(Letter) Tibet officials issued with Dalai school ultimatum
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Party members and public servants working in the Tibet autonomous region were given an ultimatum on July 14 to call back their children within two months from overseas schools and monasteries run by the “Dalai clique”, the International Herald Leader (IHL), owned by the Xinhua News Agency, said Wednesday.
Under a regulation drawn up by the regional Party and government disciplinary inspection commissions, which was released last week, those who fail to do so will be expelled from the Party and removed from their posts, the IHL report said.
The regulation applies to all current and retired Party members and government employees in the region, the newspaper said.
The Dalai clique’s offer of free scholarships, board and lodgings is designed to attract Tibetan students to leave their homes and join its educational institutions outside China, the report said.
The Dalai Lama has been setting up schools overseas since 1960, the year after he fled to India, a study conducted by IHL and published in the paper Wednesday said.It now operates hundreds of monasteries and temples, and about 80 schools for all age groups, which have more than 27,000 students and about 2,000 teachers, the study said.
A college in Dharamsala, India, for example, which has about 650 students, offers young Tibetans not only free tuition and accommodation – worth about 2,000 rupees ($50) a month – but also pays them a monthly stipend of 100 rupees, it said.
About 40 percent of the Tibetan students there go on to higher education, many in Western countries, the study said.
The incentives are all just part of the Dalai clique’s aim to “brainwash” students under the “cloak of religion and education”, the IHL study said.
Also, the money spent on such “brainwashing” shows that the Dalai clique continues to receive aid from Western anti-China forces, such as the National Endowment for Democracy, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the US-based Tibet Foundation, the paper said without providing any further details.
How do you guys think about this campaign? This campaign has been going on since as early as 90s, but publicly declared recently.
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July 24th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
1. the name of “Dalai clique” should be changed like we discussed before
2. if the policy has been carried out since the 90s which means it did not work. What’s the point to publicly declare it if the detail of the policy has not been changed and did not work and would not work.
3. this is the similar policy of not allow party members to practice the religion(confirm?)
4.not too sure why Tibet language is not the class language after primary school. thousands of Tibetan students graduate from colleges in Beijing,LanZhou,ChenDu XiNing every year. There should be policies to encourage these Tibetan graduates to teach in schools with Tibetan language. Also the text books like science, maths etc should be written in Tibet. For non-Tibetan speaking students in TAR, there should be Han language class/schools co-exist. This might cause the chain reactions from other ethnic groups even Han provinces which try to teach local dialects . So this need be carefully planned, balanced, implemented.
Of course, Gaokao ,government officer exams, lawyer licence exams, accountant licence exams etc would have to be all written in Tibetan in TAR. Han and English also need be taught as national and international language. But again, some Tibetan students might go to Han language schools to be able to become more completive in national job market.
5. use some privilege policies to attract students back to TAR from India. But for religious students, there is little way if Dalai Lama is not back.
if 40% are able to go to western colleges with external sponsorship then it’s very attractive to parents who don’t care about politics and religion but care of kid’s education and would like migrate to the west. From this perspective, schools in TAR would very hard to compete those Dharamsala.
I only think about these for now.
Where are other wiser people here?
July 24th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
@BMY – The policy may have been declared publicly as a warning that it was actually going to be enforced seriously, rather than simply sitting on the books with no one obeying it.
It does not say 40% go to western universities, but that 40% go to university, and many of those go to the west. Even if only 10% of students were going on to western universities I think Tibetan parents would find it very attractive.
Finally, the fact that Beijing would have to institute such a policy shows that it does not hold the loyalty of its Tibetan party members and government workers.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
@The Trapped,
I think we should be asking you for *your* opinion… your opinion on this is probably more informed, and definitely more important than ours.
I think BMY has said most of what I would say. But I’m also concerned, because I think it’s certainly true that the schools in exile tend to teach a very firm Tibetan nationalist ideology. (I understand the schools in China do too, of course.) Do exiles ever send their children to study in Tibet/China? Has the Dalai Lama ever made a statement either supporting or opposing that?
As long as Western scholarships are flooding into these exile schools (but not Chinese schools for Tibetans)… well, I think its clear there’s a political motive behind much of that funding.
My suggested solution: China, and those of us who care about China, should make it *more* tempting for Tibetans to want to be educated in China. Instead of threatening their parents with arrest, China should offer superior training opportunities for Tibetans inside China. For example, Chinese nationalists should be in a position now to “compete” with Tibet House and other similar Western charities… by sponsoring Tibetan children *within* China.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
@ Trapped,
Buxi said “I think we should be asking you for *your* opinion… your opinion on this is probably more informed, and definitely more important than ours.”
What’s your background?
July 24th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
All that cost money. I wonder where does HHDL gets the money?
July 24th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
@Charles Liu – Didn’t you see the article? It’s from ‘anti-China’ elements like George Soros, who obviously hates China and wants to see it destroyed because he feels like it. Now if only they could find some actual evidence . . .
In truth there’s not much mystery to it: it is the same thing that organisations like the KLA and Hezbollah did/do (no implication of terrorism here) – providing services, winning hearts and minds, taxing them and using the proceeds to spread their message. No doubt he also has moneyed backers as well, but there are more than 100,000 Tibetans outside of China that he can rely on for donations.
Let’s look at the numbers –
Cost of educating one student (presuming the figures given here are representative/accurate) = 600 US dollars a year.
Number of students = 27,000
Total cost = 16.2 Million US dollars
I would say this would not be beyond the reach of Dharamsala, especially considering how (according to Wikipedia) the Free Tibet movement has more than 19,000 members in the UK alone, and probably many more worldwide – they do not need funding from evil ‘anti-China’ forces to accomplish this.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
@FORAP,
Read again.
A college in Dharamsala, India, for example, which has about 650 students, offers young Tibetans not only free tuition and accommodation – worth about 2,000 rupees ($50) a month – but also pays them a monthly stipend of 100 rupees, it said.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
On one hand I would think these ‘Free Tibetans’ will probably be brainwashed in Dharamsala if they receive their free eduation there. On the other hand, if these Tibetans are educated in China, they won’t go up the social ladder in China anyways. Unfortunately, China is in a lose-lose situation in this one, so it is probably best to keep the status quo.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
@Wahaha – 100 rupees = two and a half USD = trivial for the purposes of this calculation
July 24th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
A charity like Oxfam, for example, disposes of 87.4 million US dollars in east Asia alone, and 700 million world-wide. It is therefore not too much of a stretch to think that a movement like Free Tibet might manage to raise at least a tenth of Oxfam’s world-wide sum, given the numbers of potential backers and the high profile of their campaign.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
@FORAP,
Only one college with 650 students is willing to offer free tuition, that not even including the 650 students already in the college.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Here is Oxfam’s 07 report.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/downloads/reports/report_accounts06_7.pdf
The largest source of their money is donations, followed by government sources. The other sources cover about 40% of their money.
Any NGO should have this type of info available to the public, or release them. For some reason, I can’t find it for Tibet house. If someone knows where to find this type of report, it would end this debate. Perhaps a human flesh initiative???
July 24th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
“Only one college with 650 students is willing to offer free tuition, that not even including the 650 students already in the college.”
Can’t follow you here: the report says “A college in Dharamsala, India, for example, which has about 650 students”.
@Yo – According to their website:
A full list of their declared accounts can be found on page 10 of their annual review here:
http://www.freetibet.org/files/AnnualReview07.pdf
According to which they made more than £500,000 in 2006, or about a million US dollars, and their greatest expense was ‘operating expenses’, followed by ‘staff costs’. No doubt similar figures are made in other western European countries, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, and substantially more than that in the United States – which would definitely put the expenses of such schools within their reach, even before you consider the contributions of the exile community in India.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
@FORAP,
You used muber 27000 in the multiplication, and no1 said the education for 27000 is free.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
@FORAP,
Do you have any information about the following link, or anyone ?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article4374669.ece
sounds weird to me.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
@Wahaha – Oh, I see! But then the 17 million US dollars figure is the maximum cost we would expect if the school in Dharamsala is representative of the average and all the students receive free education. If a portion of the students are having to cover part or all of the cost of their education the cost would be less. My guess is that the scholarships offered to Tibetan exiles by western universities would not cost Free Tibet much at all, as academia is very sympathetic to the Free Tibet movement.
Of course, all these figures are very rough, but it would seem that no evil anti-China billionaire backer is actually needed to pay for these schools.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
@FORAP,
No, not all school are college, BTW, the tuition for ” Columbia university” is far more expensive that CUNY. Also I bet most teachers of 2000 are monks, and most students are monks too. so basically the education is free or almost free for those 27000 students.
BTW,
have you heard anything about the killing sofa in northern Europe ?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article4374669.ece
July 24th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
FOARP,
Thanks for the link but I was asking for Tibet House 🙂 Because they are directly involved in the school initiative.
This link is of a Non-profit income statement, which doesn’t contain too much info(doesn’t have donors, kinds of operating expenses, operating income, etc) . All I see is that the Free Tibet Organization has been losing money for the past 2 years, and their staff costs are really high, which is good to know because if you want to get your money directly into the hands of Tibetans, you would probably go to another group. But of course, the Free Tibet Organization looks more like a PR firm than an organization which puts money into the hands of average Tibetans.
I would like to add one correction which is according to wiki, the Free Tibet Campaign claims to have a total of 19,000 members all together and not just in the UK.
July 24th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
The funding issue is of course interesting.
But we should remember that Tibetan students don’t necessarily go to India because of the Free Tibet connection or because funding comes from anti-Chinese sources. I think most go there for similar reasons that so many Han students study abroad: educational opportunities are perceived to be better there. So I think Buxi is thinking along the right lines; instead of blocking the possibility of studying abroad (how would Han students feel if the government ordered them to come back lest they be corrupted by the FLG among overseas Chinese communities?). Better to improve education for Tibetans in China, allow more bilingual options at high-school and tertiery level etc.
Chinese trade and other ties with India are increasing rapidly, and therefore in principle it should be a good thing that Chinese people are going to India to study. Certainly prohibiting Chinese people from studying in India seems to be a step backwards in the bigger picture. If China can work to dampen the appeal of Tibetan nationalism in China, by allowing more freedom of expression to Chinese Tibetans, those Chinese Tibetans might just become the kinds of cross-border mediators that will allow China to take full advantage of a developing pan-Himalayan economy.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
@Yo, Tibet House was founded by the CIA, and no doubt today continued by the NED:
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=103191027855187
July 25th, 2008 at 12:06 am
@Yo, just so there’s no doubt about this, here’s the declassified CIA document in reference:
http://www.intellnet.org/documents/700/040/744.html
3rd paragraph of section 3.
July 25th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I’d go even beyond Buxi – instead of trying to improve the educational opportunities of Tibetans, maybe we ought to ask why a paltry $US 10-100 million can be so effective in destablizing China???
July 25th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I like the idea of “those Chinese Tibetans might just become the kinds of cross-border mediators that will allow China to take full advantage of a developing pan-Himalayan economy.”
July 25th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Karma, let’s take it even further – why would any government spend hundreds of million yearly to destablize another country and hurting others citizens?
July 25th, 2008 at 2:18 am
@JL,
“Better to improve education for Tibetans in China”
Yep, I agree with you and Buxi on this one.
@Charles
That’s interesting, however, it’s important to know their expenditures in the present day. The link you gave me was back in the 60’s. It’s important to know the background but it’s more important to know what’s happening now.
What FOARP gave would be some nice info in regards to the Tibet House, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Finding this info is always a pain, but it’s important to settle this issue once and for all.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:40 am
So. The tibetan exile groups, deemed illegal by and basically at war with the Chinese state, use incentives to attract and absorb tibetans in tibet (who are considered to be part of the Chinese nation by the Chinese people) for the sole purpose of seceding tibet from China. What’s the big deal about the ban on officials’ relatives taking on such incentives? In fact I’m astonished that such treasonous activities were not completely banned!
July 25th, 2008 at 3:43 am
zhihua,
I think JL #19 explains it well why it shouldn’t be banned.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:07 am
@zhihua,
winning heart is more effective than forceful ban ban ban. you might aware Dailai Lama’s photo is banned in TAR but his photo are still everywhere and the ban pushed many Tibetan people onto the opposite side. you might also want to consider to wear their shoes to have a walk.
forceful actions from either side did not work and would not work .
July 25th, 2008 at 4:13 am
see kindergarten grade videos made for RSF
http://www.dailymotion.com/rsf_internet/video/x660br_il-nest-pas-trop-tard-pour-comprend_news
July 25th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Yo, here’s Tibet Fund mentioning of funding Tibet House:
http://www.tibetfund.org/25yr_report/25years.pdf
Where does Tibet Fund get money? Suprise suprise the NED, successor to the CIA:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8397
July 25th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Hi Buxi,
At this moment, what I can say is; Who will be effected most in this campaign? Who will be the victims? What will be the consequences if this new campaign is really pushed by force? We should look at the situation more carefully than just saying this illegal, that is anti-Chinese, they must be punished and this should be banned kind of things. If the issue is that easy, then this should have been solved in 90s, no reason for lingering up to today. More importantly, we should try to look at the nature of issue from all dimension. We should try to look at situation from both Hanzu’s perspective and Zangzu’s perspective. So far, from both sides of argument no one , except few broad-minded and long-sighted, is trying to look at the issue from the other side’s perspective. And finally, of course there are western force’s involvement in the issue, but we should not let it over-shadow good-intended Tibetan people’s voice. I do not want to talk about history and international laws because there is clear-cut saying on issue like this. I would rather think that since 17 Points Agreement between Tibetan regional government and central government, the unclear issue was solved and re-united if there was any separation. This is like marriage, both sides invested a lot in this. So, we should stop making irresponsible comments to hurt general Tibetan people’s mind. I still remember what Kunming police head’s comment on recent bus bombing. We clearly see that in his preconception he had already decided that this is linked to Tibetans despite of the fact that there were much more history of bus-bombing in this province over interest conflicts.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Hi Buxi,
My way of putting my points makes it look like it intended to you. But as you asked me, I just responded by saying “Hi Buxi”. I am sure you can understand! You are the one who encourages me to linger on this blog. Even when a single hanzu brother can hear my inner voice, I regard it as great as thousands western guys’ sweet-tipped praises.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Correction:
Wrong: “I do not want to talk about history and international laws because there is clear-cut saying on issue like this.”
Corrected: I do not want to talk about history and international laws because there is NO clear-cut saying on issue like this.
July 25th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Hi The Trapped,
My dear brother
I am only speaking on behave of myself.
“We should look at the situation more carefully than just saying this illegal, that is anti-Chinese, they must be punished and this should be banned kind of things.”
From my understanding, Buxi was saying both Beijing and Dharamsala are both inflaming nationalist ideology in schools which is not good to solve the problem. Buxi and many others have said on this blog there should be more Tibetan language TV channels, magazines, more invests in schools , more hospitals ,more Tibetan should be government officers,should be more media freedom, religion freedom etc . I think you would agree.
Personally I never think forceful actions from either Beijing or Dharamsala would work. extreme only produce another extreme. I am not happy with many of Beijing policies towards Tibet. I can see most of the comments here do not agree the forceful ban .
But I am also not happy the hatred propaganda towards Han from Dharamsala. The violent land reform in the 50s and culture revolution in the 60s were darkest time in history. Tibetans suffered and Han also suffered. I often see the whole hanzu get painted as evil”Chinese are killing Tibetans, Chinese have murdered ### Tibetans in the 50s, 60s ” etc. Hanzu has suffered no less than Zangzu suffered in CR. there are less monasteries restored in neidi than in TAR and it’s hardly see some monasteries with hundreds of monks funded by national funds in hanzu area which are traditional also Buddhist area. Of course many of the restrictions put in TAR is not good and hurts Tibetan brothers sisters feelings.
I am not here bashing one and praising another. It’s like what you said a marriage which need two sides work together.
I am not quiet sure how old were you when you left China. I assume you knew few hanzu then. How many of them hated zangzu if you can remember? So please don’t worry about “when a single hanzu brother can hear my inner voice,” many of hanzu are with you. I would only guess from my personal experience most of hanzu don’t want to see Tibetan culture get disappeared. Like I said on another post, I don’t care if “China” is called “Tibet” . I wish Dalai Lama could be spirit leader for all Buddhists in China not only in TAR. hanzu should learn Tibetan culture and pick up something we have lost.
I think peaceful combination of ZangZu ,Hanzu and other ethnic groups would do better for everyone than separation. Balkan is a big lesson. But the politicians have to find a solution.
Please don’t need reply directly to me. All others have much better to say.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:19 am
sorry, I mean “All others have much better to say than what I said. (you can save your time and chat with them)”
July 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
These students should stay in Lhasa where they will get a good Chinese education. Those who run away to India must be 漢奸 traitors.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Theo: How about 藏奸? 😀
July 25th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Trapped@33,
It is not history, but a continued effort to weaken China’s sovereignty. Check Wikipedia, you’ll see today the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) continues the covert foreign policy implements conducted by the CIA.
Also there is international law regarding this:
– UN Preamble: “live together in peace with one another as good neighbours”
US government spending millions upon millions yearly to create/sustain Tibetan GO/NGO; China has no such programs for Native American asperations.
– 1984 UN General Assembly declaration against state-sponsored terrorism(GA Res 39-159): “military and *other actions* are being taken against the sovereignty and political independence of States”
PRC has never sponsored/instigated domestic revolt within US, unlike the historical actions and continued US foreign policy implements vis-a-vis “non-violent warfare/revolution” against China in recent decade (6/4 student leaders received such protest training from US DIA intelligence operative Col. Robert Helvey, US State Department’s participation in planning of Olympic torch protests.)
July 25th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
@Charles – I would be careful when lecturing ‘The Trapped’ on where support for DL comes from. And I might note that thing like the Atlantic Charter and the UN declaration on human rights contain much that is not respected in the policies of many nations around this world.
July 26th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Exile and Tibetan studies
‘…, after the failed uprising in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and set up the Government of Tibet in Exile in Dharamsala, India, which is often referred to as “Little Lhasa”.
After the founding of the exiled government he reestablished the ~80,000 Tibetan refugees who followed him into exile in agricultural settlements.[7] He created a Tibetan educational system in order to teach the Tibetan children the traditional language, history, religion, and culture. The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts was established[7] in 1959 and the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies[7] became the primary university for Tibetans in India. He supported the refounding of 200 monasteries and nunneries in an attempt to preserve Tibetan Buddhist teachings and the Tibetan way of life.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenzin_Gyatso,_14th_Dalai_Lama#Exile_to_India
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) “overt” Tibet policy
http://www.ned.org/grants/06programs/grants-asia06.html#chinaTibet
July 26th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Just stick to the topic. From this news, I feel that it is the hardliners in CCP taking charge in Tibet issue at this moment. As far as I can see, no one can benefit from this policy. CCP have forgotten their most successful tactic in 1930/40s, United Front (统一战线). This will only drive the silent majority, even part of the Tibetan CCP members, to the opponent. Moreover, it will bring some negative impact to middle way policy, and strengthen the faith of those Tibetan in exile who want to do it violently. Sigh.
July 26th, 2008 at 7:14 am
@chorasmian “… and strengthen the faith of those Tibetan in exile who want to do it violently”. Who are the ones that want “to do violently” (no pun intended)?
July 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
@Tenzin
I am sorry if any misinterpretation caused by these words. I am well aware that MOST of Tibetan in exile object to any violence, otherwise current situation could be far worse. I read phayul irregularly, there are some but only a few Tibetan there insist violence is better approach. Similar argument can be seen to Han community, occasionally some Fenqing (Angry youth) call out “kill the Tibetan” as well. I don’t think such diversity is a surprise, and I am not the only one feel this diversity.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Peaceful-protests-intl-pressure-only-option-Former-Tibet-guerrilla/287132/
Perhaps you might think I intend to mean TYC in these words. No, I didn’t. Though their stance of seeking independence is unacceptable for me, I don’t think I have evidence to prove they prefer violence.
To be honest, I am disappointed at this news. I think you have the same feeling as well.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
@BMY,
I don’t think “The Trapped!” meant to criticize me, as he explained later. I am happy to say I believe we basically agree on these issues. Also, I *think* he said he is still in China (Chengdu?) right now. Perhaps he can tell us a little more?
I just want to say I fully agree with this:
@chorasmian,
I agree, hard-liners are clearly in control of Tibet policy right now. I will lose a lot of respect for President Hu if he allows that to continue next year. He’s not going to make any quick changes, certainly not before the Beijing Olympics… but no matter who’s “fault” it is, it should be obvious that the curent leadership in Lhasa has failed. It’s time to put in someone better qualified to do the job.
July 27th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
chorasmian and Tenzin, you maybe polite enough to not name names, but straight talking Americans like myself who’s less inclined to be polite, will:
(h/t to China Matters)
http://chinamatters.blogspot.com/2008/03/black-days-for-dalai-lama.html
Tsewang Rigzin, TYC and its uprise manifesto
Lhakpa Tsering, who elected to set his pants on fire (instead of the whole body)
AFAIK, China has never supported Native American asperations, non the less militant Native Independence actiions par to the above. Do you see “Free Native America” bumper sticker all over China?
No, they are not so hypcritical as us Americans, who yell bloddy murder while standing on our own blood soaked ground.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
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August 15th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Tenzin
Everyone is welcome to discuss/debate issues on this blog. But to use it as a free advertising platform for a campaign I think you should have asked permission from the blog admin.
August 24th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Some of the professional chinese commenters on the Tibet issue have found their way to this blog, unfortunately….It shows how difficult it is to discuss this issue freely without Chinese government interferrence and “guidance”..Why don’t you go to Dharamsala and these schools to find out for yourself, many of which are part of SOS Childrens villages, to see for your own eyes? Many of the Tibetan childrens education are supported by individual foreign sponsors who decide to sponsor a Tibetan child.
http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/Where-we-help/Pages/default.aspx
If all the facts above show the “power” of your human flesh engine than its really weak if uncovering the truth.
Seeing one time is better than reading thousand times.
September 19th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
“professional chinese commenters”? Can you prove anyone is being paid? I’m in Seattle, and gas is over $4.00 a gallon (I drive a german sports car that requires premium gas), 50 cent ain’t gonna cut it buddy.
As to who’s funding things like Tibet House, Tibet Fund, Friends of Tibet, please see the citations already provided in comment 20, 30, 40.