- Title: Surveillance and money bring fragile peace to Tibet
- Date: 30th November 2015
- Summary: DHARAMSALA, INDIA (NOVEMBER 25, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF THE TIBETAN PARLIAMENT IN EXILE SIGN READING (English and Tibetan) "TIBETAN PARLIAMENT IN EXILE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPEAKER OF TIBETAN PARLIAMENT IN-EXILE, PENPA TSERING, SAYING: "Now, if the fourteenth Dalai Lama has to pass away in exile, then it will be very difficult to fathom what the Tibetans inside Tibet
- Embargoed: 15th December 2015 15:12
- Keywords: Tibet unrest security China
- Location: LHASA, TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS REGION, TONGREN, QINGHAI PROVINCE, CHINA/NEW DELHI, DHARAMSALA, INDIA
- City: LHASA, TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS REGION, TONGREN, QINGHAI PROVINCE, CHINA/NEW DELHI, DHARAMSALA, INDIA
- Country: China
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0043BLRHVP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS FOOTAGE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Seven years ago, Lhasa was gripped by violent anti-China protests that left the city on lock down.
Now, there is no sign of the paramilitary troops or armoured personnel carriers that roamed the streets and the city now boasts of being one of the safest places in China.
Every morning hundreds of Tibetans prostrate themselves in front of the Jokhang temple, a place of huge religious significance that was once also the epicentre of violence.
They say the transformation is thanks in part to a comprehensive on-the-ground surveillance network known as the "grid management system". Officially, it is presented as a way managing society "without gaps, without blind spots, without blanks."
In Bakhor, one of the hotbeds of dissent during the riots, surveillance booths stand in alleyways and all but the smallest courtyards. They are manned by locals who are selected by the residents' management committee, though some appeared to be unstaffed when visited by Reuters journalists on a rare but highly choreographed trip to Tibet, the first access granted to Reuters in five years.
The management scheme was introduced in 2012 and formally rolled out across Tibet in November 2014, penetrating village communities and monasteries.
"After this was put in place the people became very safe. This is a Chinese speciality, where the masses participate in managing and controlling society and they also enjoy the results of managing their society," said Qi Zhala, the top Communist Party official in Lhasa.
Maintaining close surveillance over the population has gone hand in hand with policies aimed at winning hearts and minds on the plateau.
China has ploughed $47 billion into Tibet since 2011, investing in infrastructure and services such as healthcare for the local population. The region was also the first to offer 15 years free education to the local population, evidence the authorities say of the investment they have made in improving the lives of ordinary Tibetans like Suonam Norbu.
"Life in the past was like hell, it was so brutal. Now we have development and we have good policies," said Norbu, who said he'd faced a future doing odd jobs in his home town north of Lhasa until the government offered him a place at a college teaching woodwork.
The government has also sought to exert greater control over the region's monks, who were at the forefront of the 2008 protests.
More than 6,500 communist party officials have been permanently stationed inside the region's monasteries, organising education sessions aimed at increasing loyalty to the state and resisting the influence of what the authorities call the "Dalai Lama clique".
When asked if he thought monks would ever go to the streets again Gyenseng Luosang, a monk from the Sera monastery, said "those who break the law will be punished by the law but those cases are very rare, most of us won't do things like that," declining to elaborate further.
While on the surface Tibet may appear calm, exile groups warn that the peace won by the authorities could unravel if they fail to find a resolution with the current Dalai Lama and he was to die in exile.
"If the fourteenth Dalai Lama has to pass away in exile it will be very difficult to fathom what the Tibetans inside Tibet would do. This might not just be a simple protest, this could be widespread all over Tibet," said Penpa Tsering, speaker of the Tibetan parliament in-exile, who urged the Chinese leadership to do more to seek a reconciliation with the current Dalai Lama.
China frequently vilifies the Dalai Lama as a "wolf in monks clothing" intent on splitting up the country.
The Dalai Lama says he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet.
While Tibetans in China were unwilling to speak to the media about the future, those living in exile in India were upbeat about the prospects for independence.
"India was under the rule of the British empire for so many years. Similarly, in the Commonwealth, there are so many countries which have been under the rule of the British Empire but they are free now. We will also be free some day," said Dorji Tsering, who fled to India more than 50 years ago.
Many Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, fled to India after the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet in 1950.
Approximately 128,000 Tibetans live in exile, according to 2010 estimates from the exile government. Around 6.2 million Tibetans live in China, according to the 2010 census. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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