(TibetanReview.net, Mar 21, 2009) — China is blaming everything but its own policy of repression, including the gross and systemic human right violations, for the “separatist” problem in Tibet. Some “unavoidable internal problems”, as well as separatists nurtured by both imperialist forces and the Dalai clique, were responsible for last year’s deadly riot in Lhasa, the official China Daily newspaper Mar 19 cited Zhang Yun, professor of China Tibetology Research Center, as saying.
“China has entered a phase of fast-tracked development, one in which problems such as employment, healthcare and housing all surfaced, each sparking concerns nationwide, including in Tibet,” Zhang was quoted as having told a group of Chinese and foreign reporters at an exhibition in Beijing on the 50th anniversary of “Tibet’s Democratic Reform”.
He had said the Serfs Emancipation Day of Mar 28 was set to educate the younger generations “who have not suffered under serfdom and theocracy”.
Zhang claims that the Dalai Lama still yearns for the restoration of the old Tibetan society, although not explicitly calling for its return. “The Dalai Lama’s so-called ‘government-in-exile’ today is also a theocracy … although the Dalai Lama no longer explicitly calls for a restoration of serfdom in Tibet, he has always taken the time to praise old Tibet.”