Gere: Railroad to Perdition
Richard Gere has a powerful op-ed in today’s New York Times on the launch of China’s Tibet railway.
This railway across the roof of the world will result in an expanded Chinese military presence in Tibet, accelerate the already devastating exploitation of its natural resources and increase the number of Chinese migrants, marginalizing the Tibetan people still further. In the capital, Lhasa, Tibetans are already a minority.
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And even as their culture is undermined by the railway, most Tibetans are unlikely to enjoy any economic benefits from it. With a price tag of more than $4 billion, the Tibet railway is the most ambitious and costly element of China’s current drive to develop its western regions, known as the Great Leap West. But its construction was based upon the Communist Party’s old strategic and political objectives, and its main beneficiaries will be the Chinese military units stationed there, Chinese companies and Chinese settlers. Most Tibetans don’t have access to education that would allow them to compete in the economic environment created by China’s policies, nor are they welcome to share the fruits of its success.The opening of the railway to Tibet could not have a greater symbolic importance to the Communist elite — it is the achievement of a goal set by Mao more than 40 years ago as part of a strategy to complete Tibet’s integration into China. And sadly, the opening of the railway takes place in an environment of intensified political repression. The new Communist Party chief in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, has said that the party is engaged in a “fight to the death struggle� against the Dalai Lama and his supporters.
Technorati Tags: China’s Tibet railway
Gere points out the cost of the railway. At over $4 billion USD, the railway costs more than the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s entire gross domestic product of $3 billion USD. There is no economic justification for a single project that costs 33% more than the entire economy of Tibet. China’s massive expenditure on the railway is only justifiable as a facet to expand their policy of colonization. Quite simply, this railway is meant to be a nail in the coffin for Tibet’s unique culture.
Gere is right to point out the political nature of this project. The CCP has always wanted to remove the barriers that has kept China out of Tibet for centuries. The completion of this railway is a realization that they hope will allow for a rapid increase to the colonization of Tibet by Han Chinese settlers who will set their roots, enjoy governmental policies of education and health care that are designed to benefit them, and take up an ever-greater share of Tibet’s economy.
Western nations, the US in particular, spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of freedom in reference to autocracies and theocracies in the Muslim world. It’s a shame that while those rhetorically correct discussions take place, politicians and commentators ignore China’s colonial occupation of Tibet. Not only do Tibetans live under a brutal military regime that has the greatest concentration of troops in all of China, but they are subjected to colonial policies that exploit Tibetan resources, subjugate Tibetans to Han Chinese, diminish the value of Tibetan culture with the aim of destroying it completely, and lack the most basic freedoms of speech, assembly, religion, press, and petition. These are not rights that only apply to people living in Western democracy, but basic human rights that Tibetans are deliberately deprived of by the Chinese government.
I raise the issue of freedom not to make a comparative claim of who most deserves the attention of westerners who care about the promotion of human rights. Rather I believe the whole world is worse off when people live under oppressive governments that push cultural destruction as a means of securing political stability. We need to wake up and pay attention to what China is doing in Tibet. Hopefully Gere’s article will help do that.
4 Responsesto “Gere: Railroad to Perdition”
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The Final Solution…
50 years and no solution.
The racist Chinese now know
Unlike in Manchuria,
Unlike in Turkestan,
Unlike in Mongolia
They’ve still failed to swamp
Tibetans in isolated Tibet.
The Chinese in Tibet
Are a study in Misery.
No Chinese food.
No Chinese cloth…
How many of you guys have really been to china b4? Globalization is an unstopable progress and tibet will not be an exception of that.. China’s railway project will only bring tibet more wealth and oppotunities, stop lying about the turth and be honest to your own people.
“Gere points out the cost of the railway. At over $4 billion USD, the railway costs more than the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s entire gross domestic product of $3 billion USD. There is no economic justification for a single project that costs 33% more than the entire economy of Tibet”
Know why tibet’s eco so fucked up??!! beoz there is no real transprotation other than aeroplane b4 the railway.. fucking idiot!
If you guys got the courage and believe in free talking. Just keep my words here and let the rest of your people enlighten me about your idea.
To ProlAmer:
I’m personally in favor of deleting comments that end with “fucking idiot!” – but as long as your ridiculous comments are up here I’ll tell you that many of “us” have in fact been to China, and of course Tibet, where we have seen with our own eyes the devastation that China’s occupation has caused not only to Tibetan culture but to the environment – resource exploitation including environmentally disastrous mining activities, nuclear development, illegal and rapacious logging, all “development” activities that the Railway is DESIGNED to increase. Besides burning fossil fuel, explain to me how the small amount of airplane travel into Tibet has had such a negative environmental impact on the Tibetan plateau?
And of course, to your comment that “China’s railway project will only bring tibet more wealth and oppotunities [sic]…” – oh, please. China’s Tibet Railway is a cornerstone of the Chinese government’s “Develop the West” campaign which it has explicitly stated is a politically-motivated project to consolidate control in Tibet and tie it closer to central China. Any wealth or opportunities the Railway will bring will benefit Han settlers in Tibet – just as jobs working on the Railway did.
Thanks for the “oppotunity” to enlighten you.
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