Apr 23, 2008

Tibet: Beijing ‘Educates’ Patriots in Tibet


Sample Image Beijing has launched an alarming propaganda campaign in Tibet in response to recent unrest in the region.

 

 

Below is an article published by The Australian:

Beijing has launched a vast re-education campaign in Tibet to promote Chinese patriotism and counter the "Dalai clique".

 

This follows the restoration of an edgy form of order since last month's [protests] in Tibet against Chinese rule. Those involved in the anti-Chinese Lhasa [protests] of March 14 [2008] will be asked to denounce their actions and condemn others who took part.

 

Tibet Daily, an official newspaper, heralded the launch of a two-month campaign "to fight separatism, maintain stability and promote development".

 

This will be driven, it said, by Communist Party organisations in both cities and countryside.

Nomadic herders and "other peasants", it said, would be educated about "the true facts of what happened on March 14 [2008] (in Lhasa), about patriotism, ethnic unity, social stability and obedience to the law".

 

The campaign will be delivered by television and other mass media, by photograph exhibitions and at meetings where people will give testimonies and provide "practical skills training".

 

There will be denunciation sessions, at which party cadres will "disclose the conspiracy of the Dalai (Lama) clique".

 

The Tibet Daily said veteran cadres should educate young people about "the giant progress in Tibet, and how not to spread or believe in rumours".

 

The Tibet Government posted on its website yesterday [22 April 2008] an account of how the campaign had got off to a flying start in Linzhou county, where that more than 40 "politically qualified" cadres had energetically pursued the campaign via "propaganda teams".

 

These teams have carried out a detailed survey of the activities of all Buddhist monks in the country, personally visited 5754 families, held 10 photo exhibitions and distributed thousands of copies of Tibet Daily editorials. And 280 "suspects" - presumably of participating in riots last month - have already given themselves up during the campaign. Duoji Cizhu, the deputy party secretary of Tibet and the Mayor of Lhasa, said in launching the campaign that party members' performance in it would strongly determine their job assessments and promotions.

 

Tibet's education committee announced on its web site: […]

"All schools and other educational institutions should attach high importance to the correct guidance of public opinion, to strengthening leadership and deploying thoroughly to reveal the conspiracies of the Dalai clique."

 

Every school has to assign staff to ensure they obtain and make timely use of "the approved propaganda materials".

 

Yin Deming, director of the party's organisation department in Tibet, gave specific instructions, according to the website of the Youth League of Tibet, as to "how to build a bronze and iron wall against splittism".

 

The campaign appears to be extended to some ethnic Tibetan areas of adjoining provinces.

 

The website of the Chongqing municipal government, located within Sichuan, said: "All teachers are strictly required to obey political disciplines, not to spread or believe in rumours from the by-ways, and to explain events to their students strictly according to the spirit of central party documents and from reports by central government media."

 

It said that teachers, Communist Youth League cadres and student union leaders were required "to mingle with students in their dormitories, dining halls and classrooms, to seize hold of their thinking", to strictly control vehicles allowed in to campuses, and to pay special attention to Tibetan students whose parents live near the schools, and might thus be most likely to organise "separatist" events.