The New York Times

Friday, June 18, 1999

China Resettlement Plan Starts Debate Over Tibetan Culture

By ERIK ECKHOLM

BEIJING -- The World Bank Thursday defended a proposed antipoverty project in a remote northwestern region that has been attacked by critics abroad as a threat to Tibetan culture, saying that many objections reflected misinformation.

The plan, for which the World Bank proposes lending China $40 million, resettling 58,000 people from an overcrowded, eroded area in the northeastern corner of Qinghai Province to a sparsely populated region in the province 300 miles west.

Qinghai is geographically part of the Tibetan Plateau and was historically settled by Tibetan and Mongolian people. But a majority of its five million residents are ethnic Chinese.

Critics say by moving a mix of ethnic groups into the new zone, the project will aid a Chinese policy of diluting Tibetan culture. Forty percent of the proposed settlers would be ethnic Chinese, along with Hui Muslims and others, including some ethnic Tibetans.

The critics also say the project, involving a small dam and irrigation works, may threaten the environment. They add that two nearby prison camps could be aided, in violation of World Bank policy, and that the bank's assessment procedures have been violated.

But in a briefing Thursday afternoon, the bank's resident director here, Yukon Huang, an American, said the project was a sincere effort to aid some of China's most wretchedly poor. He said that environmental concerns had been taken into account, that the legal rights of minority groups would be protected and that any effects on Tibetan culture would be negligible.

"This involves moving people from an area of great ethnic diversity into an area that has relatively few Tibetans," said Huang, who just completed a six-day trip through the zone with agricultural and social experts to "double check" the wisdom of the proposal.

The region around the proposed new irrigation area is mainly populated by Mongolians. The immediate site is barren and used only seasonally by 63 Mongolian herding families whose interests will be protected, he said.

Opposing the project has become a major cause of pro-Tibetan groups in Europe and the United States. The critics have gained the ear of Western politicians, and American officials have expressed concern.

The World Bank board of governors is to consider the project on Tuesday. China has called the criticism politically motivated, and an American vote against the project would inflame the already tense relations. The project needs a simple majority of votes on the bank board, which is made up of major donors and smaller countries formed into blocs, to proceed.