(TibetanReview.net, Jul23’22) – The three-step plan of President Xi Jinping for Tibet calls for crushing dissent, sinicization, and territorial fortification, and China is only interested in exploiting the territory’s natural wealth and changing its demography, according to a paper published by a group called Policy Research Group (Poreg) on its poreg.org website.
In order to implement this policy effectively, the report says, China has imposed heavy-handed control in Tibet and systemically repressed fundamental rights, and tightened control over civil society.
The environmental destruction of Tibet caused by China under this policy could lead to the drying up of rivers, melting of glaciers, thawing of permafrost, flooding, and loss of grasslands, the report notes.
Citing an example of mining activities giving rise to pollution in the region, the report notes that the river close to Lhasa, which is the lifeline of the people of Dolkar and Zibuk villages of the city’s Lhundup County, is being polluted by the Gyama Copper Poly-metallic mine.
The report says that several international river systems such as the Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze, and Indus that originate from Tibet are being affected similarly.
The ‘stored hydro’ concept which releases waters from dams at different heights without relying on the water cycle and the natural flow of rivers has been degrading the flora and fauna, the report points out.
The report notes that China’s 40-page white paper on “Tibet since 1951: Liberation, Development and prosperity” published last year talks about development, building more dams, and several infrastructural initiatives, but does not take the environmental destruction into consideration.
While the white paper talks about clean-energy-generated electricity, saying that it has reduced the emissions of carbon dioxide, the Tibetan people do not benefit from such initiatives as the generated power is transmitted to China.
Poreg is a China-focused group with teams of strategic analysts which started in 2008 as an independent enterprise that initially looked at today and tomorrow of Asia to offer an Asian perspective.