The Tibet Protests of Spring 2008

Abstract

N o 2 0 0 9 / 3 2. The most important Western sources in Beijing were The Times (London), which established its own network of sources, Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, all of which independently verified reports they received. Reports about some protests, such as those in Lhasa and Beijing, were received directly. china perspectives

Restrictions and Their Anomalies: The Third Forum and the Regulation of Religion in Tibet

“…Such a move was unprece-dented for the Chinese authorities in the post-Cultural Revolution era. It was probably the single most important factor in the increase in protest, nationalism and unrest among Tibetans that took place over the following decade and a half (Barnett 2009).…”

“…At about this time, the Third Forum's policies toward religion and the Dalai Lama, originally applicable only to the TAR, began to be implemented in parts of the Tibetan areas of Sichuan too. I have argued elsewhere that this was the primary factor that led to these areas becoming the epicentre of Tibetan protests in 2008 and the site of numerous selfimmolations since 2011 (Barnett 2009).…”

“…Such a move was unprece-dented for the Chinese authorities in the post-Cultural Revolution era. It was probably the single most important factor in the increase in protest, nationalism and unrest among Tibetans that took place over the following decade and a half (Barnett 2009). The twin policies of ultra-rapid development and public denunciation of the Dalai Lama have remained the guiding principles for China's management of Tibetan issues in almost all respects since the Third Forum was held, making it the most significant meeting in Tibetan political history since Hu Yaobang initiated a short-lived policy of reform and cultural relaxation in Tibet in May 1980 (see Sharlo 1992;Goldstein 1995).…”

“…At about this time, the Third Forum's policies toward religion and the Dalai Lama, originally applicable only to the TAR, began to be implemented in parts of the Tibetan areas of Sichuan too. I have argued elsewhere that this was the primary factor that led to these areas becoming the epicentre of Tibetan protests in 2008 and the site of numerous selfimmolations since 2011 (Barnett 2009). Within the TAR, the local television station conveyed the same message about religion in short dramas or sketches broadcast in Tibetan, part of the small portion of its output that at that time was performed in Tibetan rather than dubbed from the Chinese.…”

Room for improvement: Hydroclimatic challenges to poverty-reducing development of the Brahmaputra River basin

“…and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China(Barnett 2009), and international disputes resulting from conflicting claims by China and India to part of the basin (Malone and Mukherjee 2010) make the compilation of an authoritative water resources database particularly challenging in the Brahmaputra basin.Compounding the intra-national political challenges are complex inter-national political tensions that create obstacles to cooperative agreements on the sharing of Brahmaputra transboundary waters.To date, no multilateral or basin-wide international treaty has been established for the Brahmaputra River. Bi-lateral agreements between India and Bangladesh have tended to focus on the allocation of the Ganges and Tista Rivers, with the Brahmaputra only involved as a potential (and thus far unacceptable) source of water to supplement the highly-contested dry season flow of the Ganges River (Uprety and Salman 2011).…”