Publications

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Racial Discrimination in Tibet (2000)

Discrimination in Housing

Discriminatory Allocation of Housing

While the state is ultimately responsible for the provision, allocation and administration of housing in Tibet, much of the power to make decisions rests in practice with the local governments. According to Article 99 of the Chinese Constitution, these bodies may "adopt and issue resolutions and examine and decide on plans for local economic and cultural development and for development of public services." Yet they may only do this ‘within the limits of their authority', ensuring that the most important decisions are made by the State Council. The opinions of the Tibetan people themselves are thus excluded from those parts of this decision making process that have direct bearing on their welfare.

As a fully-functioning housing market is yet to emerge in Tibet, the ownership and management of housing falls largely under the control of administrative agencies run by the central government. Urban residents live in one of three main forms of accommodation: municipally-owned housing under the management of the municipal housing bureau; housing owned and managed by work-units; and private housing. Of these, the work-unit sector receives the largest amount of state housing investment - as much as 83%. Yet in urban centres such as Lhasa, less than a third of the occupants of work unit accommodation are Tibetan. The reason for this is once again discriminatory, in that they are often allocated on the basis of a "pressing" housing need, which thus prioritises the continuing influx of Chinese migrants arriving in Tibet over Tibetans already in the country. Official Chinese migrants are actually guaranteed housing accommodation as a matter of policy upon arrival in Tibet. According to the 1991 Habitat International Coalition,

"Although housing space has increased dramatically since the Chinese takeover of Tibet, Tibetans continue to face systematic discrimination regarding the allocation, habitability and cultural adequacy of public housing units. Chinese settlers are guaranteed a housing unit on arrival in Lhasa. Similar rights are not available in practice to Tibetans."

37 year-old Tsering from Kyirong in Shigatse, escaped to India in January 2000. "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, arrived in India in November 1999. "My family are still living in a wooden house, which was freezing in winter and full of leaks when it rained. 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 with connections in the government offices.

Tibetans are also forced to compete against widespread corruption in the offices responsible for housing allocation, where the situation is such that officials and their relatives unashamedly reserve units for themselves before even offering them to the public. While the government ‘took measures' to try and curb this corruption in the early 1990s, local administration offices still enact discriminatory practices.

39 year-old Dorje Tongmey was a businessman in Lhasa for 17 years before escaping to India late 1999, and came to know the inequalities of the system well. "There has been a huge amount of construction in Lhasa over the last decade as part of the Chinese avowed intention to ‘help develop' the Tibetan people. Yet I have seen that nearly all of this new accommodation ends up in Chinese hands. Most of the construction projects are given to Chinese contractors, who keep the blueprints for the building within Chinese circulation. The Tibetan public are never made aware or given official notice if new accommodation is on offer. So, by the time the building has actually been completed, all of the rooms and apartments have already been taken with bribes by Chinese government officials and their relatives. The Tibetans, many of whom are illiterate or who do not understand the system, are thus left behind and excluded from fair competition."