(TibetanReview.net, Feb 20) — Clearly jittery about the upcoming Tibetan New Year for which there was a boycott campaign to mourn for those killed by Chinese troops in the crackdown on the 2008 uprising and especially the Mar 10 anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, China has not only closed Tibet to foreigners but also mobilized troops to take both preventive and crackdown operations. A conference of Chinese leaders in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) ordered authorities to “mobilise and fully deploy” to maintain stability, reported news agencies AFP and Telegraph.co.uk Feb 19, citing the official Tibet Daily newspaper Feb 19.
“The meeting called on the party, government, military, police and public in all areas… to firmly crush the savage aggression of the Dalai clique, defeat separatism, and wage people’s war to maintain stability,” it quoted the paper as saying the meeting in Lhasa. The order was reported to be aimed at ensuring stability for the 50th anniversary of Chinese reforms introduced to supplant the Dalai Lama-led Buddhist system.
The security meeting was reported to say the overarching task for Tibetan authorities this year was to “resolutely go toe-to-toe in a battle against all destructive separatist activities to maintain stability.” Also, the Daily’s editorial, focusing on the “separatist” threat, was reported to state, “We must maintain heavy pressure on criminal violators from start to finish.”
The same issue of Tibet Daily also carried an article by Lobsang Gyaincain, a member of the standing committee of the regional Communist Party, demanding that monks and nuns recognize what he called the “reactionary nature” of the Dalai Lama clique, as well as plots to use temples and clergy to carry out “infiltration and disturbances,” reported the AP news service Feb 19.
The clergy must “refuse to take part in activities aimed at splitting the motherland, and not take part in illegal marches, demonstrations and other activities that disrupt social order,” Lobsang was quoted as telling the annual conference of the regional Buddhist clergy on Feb 18. Lobsang is the head of the regional party committee’s United Front Work Department, which is in charge of directly supervising Buddhist temples and clergy. He is the most prominent and vigorous supporter in occupied Tibet of those who worship Dorje Shugden, a controversial spirit whose propitiation is strongly discouraged by the Dalai Lama.