THE POTOMAC CONFERENCE, October 5-6, 1992
SINO-TIBETAN RELATIONS: PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE
October 5, Second Morning Session
II. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Recent Sino-Tibetan Dialogue / Democratization
Evolution of the Chinese Democracy Movement and
the Tibetan Issue
Elliot Sperling, Moderator
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ELLIOT SPERLING
Our next speaker is Zhu Jiaming, a visiting scholar at the Sloan School
at MIT, previously at Harvard's Fairbank Center. He has his Ph.D. in
industrial economics and has previously worked at Nankai University and
at the China International Trust and Investment Company. He has written
extensively on industrial economics. Zhu Jiaming.
ZHU JIAMING
[in Chinese] Thank you. I would like to address three issues. First,
I will simply compare the characteristics of the Chinese Government's
policies on Tibet and on other nationalities in China. China is
undergoing rapid changes now. During this process, many policies of the
Chinese Government have raised a great deal of disagreement. The
nationality policies, especially the policies on Tibet, however, have not
caused much contention. Furthermore, it can be observed that the Chinese
Communist Party'(CCP)s policies and the Kuomintang (National Party)'s
policies on Tibet are very similar, although these two parties' policies
on other areas are rather on the whole different. The same thing also is
true between the conservatives and reformers within the CCP and between
the ruling class and common ordinary Chinese people: one side may not
agree with the other side in many areas, but on Tibetan issues there is
not much disagreement between them.
Second, there are reasons for the above phenomenon. One direct reason
is the Han people's traditional chauvinism. Moreover, there are three
reasons that may need our attention. These three reasons are directly
related to Han people's or Chinese people's unilateral understanding or
view on three aspects. First is their view on Chinese territory in
history based on the way the map looks. Everyone from China knows that
the Chinese Government stresses in the basic education Han chauvinist
attitudes on Chinese history, part of which encompasses Tibetan history
which occupies a very important place. A unilateral view on Tibet has
been formed in Chinese people's mind as a result of this one-sided
Chinese history education: Chinese people never doubt whether Tibet
should or should not be part of China. In the sixties there was a
popular drama in China, _The Princess Wencheng_, which is totally
composed and written based on the Chinese unilateral view on Tibet to
explain an event. From this drama, people get the wrong impression that
Tibet had already been incorporated into China since the Tang Dynasty.
And this kind of education is going on on a daily basis.
Second is Han Chinese people's view on the Chinese Government's
contributions to Tibet after 1950. From my impression, most Chinese,
including many overseas Chinese in the democracy movement, think that
other problems can be sorted out. However, regarding Tibet, they think
that the Chinese Government's achievements overweigh its errors in Tibet.
It will take a long time to correct this unilateral view which is held
also by the intellectuals and other who have held to the democratic view.
It will take a long time before these people can view the relationship
between Tibet and China from the right perspective. (For example, Mr.
Tang Daxian has mentioned the deterioration of the economy in Tibet since
1985, which I believe is of great significance.)
Third is the biased point of view by the Han Chinese on the Tibetan
independence movement led by the Tibetan Government in Exile. Of course,
this is closely related to the Chinese Government's propaganda. They
have simplified this movement which has its roots deep in its history of
humanity and culture as a movement of splitting the motherland. If in
just simplifying the movement led by the Dalai Lama as a movement of
independence, I think it is very unfair. The historical consequences
arising from this will be very serious.
My view of Tibetan issues is based on my personal experiences in Tibet
when I was sent down to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution
for 10 years. There are a couple of unforgettable experiences that left
a great impact on me. First, the corpses of people who were killed in
the Cultural Revolution fighting floating on the Lhasa River. Second, on
July 18, 1969, there was a massacre in Nyimu, a town close to where I
lived. During this event, all the members of the Nyimu County
Preparation Revolutionary Committee were killed. This shocked me. Do
the Tibetan people deserve violence? Definitely not, because they
believe in Buddhism and they want peace. They are one of the few nations
in the world that really believes n peace. Most of the Tibetan people
were very sad to see that so many violent things happening in Tibet.
In sum, as I realized then, one of the resolutions to the Tibetan issues
is to reeducate the Chinese people over the long term, especially the Han
people, and correct their views on Tibet. The overseas democratic
movements and leaders should take this responsibility and make positive
contributions to the solution of this question. Because they can help to
reassess the history at a different level from a different perspective
that they have never been in before. And also to make them realize
historical responsibility that they should assume in terms of their
relationship with the Tibetan people. Here, I would like to say, that in
fact, since June 4, 1989, the organizations of the democratic movements
in China have made a lot of positive contributions and have marked a very
good starting point and we hope that we can continue the work in this
respect. The kind of solutions that we would like to see to the Tibetan
problems, of course, first depends on the unrelenting and unswerving
efforts by the Tibetan people. However, we hope that the people from our
side can understand that their victory also depends on understanding more
than the ethnic Han Chinese. So, I believe one of these days, when China
proceeds to a democratic state society, which will become one of the most
important prerequisites for the resolution of all the conflicts on the
road to freedom.
Thank you very much!
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