Washington, September 28. The highest body in China has officially and publicly lent its support to a policy of helping Chinese move to Tibet as part of an economic development program to counter the region's separatist movement. While a variety of government bodies have been improviding incentives for Chinese to work in Tibet for many years, this is the first time that Beijing has admitted that it is national policy. The Central Committee of the Communist Party said that Chinese are "encouraged and supported" to move to Tibet, and that they will offer "preferential conditions" to attract more Chinese to the remote plateau area. Previously, such policy statements only appeared in provincial and lower level regulations. Up until now, the Chinese government had denied that there was any policy of moving Chinese into Tibet, and the U.S. State Department has largely backed Beijing's stand. The recent policy statements came out of the Third Work Forum on Tibet, the most important gathering on Tibet policy, held i

n late July. The Second Work Forum occurred 10 years ago, and the First was in 1980. Those forums, particularly the 1980 forum, called on the removal of Chinese cadres from Tibet, and urged a greater role for Tibetans in the governance and economic development of Tibet. In practice however, Tibetans were never given any significant degree of power in either government or development positions. Now it appears that Beijing has given up on creating the appearance of promoting Tibetans in these areas. A Beijing-based diplomat who visited Tibet twice recently and was interviewed by the South China Morning Post said: "what they mean by economic development is Chinese economic development. The main benefits will go to Han Chinese industries and businesses". The Central Committee's statements on "encouraging and supporting" Chinese cadres and workers to move to Tibet may cause the State Department to revisit its position on the Chinese population influx. The last time State Department acknowledged a Chinese governme

nt policy of encouraging Chinese to move to Tibet was under President Carter in 1979. In that year the annual State Department human rights report said that China "fosters significant migration by Han to ... Xizang (Tibet)". Most recently, when President Clinton extended MFN for China, his report said that "we have found no evidence of a Chinese government policy" which encourages emigration to areas traditionally inhabited by Tibetans. "The Chinese would not have dared to issue these policy pronouncements prior to the President's MFN decision. Now they feel they have nothing to worry about - that the U.S. will turn a blind eye even if the government officially acknowledges they are increasing the population influx," said Lodi Gyari, President of ICT. (EuroTibet News N·3)