Today’s New York Times has a very telling piece on relations between Tibetans in Tibet and Han Chinese settlers on its front page. The examination of relations between the two groups show that Tibetans continue to believe that they are an occupied country and long for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. On the other side, Han Chinese settlers repeatedly state their hatred and disdain for Tibetans, who for some reason aren’t peachy keen on them coming in to exploit Tibet’s natural resources and economy for their own gain. Han chauvinism leads the best jobs to Chinese settlers and largely relegates Tibetans to low-paying jobs.

After decades of heavily financed efforts on the part of China to strengthen its control over Tibet and to tame the country’s far west through gigantic infrastructure projects and resettlement of Han Chinese from the east, the outbreak of protests and a fierce crackdown by Chinese security forces in and around Tibet have laid bare a harsh reality of policy failure.

There is no legalized ethnic discrimination in China, but privilege and power are overwhelmingly the preserve of the Han, while Tibetans live largely confined to segregated urban ghettos and poor villages in their own ancestral lands.

What the Times is describing here is China’s policy of population transfer, which dilutes the number of Tibetans inside Tibet, making them a minority in their own land. Population transfer violates international law and is a major element in China’s cultural genocide Tibet.

Later in the article, the Times reports of a journalist trying to enter a town in Gansu province that had had protests and being refused after extensive questioning. That reporter was then followed by plainclothes Chinese police officers, who videotaped his conversations with monks from afar. It truly is hard to overstate the paranoia and hatred the Chinese government has towards a free press and what full journalistic access to Tibet would reveal to the world.

I suggest you read the full Times article, as it lays bear some of the underlying tensions that exist. Tibet is an occupied country and it is no shock to anyone that is familiar with the colonial occupations of countries like Ireland, Algeria, and India that there would be animus between the populations crammed together by imperial policies.

Update:

The AP reports that China has now admitted that protests have spread further and wider around Tibet (including provinces outside of the Tibetan Autonomous Region which are also part of Tibe’s historical territory).

Armed police and troops poured into far-flung towns and villages in Tibetan areas of adjacent provinces to reassert control as sporadic demonstrations continued to flare. Foreigners were barred from traveling there and tour groups were banned from Tibet, isolating a region about four times the size of France….

The reports confirm previous claims by exile Tibet activist groups that the protests had spread. Foreign journalists have been banned from going to Tibet and have found it increasingly difficult to travel to areas in other provinces with Tibetan populations….

On Thursday morning, an Associated Press photographer was turned away from a flight to Zhongdian in Yunnan province. There were 12 policemen, including with automatic weapons at the check-in counter. The police said that no foreigners were allowed to travel to Tibetan areas due to the protests. [Emphasis added]

China is turning Tibet into the world’s largest prison. Journalists are not allowed in, foreigners are not allowed in, and Tibetans are not allowed out. Not only is Tibet on lock-down, but even areas with Tibetan populations are under restriction. These are all facts that highlight the reality: China has been and continues to rule Tibet through a forceful and violent military occupation. There is no way to look at China’s actions in the last week and a half and come to any other conclusion.