(TibetanReview.net, Aug19’21) – Noting that after 70 years of “peaceful liberation,” occupied Tibet Autonomous Region was to “embark on new journey of modernization,” a top Chinese official has said Aug 19 that “all-round efforts” were needed to ensure Tibetans used standard spoken and written Chinese and shared the “cultural symbols and images of the Chinese nation.”
Wang Yang made the remarks for outright Sinicization of the Tibetan people before a handpicked audience in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the traditional winter residence of successive Dalai Lamas, at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of the vast Himalayan region, noted the AP Aug 19.
The official marking of the 70th anniversary on Aug 18 and the visit of the central delegation led by Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, were not previously announced.
The report quoted Wang, who oversees Beijing’s policy toward ethnic minorities, as saying “separatist and sabotage activities committed by the Dalai (Lama) group and hostile external forces have been crushed.”
Since 1951, Tibet has “embarked on a path from darkness to brightness, from backwardness to progress, from poverty to prosperity, from autocracy to democracy, and from closeness to openness,” Wang has said.
China’s official Xinhua news agency Aug 19 further quoted him as saying, “Only by following the CPC leadership and pursuing the path of socialism, can Tibet achieve development and prosperity.”
No one has the right to point fingers at China when it comes to Tibetan affairs, and any attempt or maneuver designed to separate Tibet from China is doomed to fail, another Xinhua report quoted Wang as saying in his address.
Wang has called the so-called “peaceful liberation” of Tibet in 1951 “a major victory in the cause of liberation of the Chinese people and China’s reunification,” saying it marked a historic transition with epoch-making significance for Tibet.
Wang has said his delegation was entrusted by the CPC Central Committee and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, to jointly celebrate the 70th anniversary of Tibet’s peaceful liberation with people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. Xi Himself visited Tibet from Jul 21 to 23 for the same anniversary.
