Chinese Leaders Attend TAR 40th Anniversary Ceremony, Adopt TAR Goals for 21st Century

Senior Chinese government and Party officials attended a September 1 ceremony in Lhasa marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), according to a Xinhua report. Jia Qinglin, a Politburo Standing Committee member who also heads the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), led the high-level delegation, which included Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing; Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang; Minister of Construction Wang Guangtao, General Liang Guanglie, Chief of the People's Liberation Army General Staff; Liu Yandong, who heads the United Front Work Department; National People's Congress Vice Chairman Ragdi (Raidi); and Phagpala Geleg Namgyal (Pagbalha Geleg Namgyai) and Ngabo Ngawang Jigme (Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme), both Vice Chairmen of the CPPCC National Committee.

Jia told an assembly of Party cadres in Lhasa on August 30 that the pace of change in the TAR must be quickened from "accelerated development" to "development by leaps and bounds," according to a Xinhua report on August 31. Government priorities include boosting rural Tibetan living standards and income, increasing infrastructure construction, consolidating ties with China's populous east, and cracking down on expression and activity perceived as a threat to "social stability and national security."

Jia's comments reflected proceedings in Beijing on August 26, when President and General Secretary Hu Jintao chaired a Politburo meeting in which the Party leadership reaffirmed its commitment to transforming the TAR in the 21st century. The leadership set the goal of strengthening state security and moving the TAR from "basic stability" to "enduring peace and stability," according to an August 26 Xinhua report.

Authorities in Lhasa tightened security before the TAR anniversary and detained as many as 10 Tibetans, according to an NGO report. State security bureau officials detained 50-year-old Sonam Gyalpo, the only detainee identified, from his home on August 28. The officers ransacked his home and found video tapes of the Dalai Lama's religious teachings, photographic images of him, and printed material. The officers produced a detention warrant, a requirement under Article 64 of China's Criminal Procedure Law, and asked that Sonam Gyalpo sign it before they took him away. It is not clear whether he signed the warrant. Previously, Sonam Gyalpo was imprisoned in 1987 for three years after he put up political posters and shouted in support of demonstrating monks, and in 1993 for one year after he returned from an undocumented trip to India with medicine blessed by the Dalai Lama.