(TibetanReview.net, Jan24’25) –China concluded on Jan 22 the 3rd session of the 12th Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) people’s congress with new top government and regional congress appointments and an emphatic call to implement President Xi Jinping’s important Instructions on Tibet Affairs, a euphemism for speeding up the Sinicization of Tibet.
The meeting elected acting TAR government chairman Mr Karma Tseten as the chairman, Mr Yan Jinhai as the chairman of the regional people’s congress, Zhang Hungpo as his vice chair, and Jiang Wenfeng as the head of the TAR Commission of Supervision, the government anti-corruption body. Besides, Tashi Tsomo, Pema Norbu, Lui Tao and Zomka were made the regional congress standing committee members, reported China’s online Tibet news service eng.tibet.cn Jan 23.
Yan Jinhai, a Qinghai Tibetan native, earlier resigned – in late Nov 2024 – as the chairman of the TAR Government.
In his address, the regional party secretary Wang Junzheng has highlighted the significance of this year by noting that it is the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan and also the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the TAR. He has accordingly vowed to deepen the strict implementation of Xi Ping’s important instructions on Tibet affairs and the Tibet policy.
He has stressed the urgency to resolutely improve the region’s political stability and control its political direction as a means to more firmly observe the “Two Certainties” (gtan ‘khel gnyis). He has also called for the realization of the “Two Protections” (srung skyong gnyis). By deepening the understanding of the essence of the “Two Certainties”, there should be a deepening of the “four consciousnesses” (‘du shes bzhi) and strengthening of the “Four Confidences” (gdeng tshod bzhi) so that the “Two Protections” will be achieve.
For this purpose, Wang has called for strict coordination between The CPC Central Committee’s Strategic Plan for Tibet Affairs and the TAR Party Committee’s work planning.
In his address, Yan Jinhai has called for indepth study of the important ideas and Important guidelines for Tibetan affairs and the implementation of the new era of the Party’s Tibet policy Study. He has called for the implementation of the provisions of Wang’s speech under the strong leadership of the CPC TAR Committee, focusing on the “Four Major Issues” and strengthen the “Four Innovations”.
The report did not specify what those “Two Certainties”, “Two Protections”, “four consciousnesses”, “Four Confidences”, “Four Major Issues”, and “Four Innovations” were, but were obviously well understood within the party apparatus as means for carrying out the Sinicization of Tibet in keeping with Xi’s vision for realizing a unitary communist party of China state.