(TibetanReview.net, Nov10’23) – The publicity section of the cabinet of the Chinese government has today issued its 19th White Paper on Tibet since 1992, with its most distinctive feature being the use of the term “Xizang” or “Xizang Autonomous Region” for “Tibet Autonomous Region” throughout the text.
China’s State Council Information Office on Friday released a white paper on the policies of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on the governance of Xizang Autonomous Region in the new era, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Nov 10.
The report said the white paper, titled “CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements,” highlighted that the CPC’s guidelines for governing Xizang in the new era had brought about all-round progress and historic success in various undertakings in the region.
A major preliminary purpose of this propaganda exercise is seen to be to make it clear that “Tibet” means “Xizang” or “Xizang Autonomous Region” and does not include Qinghai province and other historically Tibetan territories that China has merged with its Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces.
One of the major sticking points between the exile Tibetan leadership and the Chinese government in the thus far failed talks for the settlement of the issue of Tibet has been on the definition of “Tibet”. The former has been seeking autonomy for a “Tibet” that includes all the above historical Tibetan territories, which China flatly rejects.
China’s latest white paper has used the term “Tibet” only to refer to “Tibet Airlines”, “Aid-Tibet Exhibition Hall”, and “Qinghai-Tibet Plateau” while Tibetans are still referred to as “Tibetans”, rather than something like “Zàngzú”.
A white paper is a statement of official positions on the issues it discusses rather than a compilation of objective facts. Hence China’s latest white paper on Tibet is filled with familiar propaganda jargons and euphemism that paint a rosy picture of the situation in the region as a way to rebut – if only on paper and by means of other media outputs – the outpouring of recent international criticisms of Beijing’s record on issues of human rights, socio-economic situation and the natural environment there. These criticisms have occurred in light of President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented new drive to assimilate Tibet and other ethnic minority regions of the People’s Republic of China in the name of Sinicization.