Summary
The nine-member Standing Committee of the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) convened the "Fifth Tibet Work Forum" on January 18-20, 2010, in Beijing. The Fifth Forum applied the highest imprimatur of Party power to policy objectives for the Tibetan autonomous areas of China during the period 2010 to 2020. The objectives of the Fifth Forum remain largely consistent with previous such meetings, but state resources available to expand and speed up policy implementation have increased as China's wealth increases and the country modernizes. Speaking at the forum, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao laid out goals that would strengthen further policy initiatives that already have had substantial impact on the Tibetan people and culture: accelerating economic development, increasing household income (especially in rural areas), improving social services, and protecting "stability" by striking at what officials say is a separatist threat that "the Dalai clique" poses. Hu used a Marxist theoretical concept ("special contradiction") to cast the Dalai Lama ("the Dalai Clique") as a threat to ethnic unity and stability. In doing so, Hu may seek to heighten further the Party campaign against the Dalai Lama by linking resolution of the "special contradiction"―bringing to an end the Dalai Lama's influence among Tibetans in China―to the Party's reputation as "Communist."
The Fifth Forum introduced a new and important initiative: establishing the coordinated implementation of Party and government policies on Tibetan issues in an area that will include not just the Tibet Autonomous Region, but also Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties located in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces. The expanded area is contiguous and approximately doubles the number of Tibetans who live within the forum policy area. Fifth Forum objectives have incorporated measures and trends that took shape after the 2001 Fourth Forum on Tibet Work: using newly created government regulations to intrude upon and control Tibetan Buddhism, and expanding the campaign to end the Dalai Lama's influence among Tibetans. The Fifth Forum committed the Party and government leadership to achieving sweeping economic, social, and cultural changes throughout the Tibetan autonomous areas of China by 2020―the same year that the government intends to have completed the "redesign" of Lhasa and the construction of a network of railways crisscrossing the Tibetan plateau. [For more information on Chinese government plans for 2020, see the Commission's Special Topic Paper: Tibet 2008-2009.]