Annual Report, 2000: Enforcing Loyalty
Chapter 3: Cultivating Chinese Superiority
The term "barbarian", associated so closely with animality
and ignorance, was first used over 2000 years ago in the
interpretation of classical Confucian texts, but still
finds expression today in official Chinese references to
Tibetans as a "backward" and "barbaric" race. This is
not to suggest China has not advanced intellectually
in the last two millennia, but rather that it has
adapted and incorporated ancient racial prejudices
and hierarchies to serve its contemporary goal of
"motherland uniformity". Reducing "minority nationalities"
to manageable, subordinate stereotypes - which can then be
subdued through derogatory propaganda, economic pressures
and sheer force of numbers - has long been a tactic of the
Party in defusing resistance. Furthermore, the cultivation
of Chinese superiority by Party leaders remains largely
unchecked by the western media, which focus their criticism
on the occasional torture and imprisonment of individual
political activists, rather than the broader demographic
changes affecting the grassroots survival of the Tibetan
population as a whole.
Official Chinese propaganda fosters the idea that
only westerners are guilty of racism and that China
places itself in firm opposition to such "imperialistâ
tactics. Yet China has, from the very beginning, refused
to treat Tibet on a basis of equality. It justified
its 1949 invasion of the peaceful country on the basis
of allowing the "civilized" Chinese to "liberate" the
"backward" Tibetans, instantly invoking a structure
of racial hierarchy that would intensify over the next
50 years. Indeed, the rhetoric of Chinese superiority
has constituted a fundamental component of the Chinese
world-view for centuries, and it is from within this
ethnocentric framework that perceptions of other races
have always been constructed. However, it would be
wrong to deduce from this that the Chinese people are,
by way of the ideology that has shaped their country,
innately racist. The extent to which Communist Party
tenets infiltrate and control Chinese society cannot be
underestimated, and the horrific suppression of protest
in Tiananmen Square in 1989 illustrates the intimidatory
lengths the ruling elite are willing to go to ensure
civilian subordination. The more important question lies
therefore in determining just how much of the prejudice
that Tibetans have reported reflects a passive submission
to the cult of nationalist egotism, and how much actually
arises from a genuine feeling of superiority.
Chinese citizens still find their lives dictated by the
views of the ruling Party elite as the recent crackdown
on the Falun gong sect demonstrated. Many in turn
appear to have formulated their own sense of superiority to
Tibetans through the perception of the latter's marginal
and impoverished status in society. Chinese immigrants
pouring into Tibet from the eastern regions of China
know only the image of "backward" Tibet propagated by
the Party since 1949, and therefore tend to connect the
current diminished status of Tibetans with this distorted
history, rather than with the discriminatory policies
enforced under Chinese rule. In one sense they cannot be
blamed for this misconception, but where they are at fault
is in simply accepting this inequality as the status
quo, and freely reaping the rightful economic benefits
of the Tibetans. In many areas of Tibet these immigrant
populations have made it demographically impossible for
Tibetans to participate on an equal basis in society, yet
the flow shows no sign of easing. Systematic discrimination
in the spheres of employment, health, housing, education
and political representation continues to restrict Tibetan
involvement in the development of their own country, and
has denigrated Tibetan status in society to the point of
their being seen as second-class citizens by virtue of
their race alone.
China ratified the International Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
in 1981. Article 5 of the CERD declares that the State
Parties undertake to prohibit and eliminate racial
discrimination and to guarantee the right of everyone to
the enjoyment of political, civil, economic, social and
cultural rights. These rights are also guaranteed in the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR), signed by China in 1997 and
1998 respectively.
Chinese Constitution reflects similar concerns wherein it
prohibits "discrimination against and oppression of any
nationality."
1
Despite the existence of such legal guarantees,
discrimination against Tibetans is widespread.
Testimonies received in 2000 from Tibetan refugees,
however, show that China continues to violate its
obligations under international law. Tibetans are
continued to face unequal and unfair treatment in the
fields of public representation, education, employment,
housing, and health services. Moreover, the deliberate
policy of population transfer of ethnic Chinese into
Tibet is exacerbating discrimination against Tibetans and
constitutes a threat to the survival of Tibetan culture
and identity.
With the massive population transfer of Chinese into
Tibet, the employment sphere has become intensely
competitive, with priority continually accorded to Chinese
workers. Although it has recently been claimed that
in Tibet "[s]peakers of different languages are treated
equally in the recruitment of workers, cadres and students,
with priority always given to Tibetan speakers"
2
,
fluency in the Chinese language has become a determining
factor in candidate selection, marginalising Tibetans
who must learn it as a second tongue.
Dawa Dorje,
an 18-year-old man from Shigatse Prefecture, experienced such
discrimination before escaping in January 2000 "I went to
school for nine years and studied hard, but because I was
unable to speak fluent Chinese at the end of it, nobody was
interested in employing me. I had no chance for further
training, so in the end I had to give up looking for a job.
It made me feel as if all my studies had been a waste of
time."
Refugee testimonies also reveal a deep-set racial prejudice
among Chinese employers, which automatically categorises
Tibetans as backward and inefficient.
19-year-old
Jamyang
3
reported that in his village there were many young Tibetan
University graduates who were unable to get jobs. "If a
Tibetan goes to an office to ask for a job, they will treat
him or her as having no intelligence. The Chinese always
discourage Tibetan from even applying, telling us that we
are backward and unable to do the work. Parents pay a lot
for the education of their children, and it all comes to
nothing when we are continually refused employment."
Dhondup
4
shares similar disillusionment. "Going to school in Tibet
is a waste of both time and money, because Tibetan students
cannot get jobs when they finish their education. All the
good jobs are given to the Chinese irrespective of their
qualifications, so many Tibetans choose to drop out of
school at the earliest chance."
It has become a common pattern in the employment sector
for Tibetans to generally occupy the lower positions and
Chinese the higher posts, even where numbers of the former
heavily outweigh the latter. As a 26-year-old monk from
Phenpo Lhundrup County in Lhasa reported, "In Tibet, all
the high posts are given to the Chinese and the low ones
to Tibetans. They have this preconceived notion that being
a Tibetan makes you incapable of performing complex tasks,
irrespective of your qualifications. Those who do secure
a position are nearly always sent to remote areas of the
region anyway."
As a result, many Tibetans have reported only obtaining
employment through bribery and guanxi (connections
with officials).
Dhondup
5
reported that bribes were becoming a necessity in obtaining
satisfactory employment. "After school, only a handful of
student with wealthy families find jobs. This is because
their parents can afford to bribe employers with presents
and donations". A few people are sometimes lucky and get
a job without paying bribes, but these are usually factory
jobs, cleaning or manual labour. Tibetans are very rarely
considered for higher positions."
Many Tibetans also find employment only on the condition
that they restrict certain practices in their private
lives, particularly those connected with religious
observance. Workplace often warn against visiting
monasteries or temples, observing religious festivals and
even forbid their workers from wearing any clothing that
might be deemed "Tibetan".
A girl
6
reported such restrictions. "My parents couldn't afford to
continue my education after primary school, so when I was 15,
I went to work as a chambermaid at the Lhasa Hotel,
a government-run service. The majority of the staff were
Chinese who had come to escape unemployment in China,
and our boss was a very strict Chinese woman. She always
allocated the hard work to Tibetans and treated us like
slaves. The Chinese staff always found excuses to avoid
cleaning the toilets, or could take breaks during working
hours, and the boss accepted it. But if a Tibetan sat
down to rest, she was scolded and punished. Even after
work we were still under Chinese authority, for the boss
told us that all Tibetan staff, including their families,
were forbidden from performing traditional rituals such
as burning juniper and going to monasteries. We were
told that if we did such things, we would be immediately
dismissed. None of us dared to try, because there were
always so many spies watching us."
Biased regulations concerning the allocation of business
permits have also ensured Chinese domination in the
commercial sector, where illegal practices of copying
and underselling have driven local Tibetans out of
business.
Dorjee Tongmey
7
reported, "I left my home when I was just 20 years
old to try and start a small business in Lhasa. I had
to borrow a large amount of money from my family and
friends, because the bank refused to help me. The banks
very rarely give loans to Tibetans, and on the occasions
that they do, the Tibetans have to deposit all of their
personal valuables and possessions, regardless of how much
the actual loan is. Most loans are given to the Chinese
government officials and their relatives, who do not have
to put down this deposit. Without the trust of my friends
and family I would not have been able to start."
Those who depend on agricultural subsistence for
survival in the rural areas also find themselves forced
to trade with the local Chinese officials, who buy from
them at greatly reduced prices than those the farmers
would receive at market. A 44-year-old farmer from
Kandze County in Sichuan Province arrived in India in
February 2000. "My family had 12 members, of which four
were young children. We had about 60 mu of land [1 mu =
62 square metres] on which we grew wheat and sema [a kind
of bean/pea], but every harvest we had to sell all of our
crops to the Chinese. They would pay us only 35 yuan per
sack, whereas we could have got 60, 70 and at times as
much as 100 yuan per sack at the market. What little money
we did get for our crop we were forced to then give back
to the Chinese in payment for fertilizer, for which they
charged 65 yuan a sack. Because of this forced arrangement,
my family and many other farming families in the region
always ran short of food. Many farmers resorted to begging,
and some years it was so bad that entire families died
of starvation. We were never short of food before the
Chinese came - they have changed everything for their own
benefit."
Dawa Dorje
8
reported a similar policy operating in his area. "We were
free to grow whatever we wanted on our land, but as soon as
harvest time came the Chinese authorities would come round
and start to take the crop. We grew potatoes, wheat, rape
seed and some maize, all of which was bought by the Chinese
at low prices they set. We had no opportunity to bargain or
argue the price, and were then forced to spend much of our
earnings on government fertiliser, which cost 150 yuan per
sack. We had to buy it every year as the fertilizer was
designed only to be of benefit if used for a long term.
The few Chinese farmers in my area quickly became more
wealthy than the Tibetan farmers, because they only had
to pay land tax and were free to sell their produce on
the market for higher prices."
Where Chinese and Tibetan workers undertake the same
employment, widespread wage discrimination has been
reported, with Tibetans receiving salaries that are
half, and sometimes even less, than their Chinese
counterparts. Upon his arrival in India in January 2000,
Nortso,
29-year-old from Ngamring County in Shigatse
Prefecture reported widespread wage discrimination in all
areas of employment, particularly in construction. "When
I worked for a road construction company, I was paid only
15 yuan for an 8-hour day. The highest salary received
by the Tibetans was 25 yuan, but the Chinese workers
were paid 40 yuan minimum a day - sometimes as much as
80 yuan. Similarly, when I worked on the construction
of a telecommunications building in the county capital,
I received only 10 yuan a day, with the Chinese receiving
50 yuan."
Similar wage discrimination was reported by 20-year-old
Kalsang Tendar.
He worked as a construction worker and a
rickshaw driver in Lhasa for two years before escaping to
India in February 2000. "When I worked in construction,
I discovered that the Chinese were being paid 40 yuan
per day - double what the Tibetans were being paid, even
though they were doing exactly the same work. I went to
the Chinese contractor to complain, but he told me that the
Chinese were "more skilled" and that "I was lucky to have
a job at all". I decided to quit and try being a rickshaw
driver, but I found the same kind of inequality. To hire
the rickshaw I had to pay a monthly fee of 40 yuan, but my
Chinese friend who worked for the same company paid only 25
yuan a month. It made me so angry, but there was nothing
I could do. The Chinese employers know how desperate the
Tibetans are for jobs, and this makes us very vulnerable."
Many Tibetans who had held steady jobs also suffered
unexpected discriminatory dismissals in order to make
room for the ever-increasing Chinese work force arriving
from outside Tibet. Before fleeing to India in January
2000, 17-year-old
Paldon
worked as a sales assistant in
a government-shopping complex in Lhasa. She managed to
get the job through her grandmother's connections and by
giving "presents" of cigarettes and liquor to the boss. "I
was very lucky to get this job, but I didn"t enjoy it at
all. There is no kind of job security for Tibetans, and
we know that we can be dismissed at any moment through no
fault of our own. There used to be quite a lot of Tibetans
working in the shopping complex, but while I was there many
of them were dismissed on the pretext of "not providing
good enough service to the customers", and replaced with
Chinese. The Chinese make up any reason to push Tibetans
out, because they know we have no one to complain to."
Twenty eight-year-old
Thupten
worked as a tourist guide
in Lhasa City for a total of three years before escaping
to India in November 1999. "To work as a guide, it was
necessary to obtain a permit which had to be renewed
annually. There are many tourist agencies in Lhasa, all
run by the government, and the total number of tourist
guides is around 300. Although most guides were Tibetans
at first, more and more Chinese are now being employed,
and they are provided with many facilities, including
housing, and do not have to renew their permits every
year. Tibetan guides are given none of these advantages -
we were simply instructed to refrain from talking about
Tibetan freedom or human rights. Sometimes the Tibetan
guides were followed by spies in plain clothes, and then
later interrogated for having said a particular thing in
a particular place. Nobody trusted us."
The Chinese government continues to claim that primary
health-care is free in Tibet, but refugees escaping across
the border cite numerous discriminatory charges that are
implemented throughout the country. The most significant
of these is the hospital deposit, which may be as much as
5000 yuan, that is required for admission into hospital
regardless of the severity of illness. According to
refugee testimonies, the Chinese staff dominating the
healthcare sector show considerable preference to Chinese
patients, and in many cases either reduce the deposit
required or even waive it altogether. Samten from Kyirong
County reported in January 2000 that to be admitted into
hospital a deposit of 2000 - 3000 yuan must be paid. "If
you are not able to pay, they will not admit you, even
if you are close to death. The Chinese patients pay no
deposit however, and are generally treated better and with
more respect. For minor illnesses some Chinese are even
treated free of cost. It makes me so angry when Tibetans
are dying at the hospital door."
Many Tibetans who are already economically marginalised
through the afore-mentioned discriminatory employment
practices cannot afford these charges, and have died after
being denied treatment. Because of the lack of drugs
at all levels, many Tibetans, particularly nomads, are
purposefully given expired or incorrect medicine because
the doctors know they are illiterate and unable to detect
this malpractice. Dhundup told TCHRD in January 2000
of the malpractice in his region of Golog "TAP", Qinghai
Province. "The medicine in our local clinic was always out
of date. The main county hospital would pass on expired
medicine to our clinic to sell because most of the people
in my area were poor and uneducated nomads who couldn"t
tell the difference. So even when we had enough money to
buy the drugs, they didn"t help our sickness. Sometimes
they made our condition even worse."
Admitted patients are also subject to highly discriminatory
treatment, with the Chinese receiving priority access
to the best facilities, often free of charge as opposed
to Tibetans, who are put in dirty wards and made to pay.
A woman
9
told TCHRD about the time her relative spent in the
People's Hospital. "When my cousin broke his leg we had
to pay 1500 yuan to admit him to the hospital. Although he
only spent 20 days there, the total bill for his treatment
came to 2700 yuan. While visiting him, I spoke to some of
the Chinese patients who were in the same ward for broken
limbs. They also had to pay, but much less than my cousin,
and none of them had to pay a deposit."
The structure and funding of the education system in Tibet
today is highly discriminatory, with government expenditure
largely concentrated on developing schools in areas with
high populations of Chinese settlers. Rural Tibetans are
forced to finance and construct educational institutions
at their own expense.
A 60-year-old farmer from Jomda County also in Chamdo
Prefecture arrived in India in January 2000. "There were
no facilities in our village for education, and nearly
everyone was illiterate. Then the authorities told us they
were going to build a school in our village and we were all
very excited. They said that as it was to be a community
school, we had to pay for and build it ourselves, so they
collected money and wood from each family in the village,
and took one member of every household to work on the
construction. We put in so much work for this school,
and yet when it was finished the authorities simply
lost interest, and did not send any teachers to help us
learn. The school stood empty nearly everyday because
none of us knew how or what to teach. The only time the
village children would go was when the county officials
were visiting, so it seems all our work was just to show
the outside world how the Chinese have "helped" us. Maybe
they never intended to give us an education."
Tibetan parents and children also report having to pay
extortionate fees and miscellaneous expenses inapplicable
to Chinese students, despite claims by the central Chinese
government that primary education is free.
Namsel
10
fled Tibet with the hope of being admitted to a school in
India. "Primary school is compulsory in Lhasa, and parents
are fined 1000 yuan if they fail to send their children to
school. I attended Shol Primary School for seven years from
the age of five to 12, along with just under 1000 other
children, most of whom were Chinese. The parents of all the
Tibetan children had to pay an initial fee of 400 yuan for
admission, and then 600-700 yuan as a school fee every six
months. The Chinese parents were charged very differently -
they had to pay only 200 yuan for admission and not more
than 450 for the school fees. I know this because my
mother talked to many other Chinese mothers. Similarly,
Tibetans had to pay 160 yuan for the school uniform and
100 yuan for general stationery, while the Chinese were
charged only 75 and 60 yuan respectively. Furthermore,
the teachers at Shol would often collect a little extra
money from the Tibetans to buy equipment for the classrooms
such as brooms or curtains for the windows, but they never
asked the Chinese children. Nobody dared to ask why these
charges were so different - we are just generally looked
down on as backward, dirty Tibetans."
Dolma
11
also reported having to pay double the school fee than
the Chinese students. "I started my education rather
late at the age of eight, and attended the County Primary
School in Lithang for five years. It was a big school,
with around 700 children, approximately half of whom were
Tibetan. The Tibetans had to pay around 200 yuan as a
school fee every six months, while the Chinese only had
to pay 100 yuan. There were a few Chinese students who had
parents working at the school, and they didn"t have to pay
anything at all. Sometimes the teachers would collect 20
yuan from each student to buy things for the classroom,
but they would only ask the Chinese children if the money
given by the Tibetans wasn"t enough."
Perhaps the greatest problem is the biased curriculum,
which focus on Chinese history, language and economics
and forbid any teaching of Tibetan history or culture.
Twenty two-year-old
Nyiser
from Kawasumdo County, Tsolho TAP,
fled Tibet in December 1999. "I studied in a private
school run by a Tibetan monk scholar from Raja Monastery,
which was located right next to the school. The school
used to have a different name, but this was changed
by the local authorities, apparently because it had
"political connotations". It is now known as "Jigme
Gyaltsen Private School". Anyway, the county authorities
were always afraid that the students at the school would
be influenced politically by the monks in the nearby
monastery (many of whom have been arrested for political
demonstrations) and so they would subject us to the same
"patriotic re-education" as the monks. Every year we would
have a written exam with questions such as "Tibet has been
a part of China for 700 years - Yes or No?" We also had
to go through an oral examination whereby each student was
asked whether they opposed the Dalai Lama or not. Everyone
would answer that they did, because we were afraid that
they would close the school down if we didn"t."
Those children who do manage to make it to secondary
education then find themselves largely disadvantaged by the
widespread use of the Chinese language, in which they have
had no formal tuition. One girl from Lhasa described
her difficulties at school after escaping to India
late 1999. "From class three, mathematics was taught in
Chinese. I didn"t understand anything the Chinese teacher
said, and so could only sit idle in the class and wait for
the lesson to end. I used to fail all of my math's tests,
but my teacher didn"t care that I couldn"t understand
Chinese - she said it was because I was stupid."
It is because of this discrimination in education that
so many Tibetans are disadvantaged in all other sectors
later in life.
Tibetans face large-scale discrimination in this sector,
mainly as a result of the afore-mentioned population
transfer into Tibet. Discriminatory allocation procedures
ensure that Chinese immigrants are either guaranteed
housing on arrival in Tibet or are put at the top of the
waiting list. Upon his escape to India in January 2000,
37-year-old Tsering from Kyirong in Shigatse, reported
"My family and I were forced to live in a mud house for
many years, despite being on the public housing waiting
list. The concrete houses, which were of much better
quality than our mud walls, were always given to the
Chinese families migrating from the east. By the time our
turn came for possible accommodation, the rent they were
charging was far too high and we couldn"t even take it."
Wangyal,
also from Shigatse, reports "My family is still living
in a wooden house, which is freezing in winter and full
of leaks when it rains. We wanted to apply for concrete
public housing, but were told that the waiting list was
very long and that it was out of our price range. In
fact, the concrete buildings were already reserved for
Chinese workers who had connections with the government
officials."
To make room for the new Chinese arrivals, huge numbers of
Tibetan families have faced eviction from and demolition
of their traditional residences. Those relocated were
often given no compensation, and forced to pay new
rents which is a lot higher than for their previous
dwellings. The official justification for this destruction
is "beautification" - creating modern, "socialist"
cities in accordance with Chinese interpretations of
"beauty". This has invariably resulted in cities dominated
by the monotonous uniformity of Chinese concrete blocks,
where a small number of superficial "Tibetan-style"
buildings constitute the sole architectural expression of
Tibetan culture. Those Tibetan communities that survive
this "beautification" find themselves dwarfed by modern
Chinese settlements, where residential segregation has led
to the development of discriminatory facilities. Government
subsidies for the development of basic resources such
as running water, electricity and proper sanitation are
concentrated solely upon Chinese areas, while Tibetan
communities are left to fend for themselves. Nor do
Tibetans have the chance to leave their dwellings and move
to better areas, for the Chinese household registration
system places heavy restrictions on their freedom of
movement and residence, and rarely awards the necessary
permission for such a move to anyone other than Chinese
settlers. Together, these discriminatory practices have not
only lowered the standard of living for Tibetans inside
Tibet, but also substantially increased the number of
homeless living on the streets.
In 1965, China declared Tibet an autonomous region,
able to govern itself and make its own administrative
decisions. Thirty five years later, the label "autonomous"
rings as false as it did all those years ago, for the
country is still tightly under the thumb of central Party
rule. Communist control penetrates every level of society,
and Tibet enjoys no more political freedom of expression
than it did during the Cultural Revolution. While there are
a number of Tibetans holding positions of authority within
this system, they constitute only a token representation,
and do not actually possess any real or effective power
to make decisions. Most of the time the appointments act
merely as legitimizing agents for the Party, or function
to give the appearance that Tibetans are contributing to
the running of their country. Some appointments are in
accordance with official directives that the Party would
be foolish to deny. For example, the constitution requires
that the Chairman of the government and of the congress
of each region and province must be a member of the
majority indigenous group in that area, and as a result,
the Chairman of the "TAR" has always been Tibetan. Yet the
dominant members of "TAR" government and congress remain
die-hard Party loyalists, and their level of authority
does not usually permit even the possibility of raising
political notions in opposition to Party decrees.
This is equally true of the Tibetan cadres who work
within the government - their every action is carefully
monitored and, if necessary, censored by Party officials
appointed to ensure that the "stability of the motherland"
is not compromised. In February 1999 a new campaign was
launched in the "TAR" with the specific stated intention
of "enhancing the [cadres] overall quality,
particularly the[ir] ideological and political
quality".
12
The campaign focused explicitly on "separatist
tendencies connected with the Dalai Clique", and stressed
that cadres are required to take a positive stand on the
economic reform and "opening up" policies encouraging the
massive influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet.
In February 2000, exactly one year later, new restrictions
were imposed on the relatives of cadres working in Nyemo
County, Lhasa Municipality, in order "to strengthen
the image of Tibetan officials and their reputation in
the government offices of the PRC". All monks and nuns
related to the governmental Tibetan officials in the
area were thus instructed by the authorities to remove
themselves from religious institutions. Refusal led
to the immediate termination of the position of their
relatives working in the government, irrespective of
his/her position in office.
13
The vast majority of those holding power in the
"TAR" are Chinese or Tibetans who have been
carefully vetted and selected by higher authorities,
and only these candidates are permitted to stand for
the farcical elections. Thirty nine year-old Dorje
Tongmey experienced "elections" in both Kandze
"TAP" in Sichuan Province and Lhasa, where he
lived for 17 years before escaping to India in February
2000. "Tibetans have very little opportunity to
participate in government decisions at any level. Elections
are pointless pieces of propaganda - democratic facades
that hide an internal selection process. Leaders and
officials are always elected from the top down: Prefecture
officials will appoint those in County administration,
and they in turn will choose those to run the township.
We are called upon to "vote" during these proceedings, but
as the candidates are all chosen by the Party, whatever we
do makes no difference - the decisions have already been
made. Even if, for some strange reason, an independent
candidate was allowed to stand against a Party candidate in
a genuine election, there are more Chinese than Tibetans
in most areas now, so the result would only preserve the
status quo."
[ Next:
Chapter 4: Rights of Women and Children --> ]
[ Contents ]
[ Notes ]
[ Recommendations ]
|
