism.

The report listed the security community's successes: it said the people of Gyangze had stopped hanging pictures of the Dalai Lama and had stopped listening to foreign radio broadcasts. It said no cadres or residents had left the locality illegally or had sent their children to schools run by the Dalai Lama.

This would appear to be a claim that no one in the county had left recently to join the exiled Tibetan movement in India.

Political education

The report also said that Gyangze county had achieved success by managing monasteries as political organisations. It said the county had worked to supervise monks with laws and regulations and it had brought the communist party's policies and principles into the monasteries.

These are references to the compulsory sessions of political education that Tibetan monks must undergo.

In all, the report paints a picture of a local government preoccupied with resisting separatism, and even while claiming success, it illustrates the lengths to which the Chinese authorities in Tibet have to go to resist separatist sentiment.