(TibetanReview.net, Jan 02) – The Chinese government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) had said that with effect from Jan 1, the average lowest social security payment for employees was raised to 310 yuan per capita per month in Lhasa, 300 yuan in Nyingchi, Lhoka, Xigaze and Chamdo, 320 in Nagqu and Ngari, according to China’s online Tibet news service eng.Tibet.cn Jan 1. The policy measure appears to be designed especially to address the well-being of Chinese employees since to them the remote northern Nagqu and western Ngari would clearly be hardship postings, and, hence, the higher minimum payment.
Indeed, for a representative beneficiary of the policy measure, the report featured a photo of one Li Wenxiang, a Chinese man described as a needy worker of Lhasa Grain and Oil Industry Corporation. He was quoted as saying, “I’m happy to hear the news that lowest social security payment raised. It means this year I have the money to send my son to the kindergarten again.”
The report said the TAR Civil Affairs Department had handed out the lowest social security payments for needy people to make sure they could celebrate the New Year normally.
Meanwhile, with the Tibetans in no mood to usher in their New Year with any degree of festivities, given the fact that many had been killed, rendered disappeared or being still under detention in China’s brutal crackdown on their generally peaceful uprising protests in Mar’08, Chinese Spring Festival seems to dominate the idea of Tibetan New Year. “We feel happy as the new year approaches, so our family go shopping today together,” an eng.Tibet.cn report Dec 30 quoted a Chinese named Miss Wei as saying while selecting things in Baiyi Supermarket, located at the Beijing Middle Road in Lhasa