Xi Jinping: China will 'smash' Tibet separatism

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14205998

The man expected to be China's next president has promised to "smash" any attempts to destabilise Tibet.

Xi Jinping, who is due to succeed President Hu Jintao in 2013, said he would fight against "separatist activities" linked to the Dalai Lama.

He was speaking in Lhasa as part of a trip to mark 60 years since the communists took over Tibet.

Analysts say the speech suggests Mr Xi is unlikely to veer from the policies of his predecessors.



***Free Tibet***

[July16th-20th]

1. Hu is Xi?

and Wen is he taking over???

[xchrom]

2. Tibet, China and America Toward the light?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2011/07/tibet-china-and-america

ON THE topic of Tibet, Xi Jinping, the man widely expected to be the next leader of the Chinese Communist Party, sounds much like his predecessors. Speaking on July 19th in the capital, Lhasa, in front of the Potala Palace, former residence of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet’s spiritual leaders, he celebrated the way Chinese rule had led Tibet “from the dark toward the light”.

In material terms, he has an obvious point. Tibet is far better-off than in 1951, when a young Dalai Lama reached a “17-point agreement” ceding Chinese sovereignty over the territory. He also has a point that, before 1951, Tibet was not some idyllic Shangri-La of tinkling temple bells, lowing conch shells and smiling people, but a highly stratified society relying on mass monasticism and serfdom.

The difficulty Mr Xi and his predecessors face, however, is that large numbers of Tibetans resent Chinese rule. Many are still loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile with some 80,000 of his followers after the crushing of an anti-Chinese uprising in 1959. Since then the region has been scarred by periodic riots, including a bloody outburst of anti-Chinese violence in Lhasa in 2008.

This year has seen a confrontation at the Kirti monastery in a part of historic Tibet now incorporated in the Chinese province of Sichuan, after a young monk burnt himself to death in March. Hundreds of monks have been taken off for “patriotic education”. This year has also seen a heavy security crackdown to prevent any unrest to mark the 60th anniversary of the 17-point agreement, or the Party’s 90th birthday on July 1st.