Published by: World Tibet Network News Monday, November 17, 1997

Tibet Information Network

London, 16 Nov (TIN) - China's top leader in Tibet has spoken in public for the first time about a power struggle among the leaders of the region.

The speech, which indicated that the non-Tibetan leaders in the region have regained full support from Beijing and are now firmly in control in Tibet, called for special vigilance against a new form of "hidden" enemy among Tibetans. It cited as an example the most notable Chadrel Rinpoche, the former abbot who had led the search for the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, one of Tibet's most prominent religious leaders.

A group including leading scholars and lamas was warned that criticism of China's cultural policies was being used by these "hidden reactionaries" as a form of political sabotage, and that attacks on cultural policy could be viewed by the authorities as a disguised way of promoting independence.

In the speech, broadcast on Tibet Radio on 9th November, the TAR Party Secretary Chen Kuiyuan rejected reports of a power struggle in the TAR leadership. "At present, some people are spreading a rumour that the leading group in the Tibet Autonomous Region will be changed and that leading members of the regional party committee will leave Tibet," Chen said in the speech, implying that the rumoured criticisms had targeted officials from outside the region, probably Chinese like himself. "This is a totally groundless rumour," he said.

"The party Central Committee has trust in the leading group of the regional party committee and has issued clear instructions on maintaining stability for the leading group of the Tibet Autonomous Regional CCP Committee," he said.

Unprovoked statements denying or indicating internal conflict among Party leaders are extremely rare in China and the admission of central intervention in the running of the TAR Party indicates that there had been division among the leaders.

"All comrades of our leading group are determined to unite as one, dedicate

ourselves heart and soul to the same cause, [and] firmly follow the instructions of the party Central Committee," said the speech, originally delivered to a "forum for non-Party patriotic personalities" on 7th November.

Unofficial reports in November last year said that Chen had been criticised by moderates in the Party for being too hard-line in the campaign of political re-education in Tibetan monasteries, which obliges each monk and nun to denounce the exiled Dalai Lama in writing as a religious leader.

In June this year a journalist from the French news agency AFP was given permission to interview officials in Lhasa and reported "well-placed sources" as saying that the re-education campaign had "been judged too violent in Beijing". Other sources last year claimed that Li Ruihuan, head of China's nationality and religions policies and No. 4 in the Communist Party hierarchy, had criticised the hard line in the TAR, although this has never been confirmed.

There were reports of compromises being reached between the three great monasteries in Lhasa and the political re-education teams late last year, but since then the re-education drive has resumed in all areas of the region with no sign of relaxation.

- Class Struggle against "Hidden Reactionaries" -

In the 7th November speech Chen indicated that he had Beijing's support against his critics, and that the main objective under his leadership is to "eliminate all factors jeopardizing stability" in order to achieve the "goal of socialist modernization".

This can only be done by applying a class analysis, said Chen, who used the phrase "class struggle" or "class contradiction" 11 times in the speech. "If we fail to properly handle class contradictions and class struggle in our real life, there will be no guarantee for stability in Tibet and its reform and development will not be able to proceed smoothly," he told the "non- Party patriotic personalities" - intellectuals, scholars, lamas and former aristocrats who are not Party members or leading government officials.

Chen used his method of class analysis to identify the "hostile forces" who are attacking Tibet. Three of these forces are well known - the Dalai Lama's followers in exile, his western supporters, and the pro-independence activists or "saboteurs" within Tibet. But in the speech he identified, probably for the first time, a fourth category: the "behind-the-scenes sympathisers" within Tibet.

He referred to this new category as "a small handful of dangerous elements who have passed themselves off as upright persons with an ulterior motive and have mingled among us" and as "reactionaries long hidden inside the region". Chen told his audience that "we must pay particular attention" to the fourth kind of enemy.

Since October 1991 the Chinese authorities have admitted that some Tibetan cadres still have feelings of loyalty towards the Dalai Lama, and in July 1994 a meeting called the Third Forum on Work in Tibet identified this as a major problem. But it is very rare for the "patriotic personalities" to be targeted as a potential hostile category, or to be told this to their faces in public by the Party Secretary.

Chen told the Tibetans that the model of the new kind of "hidden reactionary" is Chadrel Rinpoche, the former abbot of Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, who was detained in 1995. Chadrel Rinpoche was sentenced in May this year to six years for conspiring to split the nation and betraying state secrets after he informed the exiled Dalai Lama of details about the search for the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama.

"There are certain individuals such as Qiazha [Chadrel] who were trusted by and received special treatment by the party and government for many years, rebelled against the party and country at the crucial moment, and stabbed the party in the back," said Chen, who said Chadrel Rinpoche was "not an isolated case among our ranks".

The public vilification of the former abbot suggests that he may be used as a model in a campaign to identify other disloyal figures amongst the "patriotic personalities" in Tibet, a prospect which will cause consternation among scholars and leading lamas in Tibet.

According to a television announcement broadcast two hours before Chen's speech, the Party Secretary had made a rare inspection trip to Tashilhunpo, Chadrel Rinpoche's former monastery in Shigatse, on 1st November. Chen told the monks there that Chadrel Rinpoche had been involved in "sabotage" and that the patriotic education campaign in monasteries was "an important policy" in order to identify "a small handful of elements who do not observe religious discipline ... and did evil things".

"If the management committees of all temples and lamaseries can take up their responsibility to properly control lamas and guide them to seriously study Buddhist scriptures and observe the state laws and system, the government will not be required to dispatch work teams to conduct education at temples and lamaseries", Chen told the Tashilhunpo monks.

- Criticism of Culture Policy is "Dalai's Rubbish in Disguised Form" -

The Party Secretary also made it clear in his 7th November speech to the "patriotic personalities" that the new kind of "hidden" enemy works through a new method - instead of using street protests or calls for independence, the "hidden reactionary" criticises China's cultural and religious policies in Tibet.

"We should pay attention to one matter: lately, hostile forces have picked up a new point in attacking us, that is, they have attacked us for allegedly destroying the Tibetan culture, religion, and language," said Chen, identifying this as a form of class struggle.

The criticism of China's cultural policy had been spread by the Dalai Lama and foreign broadcasters, but "the Dalai's rubbish" was now being repeated by Tibetans inside Tibet, said Chen. "Posters and anonymous letters inside the region also used the fallacy in attacking us [and] at a few public venues, some people even peddled the Dalai's rubbish in a disguised form," he told the meeting, which would have included Tibetans who have criticised his cultural policies.

The "patriotic personalities" in Tibet are all members of a honorary body called the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference which is expected to give public endorsement of all China's political policies in Tibet. It has been allowed until now to criticise details of its economic and cultural policies, particularly those concerning the use of Tibetan language in education and administration. Children in primary schools learn in Tibetan, but the only scheme in the TAR offering secondary school education with Tibetan as the teaching medium was dropped last year.

Chen defined criticism of such policies as an attempt by the Dalai Lama "aimed at sowing political dissension between the nationalities to serve his scheme on independence of Tibet". "We all must be clearly aware of his scheme," said the Party Secretary.

He added that the loyalty of "patriotic personalities" and of any Tibetan standing for an official position would be tested by their past political word - above all, by the way they had responded in 1995 to the dispute over the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, which he defined as a "critical moment" in recent history. "We will never forget those who stood together with us through storm and stress at the crucial moments in Tibet... We will judge people from their attitude against the Dalai's scheme to split the motherland," said Chen.