(TibetanReview.net, Jun20’24) — Assimilating Tibet through Sinicization of education and religion and ensuring proper settlement of Chinese immigrants while also talking about ecological conservation appear to have been the main foci of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two-day inspection tour of Qinghai province, the bulk of the traditional eastern Tibetan province of Amdo (or Domey), which ended on Jun 19.
Xi, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, visited a middle school for Golok Tibetans and a Tibetan Buddhist temple, both in Xining, the provincial capital, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Jun 19 and the scmp.com Jun 20.
The Xinhua report said Xi learned about the efforts being made by the Tibetan Buddhist circle in carrying forward the fine traditions of loving the country and the religion, and in promoting ethnic unity and progress.
The Tibetan Buddhist Hongjue Temple (Tsongkha Monastery) inspected by Xi has been key to Beijing’s communication with a Tibetan Buddhist leader since it affirmed sovereignty over Tibet in 1951, said the scmp.com report. Chinese Princess Wencheng was stated to have stayed at the original site of the temple for one month when she entered Tibet as a bride of Tibet’s King Songten Gampo in the seventh century AD.
Although Hongjue Temple was not the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple in the city, it was the site of one of the most significant meetings between Communist Party’s leadership and a Tibetan Buddhist leader in 1951 (Dec 15), the report quoted Xie Maosong, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, as saying.
Xi Jinping’s father Xi Zhongxun, then the Communist Party’s deputy secretary of the Northwest Bureau and vice-chairman of the Northwest Military and Political Committee, was appointed by Mao Zedong to arrange the 10th Panchen Lama’s return to Shigatse in Tibet, the report said, citing the Communist Party’s archive.
“That was one of the most significant meetings that forged the friendship between Xi Zhongxun and the Panchen Lama that lasted for more than four decades,” Xie has said.
The Xinhua report said Xi, who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, also learned about local efforts in advancing the education work through collaboration between the eastern and western regions and paired assistance, and in strengthening education on “forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation.”
Focusing on Sinicizing the ethnic minority regions, especially in education by stressing mandarin Chinese learning and use and in religion, has been Xi’s approach for homogenizing and strengthening the national unity of what constitutes the People’s Republic of China.
Ethnic unity, a euphemism for encouraging the settlement of Chinese immigrants so as to Sinicize the demography of the Tibetan regions, has been a focus of Chinese government policy since the early days of the occupation rule.
President Xi sent a signal for ethnic unity as a plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China – to unveil economic and social development strategies for the coming decade – was set to convene next month, said the scmp.com report.
Xi also stressed continued efforts to advance the ecological conservation of the Tibetan Plateau and called on the province to promote high-quality development, said a Xinhua report Jun 20.
He met provincial party and government representatives on Jun 19 and stressed the province’s “great mission” to preserve ecological security, said the scmp.com report, citing Xinhua.
Qinghai province shares the Tibetan Plateau with the Tibet autonomous region and is rich in petroleum, natural gas, and lithium, besides yielding numerous other minerals such especially as gold for China.