President Obama's controversial meeting with the Dalai Lama this week has already infuriated China and stirred up Tibet advocates who thought it should have come sooner. China says Tibet is part of its territory, and that the meeting represents an unwanted intrusion into its domestic affairs. But most Americans still see the Dalai Lama as the representative of a people oppressed by Chinese rule. Tibetans feel chafed by the restrictions on their political and religious freedoms; many are dissatisfied with Chinese rule, and this has led to widespread rioting over the past few years. They want self-determination; fair enough. But that seems to be the only story about Tibet that is ever told. The other story is that, for China's many blunders in mountainous region, it has erected a booming economy there. Looking at growth, standard of living, infrastructure, and GDP, one thing is clear: China has been good for Tibet.
Since 2001, Beijing has spent $45.4 billion on development in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). (That's what the Chinese government calls Tibet, even though many Tibetans live in neighboring provinces, too). The effect: double-digit GDP growth for the past nine years. About a third of the money went to infrastructure investment, including the train connecting Beijing to Lhasa. "A clear benefit of the train was that it makes industrial goods cheaper for Tibetans, who, like everyone else in the world, like household conveniences, but normally had to pay very high prices," said Ben Hillman, a Tibet expert from the Australian National University's China Institute. The train also provides an opportunity for Tibetan goods to be sold outside of the region and for a massive increase in number of tourists, reaching more than 5.5 million in 2009"”up from close to 2 million in 2005, the year before the train. The Chinese government's Tibet tourism bureau expects the numbers to keep climbing. While Tibetan independence groups like Free Tibet raise sustainability concerns about the increase in tourism, Hillman points out that "tourism is an important industry that can benefit local Tibetans."
PHOTOS Troubled Torch
Protests in 2008 alarmed China in the Olympic run-up.
Infrastructure improvements have not only helped grow the economy but also have aided in modernizing remote parts of the Tibetan plateau, an area with 3 million people about twice the size of France. Paved roads allow herders easier access to hospitals and the capital, where they sell handicrafts. "Cellphone service in parts of western Tibet is better than in parts of New Jersey," said Gray Tuttle, an assistant professor of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University.
Since 2006, the Chinese central government has been shifting its Tibet development strategy from funding massive infrastructure projects to programs intended to bring greater benefit to individual Tibetans. While Han migrants may compete for jobs with Tibetans in urban areas, diffusing the benefits more broadly among Chinese, the net per-capita income of rural residents was $527 in 2009, an increase of more than 13 percent from the 2008 figure and the fourth year in a row where growth exceeded 13 percent. While still low, it represents an increase in wealth creation at the lowest levels. Although Chinese statistics on Tibet, like Chinese statistics in general, are impossible to verify, it seems clear that material living standards among the 80 to 90 percent of the population living in rural Tibet are rising rapidly.
"I was amazed at the amount of money actually being spent in these villages," said Melvyn Goldstein, codirector of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University. Through extensive rural fieldwork in the TAR, Goldstein found that "health-insurance plans are getting better, bank loans are now more accessible, schooling is free for primary school and middle school, and access to electricity and water is improving." At the improved schools, students learn Mandarin, which gives Tibetans access to work opportunities in government offices in Tibet and in companies throughout China.
Last month, President Hu Jintao held the Communist Party's fifth Tibet planning conference, the first since 2001, to strategize on the upcoming years. He said that Tibetan rural income will likely match China's average by 2020. And he stressed the need for Tibet, beset by the "special contradiction" of the Dalai Lama, to develop using the "combination of economic growth, well-off life, a healthy eco-environment, and social stability and progress."
It's true that, so far, all the money has failed to buy Tibetan loyalty. Beijing won't deal with the Dalai Lama, even though Tibetans revere him, nor will it let his monastic followers build any power or voice any nationalist sympathy. Instead, the government is offering Tibetans the same bargain it has offered the rest of the country: in exchange for an astronomical rise in living standards, the government requires citizens to relinquish the right to free worship and free speech. The Chinese government has kept its end of the deal. Even if Tibetan residents never signed the contract, they have benefited from its enforcement"”a fact Obama might keep in mind when he meets the Dalai Lama.
placeAd2(commercialNode,'bigbox',false,'')
© 2010
var OutbrainPermaLink = "http://www.newsweek.com/id/" + masterPageId; var OB_Template = "newsweek"; var OB_demoMode = false; var OBITm = "1254773538724"; var OB_langJS ='http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js'; if ( typeof(OB_Script)!='undefined' ) OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; } Share: Facebook Digg Tweet LinkedIn newsweek:http://www.newsweek.com/id/233726 Tools: 34 Post Your Comment Print Email NWK.widget.EmailArticle.init(); SPONSORED BY placeAd2('printthis','88x31|3',false,''); placeAd2(commercialNode,'below_story',false,'') var url = 'http://content.pulse360.com/ECC45BD6-867E-11DE-8C30-D41FEDADD848'; url += '?CommercialNode=' + commercialNode; // NOTE :: The "scr" + "ipt" break is essential, presumably to bypass loose // js/DOM safeguards against doing what we want to do here. document.write('"); var isAuthenticated = false; Discuss Enter Your Comment NWK.widget.CommentsSubmit.form = $('#comment-form'); NWK.widget.CommentsSubmit.init(); placeAd2('comments/'+commercialNode,'88x31|2',false,''); Sponsored by Member Comments Reply Report Abuse Posted By: Cim83 @ 02/18/2010 6:47:34 AM
In attempting to make a provocative and somewhat novel argument, Stone mistakes an economic evaluation for a moral one, which to me is a dangerous move. I think he should read "The Story of Tibet," by Thomas Laird, and perhaps other sources in order to be more intellectually honest. Tibet may have been backwards and impoverished based upon modern and Western standards, but that doesn't excuse China's actions there. China wanted Tibet for its resources and location, and it got it.
Reply Report Abuse Posted By: susancanyon @ 02/18/2010 6:32:58 AM
Arrogant to think that happiness comes with stuff and infrastructure. It was forced on these people. Big sticks do not mean loyalty, nor does the destruction of a culture.
Reply Report Abuse Posted By: roomsmfg @ 02/18/2010 6:28:20 AM
Fareed Zakaria,Chinese lover. A misguided and dangerous quasi=celebrity.He probably authorized this garbage.
Reply Enter Your Comment Report Abuse
Enter comments if any for reporting abuse
Report Abuse View All Comments » NWK.widget.CommentsReply.init(); NWK.widget.CommentsReport.init(); placeAd2(commercialNode,'articleFlex',false,'') var flashvars = {}; var params = {}; var attributes = {}; params.allowScriptAccess = "always"; params.wmode = "transparent"; flashvars.channel = "World"; flashvars.nw = "t"; flashvars.env = "prod"; flashvars.omnitureAccount = "wpninewsweekprod"; flashvars.pageType = "SP"; flashvars.fileLoc = "http://ndn1.newsweek.com/site/redesign/flash/most-popular/"; if (hasFlash("swfTopTenVertical")) swfobject.embedSWF("http://ndn1.newsweek.com/site/redesign/flash/most-popular/top10_smallKernel.swf", "swfTopTenVertical", "331", "220", "8.0.0", "http://ndn2.newsweek.com/site/redesign/js/libs/swf/expressInstall.swf", flashvars, params, attributes); var url = 'http://content.pulse360.com/AFA28B5A-4F8E-11DE-882C-6423EDADD848'; url += '?CommercialNode=c_col_' + commercialNode; // NOTE :: The "scr" + "ipt" break is essential, presumably to bypass loose // js/DOM safeguards against doing what we want to do here. document.write('"); #container2 { margin-top: 10px; border-top:2px solid #999; width:350px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-image: url(http://ndn3.newsweek.com/site/redesign/images/inTheKnow/bg-gray-gradient.jpg); background-repeat: repeat-x; } #container2 img { border:none; float:right; } .digg { margin:0 0 30px 5px; overflow:hidden; padding-left: 5px; } .digg h3 { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif!important; color:#000; font-size:14px!important; padding:12px 0 12px 0; text-transform:uppercase; } .diggs { color:#336599; float:left; height:30px; line-height:30px; margin-left:10px; padding-right:10px; width:32px; } .digg-article { border-bottom:1px solid #999; overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:7px; } .digg ul { overflow:hidden; padding-bottom:9px; padding-top:14px; list-style:none; } .digg ul li { clear:left; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 0; } .digg ul li img { padding-right:6px; } .digg .text { float:left; font-size:1.2em; line-height:1.25; padding-bottom:5px; width:200px; } .digg-count { background-image: url(http://ndn2.newsweek.com/media/34/digg-bg.png)!important; background-repeat:no-repeat!important; background-position:left !important; float:left; color:#000 !important; height:30px; line-height:30px; margin-right:0 !important; padding-right:10px; text-decoration:none !important; width:32px; font-size:11px!important; text-align:center !important; } .digg-ajax h3 a { color:#900 !important; font-size:12px !important; line-height:16px !important; text-decoration:none !important; text-transform:none !important; vertical-align:center !important; } .digg-ajax h3 a:hover { text-decoration:underline!important; } .digg-ajax ul { padding-bottom:2px !important; padding-top:0 !important; } .digg-ajax li { border-top:1px solid #ccc; padding:8px 0 !important; } .digg-ajax li a span { display:none !important; } .digg-footer { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; padding-top:8px; width: 330px; } Newsweek on Digg digg_id = 'digg-widget-container'; //make this id unique for each widget you put on a single page. digg_width = '330px'; digg_height = 'auto'; digg_border = 0; digg_theme = 'digg-widget-unstyled'; digg_title = 'Popular stories from the source site newsweek.com sorted by dates'; var config = new Object(); config["divid"] = "brightcove30256"; config["type"] = "mini_standard"; config["configpid"] = "1243489057"; config["rsspid"] = "1137883278"; config["rsslid"] = "1137849353"; config["numItems"] = "5"; config["lineupCollapse"] = "true"; config["lineupName"] = "MORE VIDEO"; config["videoPreview"] = "false"; config["autoStart"] = "false"; config["width"] = 336; config["height"] = 390; config["styleclass"] = "brightcove-mini-player"; config["activeTab"] = "video"; config["bgColor"] = "#FFFFFF"; config["url"] = "30256"; if (typeof(commercialNode) != 'undefined') config["commercialNode"] = commercialNode; if (typeof(commercialNode) != 'undefined') placeAd2("video/"+commercialNode,'video',false,''); bcFullscreenPlayer(config); Previous Next 02/09 - 02/15 News/Week How the Saints Give Back to New Orleans Can the FBI Secretly Track Your Cell Phone? America's Most-Wanted Invasive Species Why it's Time for Obama to Tell the Hard Truth about the Deficit Forget the Crib Notes, it's Palin's Unsavvy That Really Worries Republicans Tea Party Movement Is Full of Conspiracy Theories The Jihad Against the Jihadis Some of Haiti's Children Are Almost Like Slaves Exclusive: A U.S. Intelligence Breakthrough in the Persian Gulf? The Case Against Layoffs Google Buzz? More Like Buzz Kill "�Greenest Olympics Ever' May Not Mean Much Why "�The Bachelor' Is Always White Past Olympians Share Golden Memories We Read It: Staying True by Jenny Sanford How Public Policy Can Prevent Heart Disease Will the Recession Change Us? Is There a PMS Gene? NWK.widget.NewsSlashWeek.init(); placeAd2(commercialNode,'rightSidePromo',false,'') Marjah residents skeptical of NATO promises White repeats in halfpipe ... with a McTWist Davis wins gold in men's 1,000 speedskating Downhill gold for Vonn "�everything I've wanted' Eight of 10 detained Americans arrive in Miami Reassessing economic stimulus after first year Governors pledge much on jobs Democrats battle for Appalachia Vast cyber attack uncovered Wizards trade Jamison to Cavs Slate V: Previously on Lost: The Substitute The Slatest: Morning Edition Movement conservatives renew their vows with the Mount Vernon Statement. Join a live chat about the Winter Olympics with Slate writers and editors. Slate on the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Loyalists Wage Campaign to Stop Kennedy Miniseries Police: NJ Man Says He Tossed Baby From Bridge Nuclear Offer Kindles GOP Interest but Doesn't Thaw Debate French Winemakers Convicted for Duping Gallo In Moderate Malaysia, 3 Women Caned for Adultery Bank of America, SEC and Cuomo Not Sharing a Milkshake Anytime Soon Why Is The App Store Scared of reMail? Because Google Bought It? Did Twitter Topple Toyota? Publishers Balk at iPad Secrecy App-etizers, Feb. 17: An App Store Rival? Doubtful. Photos: Mardi Gras floats on Vancouver: Tim Zagat dishes travel tips Kayak teams up with Yapta to let you track fare changes TripTracker: Whip up a no-fuss, insta-itinerary San Francisco: Decoding the "healthy surcharge" About NewsweekAdvertising InformationSubscriber ServicesPressroomContact UsUser AgreementPrivacy PolicyJobsBack CopiesRights and Reprint SalesShowcase AdsSitemap© 2010 Newsweek, Inc. A warning we should have heeded then, and should remember today Gates on Wilson deathWSJ This is better than any Mardi Gras Saints fan Gene Guilbeaux on his team's winLAT I'm blind, but I'm not a dope. Paterson denying kissing a woman not his wifePOLDAY I couldn't stop myself from doing the things I was doing Phillips after sex addict rehabESPN var root = "http://www.newsweek.com/"; var staticContentRoot = "http://ndn2.newsweek.com/"; var isSlideshow = 'false'; NWK.component.BoxCollection.init(); NWK.component.Poll.init(); if(isSlideshow == 'true'){ NWK.component.SlideShow.init(); } NWK.component.Recommendation.init(); NWK.widget.Bitly.init(); NWK.widget.BoxFlipper.init(); NWK.widget.ExternalLink.init(root,externalframesetwhitelist); NWK.widget.QuickRead('', '', ''); NWK.widget.DiggIt.init(); NWK.widget.Subscribe.init(); NWK.widget.Ticker.init($("#latest-headlines"), $('#ticker-data'), {interval : 5000, 'animate' : 'fadeIn'}); document.domain = "newsweek.com";checkVisitorId("newsweek.com"); var _sf_async_config={uid:2503,domain:"newsweek.com"}; (function(){ function loadChartbeat() { window._sf_endpt=(new Date()).getTime(); var e = document.createElement('script'); e.setAttribute('language', 'javascript'); e.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); e.setAttribute('src', (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://s3.amazonaws.com/" : "http://") + "static.chartbeat.com/js/chartbeat.js"); document.body.appendChild(e); } var oldonload = window.onload; window.onload = (typeof window.onload != 'function') ? loadChartbeat : function() { oldonload(); loadChartbeat(); }; })(); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https://sb" : "http://b") + ".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js' %3E%3C/script%3E")); try{ COMSCORE.beacon({ c1:2, c2:6972086, c3:"", c4:"", c5:"", c6:"", c15:"" }); }catch(err){};
Last month, President Hu Jintao held the Communist Party's fifth Tibet planning conference, the first since 2001, to strategize on the upcoming years. He said that Tibetan rural income will likely match China's average by 2020. And he stressed the need for Tibet, beset by the "special contradiction" of the Dalai Lama, to develop using the "combination of economic growth, well-off life, a healthy eco-environment, and social stability and progress."
It's true that, so far, all the money has failed to buy Tibetan loyalty. Beijing won't deal with the Dalai Lama, even though Tibetans revere him, nor will it let his monastic followers build any power or voice any nationalist sympathy. Instead, the government is offering Tibetans the same bargain it has offered the rest of the country: in exchange for an astronomical rise in living standards, the government requires citizens to relinquish the right to free worship and free speech. The Chinese government has kept its end of the deal. Even if Tibetan residents never signed the contract, they have benefited from its enforcement"”a fact Obama might keep in mind when he meets the Dalai Lama.
© 2010
In attempting to make a provocative and somewhat novel argument, Stone mistakes an economic evaluation for a moral one, which to me is a dangerous move. I think he should read "The Story of Tibet," by Thomas Laird, and perhaps other sources in order to be more intellectually honest. Tibet may have been backwards and impoverished based upon modern and Western standards, but that doesn't excuse China's actions there. China wanted Tibet for its resources and location, and it got it.
Arrogant to think that happiness comes with stuff and infrastructure. It was forced on these people. Big sticks do not mean loyalty, nor does the destruction of a culture.
Fareed Zakaria,Chinese lover. A misguided and dangerous quasi=celebrity.He probably authorized this garbage.
Enter comments if any for reporting abuse
Read Full Article »