Communist Party Adds Tibetan Affairs Bureau to the United Front Work Department

The Communist Party's United Front Work Department (UFWD) established a new bureau to handle Tibetan affairs in 2005 and appointed Sithar (Sita, or Si Ta), a Tibetan, as Director, according to an article in Singtao Daily (translated in OSC 15 September 06). The Tibetan affairs portfolio moved from the Second Bureau, which handles ethnic and religious affairs, to the new Seventh Bureau. Sithar previously served as a deputy director of the Second Bureau. The UFWD oversees the implementation of Party policy toward China's eight "democratic" political parties, ethnic and religious groups, intellectuals, and entrepreneurs, among other functions.

The UFWD hosted Special Envoy Lodi Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's representatives, during visits to China in September 2002, May-June 2003, September 2004, and February 2006, according to statements issued by the Special Envoy. During the visits, the envoys met with UFWD officials including Liu Yandong, Head of the UFWD, Deputy Heads Zhu Weiqun and Li Dezhu (Li Dek Su), and Sithar in an effort to engage Chinese officials in substantive dialogue about the future of Tibetans and their religion, language, and culture. After the envoys' 2006 visit, the Dalai Lama disclosed in a March 10 speech that his envoys relayed a request to Chinese leaders to permit him to visit China as a religious pilgrim.

The creation of the Seventh Bureau may signal that the Party leadership has attached increased importance to Tibetan issues. The mission of the Seventh Bureau, according to the Singtao Daily report, is "to cooperate with relevant parties in struggling against secessionism by enemies, both local and foreign, such as the Dalai Lama clique, and to liaise with overseas Tibetans." The report comments, however, that Party leaders are concerned principally about the "development of the Tibet independence movement in the 'post-Dalai Lama era'." The UFWD Web page (in Chinese) summarizing organizational structure does not mention the Seventh Bureau, but it is described in a November 2005 UFWD article (in Chinese).

The U.S. State Department observed in its 2006 Report on Tibet Negotiations that it is in the interest of both the Chinese government and the Tibetan people to resolve the problems facing Tibetans, and that "the lack of resolution of these problems leads to greater tensions inside China and will be a stumbling block to fuller political and economic engagement with the United States and other nations."

See Section VIII - "Tibet," The Status of Discussion Between China and the Dalai Lama, of the CECC 2006 Annual Report for more information.