(TibetanReview.net, Mar05’24) – In what may be seen as proof that Chinese rule in Tibet is typically colonial, debunking the official designation of the historical Tibetan territories, broken up and placed under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-state called the People’s Republic of China, as “autonomous”, Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has published a report Mar 4, showing Tibetans only occupy token positions at both local and national levels while their Chinese masters wield the real power, especially in the security agencies.
These findings conflict with China’s claim that Tibetans have become “masters of their own destiny” since China’s takeover of Tibet, the group said in a report titled “Underrepresented: Tibetans kept out of most leadership positions”.
In light of its findings, ICT said, “The fact that the Communist Party excludes Tibetans from real leadership positions in Tibet gives reason to believe that the party leadership does not trust Tibetans to support CCP rule if they had the choice and, to the contrary, that Tibetans would choose to abolish CCP rule, if they could.”
The report came as the much touted “Two Sessions” began in Beijing with the opening of the annual meetings of China’s top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (ICPPCC) on Mar 4, and China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), on Mar 5.
The CPPCC has only one Tibetan at the vice-presidential level, who has held the position on and off since the 1970’s. Five other Tibetans are on the conference’s Standing Committee, which has a total of 299 members, the group said.
Likeiwse, in the NPC, there is only one Tibetan among the 14 vice chairs, while its 159-member Standing Committee also has just one Tibetan.
Also largely missing from other leadership bodies at the national level is China’s 20th Party Congress, which has only one Tibetan in its 205 member-strong Party Central Committee, one fewer than in the 19th Party Congress. Besides, no Tibetan has ever served in the Politburo or its real-power-wielding Standing Committee, the group has pointed out.
Tibetans are largely kept locked out of power even in their own homeland, ICT said, pointing out that no Tibetan has ever held the highest-ranking position of the Communist Party secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which spans most of western and central Tibet. So also has been the case with Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan provinces, which include the rest of the territory of Tibet.
While there have been some Tibetan party secretaries at the prefectural level in these areas, the number had decreased since 2020, the group said.
What is more, when it comes to the leadership of the security entities, including the public security bureaus—which are at the forefront of China’s control and suppression of the Tibetan people—almost all are non-Tibetans, both at the provincial and prefectural level. Almost all heads of the military leadership at all levels in Tibet are also non-Tibetans, said the ICT report.
“Rather than having their future in their own hands, they (Tibetans) continue to be second-class citizens in their own homeland,” the ICT report said, looking especially at the situation in 2024.