中国2021年西藏白皮书：对印度的对华战略的启示（英文）

SPECIAL© 2021 Observer Research Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, archived, retained or transmitted through print, speech or electronic media without prior written approval from ORF.no. 149Manoj JoshiChina’s 2021 White Paper on Tibet: Implications for India’s China StrategyJ U N E 2 0 2 12Tibet is where India and China meet. It is through Tibet that China manages its relations with India, using the boundary dispute to keep New Delhi off-balance. India is also where the most revered Tibetan, the 14th Dalai Lama lives in exile. Having failed to negotiate his return, there is now a two-pronged effort by China to deal with the consequences of the Dalai Lama’s passing and his possible reincarnation outside Tibet: to manage the succession in its own favour, and to Sinicise Tibetan Buddhism. In the “new era” of Xi Jinping, Chinese policy continues to combine repression and development activities. Yet China has its own story to tell, often through the periodic government White Papers, the latest of which was issued on May 23. This report dissects that white paper. AbstractCover: All photographs are from Getty Images. Clockwise from top right: Bill Wassman; Kristian Dowling; Volanthevist; Arun Sankar; maki_shmaki; Lobsang Wangyal.3The Chinese government is known to be fond of marking anniversaries. On 23 May, the 71st year since the signing of the 17-point agreement between Beijing and Lhasa,a it issued another White Paper on Tibet.1 It is the third White Paper in the Xi Jinping era, the first having been released in 2015 and the second, in 2019. The themes of all three have been broadly similar: China helped the Tibetans free themselves from the yoke of a feudal-theocratic system and since then the Himalayan region has seen social and economic progress and development; there has always been political autonomy and religious freedom for the people of the region; and, it is the malicious forces, supported by the Dalai Lama and some elements in the West, who have sought to disrupt Tibet’s progress.The latest White Paper adds emphasis on the importance of maintaining a tight hold on the region, ensuring Chinese control over the selection of the next Dalai Lama, and emphasising border management and development. It underlines “managing religion in the Chinese context” and guiding “Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialist society”—in other words, Sincising Tibetan Buddhism. A day after the White Paper was issued, Wu Yingjie, the secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Tibet said that there was a need “to promote that Tibetan Buddhism has always been part of Chinese culture.”2IntroductionAttribution: Manoj Joshi, “China’s 2021 White Paper on Tibet: Implications for India’s China Strategy,” ORF Special Report No. 149, June 2021, Observer Research Foundation. a The agreement, following the defeat of the Tibetan Army at Chamdo, sought to legalise the Chinese occupation of Tibet.4Contemporary Chinese