Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CHENGDU220
2007-08-14 07:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Chengdu
Cable title:  

SICHUAN OFFICIALS RESPOND TO TIBETAN "LITANG AUGUST 1

Tags:  PGOV PHUM CH 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9392
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHCN #0220/01 2260730
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 140730Z AUG 07
FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2590
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1368
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0140
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0158
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0716
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0684
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0706
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0745
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 0607
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3147
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000220 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, G, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/14/2032
TAGS: PGOV PHUM CH
SUBJECT: SICHUAN OFFICIALS RESPOND TO TIBETAN "LITANG AUGUST 1
INCIDENT"

REF: A) CHENGDU 219 B) CHENGDU 195

CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000220

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, G, DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/14/2032
TAGS: PGOV PHUM CH
SUBJECT: SICHUAN OFFICIALS RESPOND TO TIBETAN "LITANG AUGUST 1
INCIDENT"

REF: A) CHENGDU 219 B) CHENGDU 195

CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate
General, Chengdu.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: Officials in China's Sichuan Province hope the
experience and reputation for toughness of newly-appointed local
Party Secretary Liu Daoping will lead to a "calm" resolution of
recent ethnic Tibetan disturbances in Ganzi prefecture. In
addition to Runggye Adak, another individual appears to still be
in detention following demonstrations that occurred in Litang
during early August. Special work teams are being sent from
Chengdu to investigate the situation in Litang and conferences
and "training courses" have been organized in the prefecture
capital of Kangding aimed at criticizing the "Dalai Clique."
End Summary.


2. (C) During a diplomatic function in Chengdu on August 13, CG
discussed with Sichuan Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) Deputy
Director Tan Xin demonstrations that occurred in Ganzi (Tib:
Kardze) Prefecture's Litang County subsequent to the August 1
arrest of Runggye Adak, an ethnic Tibetan who called for the
return to China of the Dalai Lama (ref a and previous).


3. (C) Tan said provincial authorities are confident Ganzi Party
Secretary Liu Daoping has the situation well in hand. Tan

SIPDIS
stressed that Liu is well-experienced in working in Tibetan
areas, has already served a stint as Ganzi Party Secretary, and
is both "tough and smart." According to Tan, Liu will make sure
that Litang and other areas of Ganzi are "calm" while not in the
process "creating additional problems."


4. (C) Tan added, however, that special work teams are also
being dispatched from Chengdu to Litang to investigate local
conditions. Tan has already been informed he himself will be
sent to Litang check on the situation vis-a-vis foreign
tourists. He remarked that tourism during the summer is very
important to the economy of Litang.


5. (C) While unwilling to comment on what is likely to happen to
Runggye Adak, Tan (protect) indicated at least one other
individual from Litang was also arrested and remains in custody.
Tan appeared to have let this information slip out
inadvertently and would not be engaged further on the subject.


--------------
Comments
--------------


6. (C) Per ref b, Liu Daoping, a Han Chinese, was just appointed
Ganzi Party Secretary this July and most recently served in the
number two slot at the Sichuan Bureau of Justice. His ethnic
Tibetan predecessor as Ganzi Party Secretary, Dorje Rabten, was
sacked following an outbreak of violence between neighboring
Tibetan communities competing for the right to harvest lucrative
caterpillar fungus. Liu has also worked in the Chamdo region of
the Tibetan Autonomous Region.


7. (C) We understand that Liu is making an effort to deal
quickly with the political clean up of what local authorities
are now referring to as the "Litang August 1 Incident."
According to a Ganzi local news report, on August 7, Liu
presided over a conference in Kangding (Tib: Dartsedo) on social
stability that called upon local cadres to "criticize the Dalai
Clique's criminal plot to split the motherland." At a separate
event on August 7, Ganzi United Front Work Bureau Director Li
Kang oversaw a "training course" for local religious figures at
which he noted, "all patriotic religious groups in the
prefecture must widely conduct patriotic education and be highly
alert to hostile western forces and the Dalai Clique's attempts
to split the motherland." Also, according to local media

CHENGDU 00000220 002 OF 002


reports, Sichuan Vice Governor Zhang Zuoha recently gave a
speech announcing a two-month campaign aimed at removing illegal
firearms and explosives in Ganzi, Aba (another Tibetan
prefecture in western Sichuan),and Liangshan (home to the Yi
minority people in southern Sichuan). Zhang manages internal
security as part of his portfolio.
BOUGHNER