Lhasa Conference Considers Judicial Role in Protecting Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Supreme People’s Court and Party officials opened a conference on June 15 that considered the role the judiciary should play in assisting to maintain social stability following the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railroad in July. Vice President Zhang Jun of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) addressed a conference on "The Judicial Response to the Opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad" in Lhasa on June 15, according to a China Court Network report on June 16. Scheduled to begin operation on July 1, the railroad will link Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), with Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Xining, the capital of Qinghai province. Zhang said that the railway has an important role in the Great Western Development (GWD) program, and that the inauguration of the rail service would create "new demands regarding the work of the courts."

Zhang said the purpose of the Lhasa conference was to "explore and research the measures and plans" necessary to address problems that could result from the railway's operation, according to the report. He stressed that courts along the rail line, the principal terminals of which are Xining and Lhasa, must strengthen their "communication and cooperation" to coordinate efforts to "resolve problems." The courts of both the TAR and Qinghai province must be active participants in the "comprehensive management of public security" to "assure the harmony and stability of the Qinghai-Tibet area, particularly the safe operation of the railroad," Zhang said. Under the Criminal Law, acts of sabotage against trains and railways are crimes under Articles 116, 117, and 119, and gathering crowds to disturb order at railway stations, along railway lines, or to harm or obstruct business operation are crimes under Articles 290 and 291.

Wang Yibin, a TAR Party Standing Committee member who also heads the TAR Public Security Department, also spoke at the conference and provided specific judicial "requirements" linked to the TAR's "current anti-splittist struggle and public security situation," according to the China Court Network report. Wang listed several prerequisites for "striking hard against illegal activities along the railroad and assuring Tibetan political and social stability":

• Increasing the force of "strikes against all categories of criminal activity."
• Establishing a legal environment that is "favorable to the safety of the railroad."
• Protecting the legal rights and interests of workers while "preventing and appropriately handling mass incident work."

Central government authorities have emphasized the need to reduce the number of "mass incidents" that disturb public order, including strikes, marches, demonstrations, and collective petitions directed at government departments. In October 2005, the General Offices of the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued an opinion calling for increased social stability. An accompanying press statement said the government and Party had set a goal in 2006 to decrease the number of mass incidents, and in January, officials urged the nation’s public security agencies to “strike hard” against rising social unrest. Zhang and Wang's emphasis at the Lhasa conference on court participation in maintaining comprehensive public security and reducing mass incidents indicates that TAR Party officials want to coordinate the participation of the judiciary in these efforts, particularly along the railroad.

About 4,000 tourists will arrive in Lhasa daily on the railway after it begins operation, according to a May 21 Xinhua report and a May 22 article in Chinanews (online). The China Tibet Tourism Bureau expects the railway to bring an additional 400,000 visitors to the TAR during the remainder of 2006, according to the Chinanews report. Official estimates are not available of the number of persons the government expects to arrive by train in Lhasa who will seek employment, conduct business, engage in a professional practice, or remain in the area for other reasons.

State Ethnic Affairs Commission Minister Li Dezhu observed in 2000 that the government's Great Western Development program encourages Han migration into Tibetan and other ethnic areas, a movement that Li described as a westward flow of "human talent" that would result in "clashes and conflicts" between ethnic groups (Qiushi, in OSC, 15 June 00). Li added that GWD is "the necessary choice for solving China's nationality problems in the new historical conditions," and that the state “must use legal methods to provide legal guarantees for the implementation of these policies, and safeguard implementation [of GWD] with laws and regulations.”

For more information about the Qinghai-Tibet railway and the Great Western Development program, see Section VI. - "Tibet," Culture, Development, and Demography, of the CECC 2005 Annual Report.