China has no solutions in Tibet, only repression

The Washington Post had an interesting article today about the “patriotic education” campaigns that China is carrying out in Tibetan monasteries with renewed vigor.  It shows just how bankrupt China’s rule is in Tibet:

[These campaigns are] now a standard feature of life in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries. They are one of many tools Chinese leaders use to tighten party control of a religion whose charismatic leader, the 72-year-old Dalai Lama, is revered in Tibet, respected around the world and viewed in Beijing as a threat to the party’s supremacy.[...]

Monasteries around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa remained closed for a fourth week, and a woman who answered the phone, but would not give her name, at Tibet’s religious affairs bureau said that was because the monks were “taking some lessons.”

For Tibetan Buddhists, the education campaigns undermine their core beliefs and are a hated humiliation.

The thing is, “patriotic education” campaigns are nothing new in Tibet.  Looking at China trying — yet again — to “re-educate” Tibetans, it’s clear just how how bankrupt China’s legitimacy is in Tibet.

China is turning to more of the same failed policies (“maybe we just weren’t trying hard enough before…”) because, fundamentally, what else can a hated occupier do? It can only repress.

As China clamps down, however, Tibetan resistance only strengthens. The Post noted that a recent massacre, where Chinese forces killed at least 8 Tibetans, was the result of Tibetans protesting a particularly severe “patriotic education” session:

After widespread protests swept the Tibetan plateau last month, Chinese leaders responded with a combination of arrests, interrogations and vigorous education campaigns. At least eight people were reportedly killed in a remote town in Sichuan province Thursday in a protest sparked by an attempt to force monks to participate in an education campaign.

Unfortunately for Tibetans, China’s policies in Tibet may be a failure, but they have very serious consequences on the Tibetans subject to them.