Ethnic Minority Rights

In response to a March 2005 call by the General Offices of the Party Central Committee and State Council to increase government transparency, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) recently met to discuss its own Plan for Implementing Greater Transparency in Ethnic Affairs Work. The director of the SEAC's newly established Leading Group for Transparency in Ethnic Minority Work called on "every office and every person" to recognize the importance of incorporating greater transparency into their daily government work. The Leading Group plans to publish its working plan within the next six months.

The Xinjiang provincial education department will begin offering two-year degree programs in vocational schools this year, according to the July 27 Urumqi Evening News. The courses will be taught exclusively in Mandarin Chinese, reflecting an ongoing national and provincial campaign to promote Mandarin Chinese and reduce the use of local minority languages in schools (see 1 and 2 for related articles).

In "Silenced," Serena Fang, a journalist with the Public Broadcasting System program "Frontline," describes the treatment she and her interview subject received at the hands of Chinese authorities for conducting an interview that was not authorized by the government:

The Dalai Lama's envoys met with Chinese officials on June 30 and July 1 in Bern, Switzerland, according to a press release by the Tibetan government-in-exile. The fourth round of talks between the envoys and Chinese officials took place in the Chinese Embassy in the Swiss capital. The Tibetan delegation met with Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun and Mr. Sithar of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen traveled to China in 2002, 2003, and 2004, and met with Chinese government and Communist Party officials. The envoys visited Beijing, the Tibet Autonomous Region, autonomous Tibetan prefectures in Yunnan and Sichuan, and several Chinese cities.

The Dalai Lama said that a "democratic Tibet" may not need a Dalai Lama, according to a June 20 report in the Hindustan Times, a major Indian daily newspaper. The Tibetan religious leader explained that if he dies in exile "there will be another Dalai Lama," but "if we cease to be a refugee community and can live in democratic Tibet, then I don't think there should be a successor to me after I die."

The Dalai Lama's premise is that if the political role historically filled by the Dalai Lama can be replaced by a democratically elected Tibetan leader, there would be no further need for the position. But most Tibetans revere the Dalai Lama as their religious leader and as a political figure, and when he speaks about the end of the line of Dalai Lamas, it raises concern in the Tibetan community.

The government has relocated more than 700,000 residents from the poorest areas within western China to newly-constructed residential centers since the Great Western Development (GWD) Campaign began in 2000, according to Du Ping, chief of the general affairs division of the Leading Group for the GWD Campaign. Du announced the figures at the Second International Study Conference on the GWD Campaign on June 21. Government agencies are moving residents from areas with limited prospects for development to residential centers with full access to social services, Du reported. U.S. sources report, however, that many of the poor are forced to move and have not received adequate compensation.

The Central Propaganda Department praised 18 model individuals and work units for "strengthening nationality unity" in a recently published "Ode to Progress in Minority Nationality Unity." The State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) Web site highlights the new work, which reflects a national campaign to "intensify propaganda on unity" among China's 56 ethnic nationalities.