Published by: World Tibet Network News Monday, December 8th, 1997

TIN News Update / 7 December, 1997/ total no of pages: 3 ISSN 1355-3313

- Patriotic Education to be Extended to Schools and Villages -

A new Party Secretary of Lhasa has been elected, according to the main party newspaper in the region, during a tumultuous week in Tibetan politics which saw further signs of a dispute between leaders, a declaration of war on separatists, an attack on opponents of Chinese traders in Tibet, and an announcement that political education is to be extended to lay Tibetans.

The decisions appear to have been connected to a major party meeting called the "Third Enlarged Plenary of the Fifth TAR Party Committee", which opened in Lhasa on 17th November and closed on 20th November.

Jampa Phuntsog (whose name is spelt Xiangba Pingcuo in Chinese) was elected on 16th November as the Party Secretary of Lhasa Municipality - a vast, mainly rural area of 29,000 square kilometres of which the urban area of Lhasa itself covers only 51 sq km.

"The members of the standing committee of the city party committee are determined to become good civil servants," said Jampa Phuntsog in his inaugural address. "We will strive to improve ourselves mentally, ideologically and in work style so as to present a new profile of civil servants among the masses," he said, according to the 17th November edition of Tibet Daily.

The paper said the new committee consisted of "younger, better educated, more revolutionary and professionally competent cadres" who have "strict political qualifications".

His appointment is a surprise replacement for Lobsang Dondrub, who had held the position for only two years. Dondrub, whose new position is unknown, holds other senior positions and has been a regional vice-governor since December 1993 and a member of the regional Party Committee since at least 1995. Legchog, the man who preceded Dondrub as Lhasa Party Secretary, is now a Deputy Secretary of the regional Party committee as well as a regional vice-governor.

Like Lobsang Dondrub, Jampa Phuntsog headed Lhokha prefecture in southern Tibet before taking the Lhasa position: Phuntsog was commissioner of Lhokha (called Shannan in Chinese) from December 1992 until 1995, and since then has been Party Secretary of the prefecture. While Commissioner of Lhokha he launched a drive to start a chromite mine, as well as to make the area into "Tibet's vegetable and pork supply base".

Previously he had been a deputy commissioner in Chamdo prefecture in eastern Tibet from at least 1983 until 1992. He was appointed in 1985 to sit on the Party Committee of the newly formed prefecture of Nyingtri, but he never took up the post and remained in Chamdo.

Jampa Phuntsog was a delegate from the TAR to the National People's Congress in Beijing in 1994 and 1995, and at the March 1994 session he was featured in the national press as one of four senior members of the delegation who were received by Hu Jintao, former Tibet secretary and now a member of the Politburo Standing Committee; among the four was Lobsang Dondrub, Phuntsog's predecessor as Lhasa Party Secretary.

The new Lhasa Party Secretary is not the same person as the Jampa Phuntsog who headed the TAR Cultural Department until 1993, when he was moved after a power struggle to the less important position of Chairman of the TAR Federation of Art and Literature.

- Personnel Shifts, New Head of Lhokha -

The change in the Lhasa party committee came on 16th November, the day before Raidi, the highest-ranking Tibetan in the Party in the Tibet Autonomous Region, announced that "adjustments" had been made "to reinforce a number of leading groups at prefecture and county levels", hinting that the current power struggle has already led to personnel changes at the middle levels of the Party in the Tibet Autonomous Region. "We should further strengthen party building with the improvement of leading groups at various levels as the main content," said Raidi, according to the Tibet Daily on 18th November.

There are reports of a flurry of new appointments in Lhokha prefecture, which lies between Lhasa and the Indian border, where an ethnic Chinese named Hu Chunhua is now known to have taken over Jampa Phuntsog's former position as head of the Prefectural Government in 1996. All other prefectures in Tibet are governed by Tibetans.

Raidi called in the same speech for new standards of political loyalty to be imposed on cadres, a possible indication that some people may be about to lose their positions.

"The regional party committee has clearly put forward the need to place revolutionising in the first place in building contingents of cadres. The core contents of revolutionising are to persist in fighting against splittism and defending national unity and the unification of the motherland," said Raidi. "The main points of this requirement are: opposing separatism; criticising Dalai; and fostering the correct concept on the motherland, on nationalities, on religion, on the united front work, and on culture," he added.

- Power Struggle, Focus on Splittists -

Indications of a struggle within the regional-level Party Committee were first revealed in a speech by Chen Kuiyuan, the regional Party Secretary, on 7th November, but the issue appears to have come to a head at the four-day Plenary session of the Party Committee which began on 17th November.

Raidi's "important" speech to the Plenary, which opened the meeting, was given "enthusiastic endorsement" at the Plenary's final session and was widely publicised by the official Tibetan media.

In his speech Raidi said that the party leadership was united and named Chen Kuiyuan as having "a correct view on matters of right and wrong". But experienced observers say that the praise could conceal a challenge to Chen by Raidi, and noted a Lhasa TV "Commentary" on 26th November which did not mention Chen and which described Raidi's ideas as "the correct concept for guiding the work of our region". Chen is not reported as having attended the Plenary.

Political leaders in the TAR appear to be focussing at the moment on the need to suppress the pro-independence movement, even though there have been no incidents of bombs by independence activists reported since January and few if any street demonstrations. However, there has been significant international activity with the appointment by the US Government of a special co-ordinator on Tibet and the release of a Hollywood film featuring the young Dalai Lama.

"We must declare a total war - in thinking and theory and in the ideological realm - on Dalai and his separatist forces," said Raidi, according to the 26th November TV "Commentary", which was monitored by the BBC Summary of World Broadcasts.

"In Tibet, the task of protecting the unification of the motherland is the most important task of all and stability is more important than anything else," Raidi said in his 17th November speech. "The key is to resolutely eliminate the reactionary influence of the Dalai clique."

Practical measures have also been reported in the campaign against the pro-

independence movement. On 7th November the Tibet Daily announced that the People's Armed Police in Tibet had carried out extensive exercises to prepare for "unforeseen events", apparently a reference to civil protests, and on 8th November said that Tibet's Air Defence system had to be improved because "the hostile Western forces and the Dalai splittist clique are continuously carrying out separatist activities and infiltration".

- Chinese Entrepreneurs Defended: "Allow Other People to Make Money" -

Chen Kuiyuan in his last two reported speeches concentrated on defining separatists in terms of class struggle, but Raidi in his speech to the Third Enlarged Plenary said that attention should also be paid to "the contradiction between the people's growing material and cultural needs and the backward social productive forces".

The device allowed him and Gyaltsen Norbu, No.3 in the Party hierarchy, to mount a joint attack at the Plenary on unnamed party members who they say are opposing China's drive to expand the private business sector, which in Tibet means an increased influx of Chinese traders.

"We will not hold biased views on the growth of the non-public economic sectors in Tibet," Raidi said in his address to the meeting. "Are we prejudiced against the non-public sector of the economy? Some people one-sidedly believe in the superiority of the socialist system", said Gyaltsen Norbu on the second day of the meeting.

Speeches by Raidi, Gyaltsen Norbu and Chen have all focussed on persuading Tibetans to accept Chinese migration into the area. "We should greet people from outside our region with broad-minded hospitality; ... we will not quibble over such issues as the number of businessmen from outside the region, [or] the sharing of profits with outsiders," Raidi was quoted as saying, suggesting a forthcoming increase in moves to attract Chinese entrepreneurs to the area.

"We should not be afraid of other people taking away our businesses or jobs. We should have the broad-mindedness to allow other people to make money while we make progress," he continued. "Those people have been engaging in construction and development," Chen said earlier this month in support of migrant traders in Tibet.

- Re-education to be Extended to Lay People -

An announcement by a minor official was published on the day after the Plenary ended which signalled a significant increase in attempts to attack the pro-independence movement than any of the leaders speeches, and could have major repercussions for political conditions in the region.

Jampa Kelden, head of the Nationalities and Religious Affairs Commission in the TAR, announced that steps should be taken to "spread patriotic education in the agricultural communities, towns, cities, government organs and schools," according to the 21st November edition of the Tibet Daily, reported by the French agency AFP.

He told a party meeting that new measures were needed in order to "eliminate the Dalai's influence and win people's hearts. "Otherwise, if we only carry out the patriotic education in temples, the instability will continue," he added. "The influence of the Dalai Lama on the peasants, in the townships, schools and government organs is still serious ... A number of farmers and peasants are not quite convinced that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and they are not clear about the Dalai's true face. They do not know the source of Tibet's instability and some people in the government organisation, including leaders, do not strongly criticise the Dalai Lama and maintain unification of our country," he added.

Jampa Kelden also that said steps should be taken against interference "from the air waves and from the ground", a reference to foreign radio broadcasts, according to AFP.