SOUTHWEST CHINA'S TIBETAN AREAS - SIMMERING TENSIONS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000230

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/CM, DRL AND G/STC

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/6/2032
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON SOCI SCUL CH
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA'S TIBETAN AREAS - SIMMERING TENSIONS AND
SECURITY CONCERNS

REF: CHENGDU 220 AND PREVIOUS

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CLASSIFIED BY: John Hill, Acting Consul General, Chengdu,
Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: Ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan and Yunnan are
under increased security pressure from government authorities in
the wake of demonstrations in the town of Litang in western
Sichuan's Ganzi Prefecture that were set off by the arrest of a
man calling for the return of the Dalai Lama at a major public
gathering in early August (ref). A simmering conflict within
the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism may be being
manipulated by local officials, adding to tensions on the
ground. Despite the growth of the tourist economy in some
towns, contacts stressed to us during our recent swing through
the region their continued concerns over economic
marginalization of Tibetans and environmental degradation. End
summary.


2. (U) Consul General, Congenoff, and Consulate's ethnic Tibetan
LES Political Assistant visited Tibetan areas of Sichuan and
Yunnan from August 22-28 in the company of a Bangkok-based USAID
official and representatives of U.S.-based NGOs Winrock
International (Winrock) and The Mountain Institute (TMI). The
delegation visited sites in and around both Hongyuan (in west
Sichuan's Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) and Zhongdian (in
northwest Yunnan's Diqing Prefecture).


3. (C) Originally planned for August 20-29, the trip had to be
reduced in scope after the Sichuan Foreign Affairs Office (FAO)
denied permission for the delegation to visit project sites in
Ganzi. (Note: Although the Sichuan FAO explained that this was
done for safety reasons due to the bad condition of the
prefecture's mountainous roads, a more likely explanation was
its desire not to let us see first hand the implementation of a
security crackdown following the "August 1 Litang Incident"
involving calls for the Dalai Lama's return and for Tibetan
autonomy (ref). A good contact in Ganzi told us in the
aftermath of this incident, Chinese authorities had dispatched
an additional 600 security personnel to Ganzi. End note.) Our
requested itinerary had us driving through Ganzi, including past
Litang, and then down into northwest Yunnan.

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ZHONGDIAN'S TRANSFORMATION INTO "SHANGRI-LA"
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4. (U) The small city of Zhongdian (or Shangri-la) sits at an
altitude of 3,340 meters (approx. 11,000 feet) in an alpine
valley in northwestern Yunnan. The seat of the Diqing Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, it (and the county in which was located)
was renamed Shangri-la in 2000, from the famous James Hilton
novel of the 1930's, in an effort to market itself as a "lost
paradise" for tourists. According to local officials, the area
attracted over two million tourists in 2006, about 90 percent of
whom were Chinese domestic tourists on package tours. The
average stay in the area was only 1.2 days. Officials told us
they expect to welcome over three million tourists in 2007.


5. (SBU) Both local officials and tourist industry contacts
attribute Shangri-la's successful marketing to the Prefecture's
Party Secretary and Governor, an ethnic Tibetan named Qi Zhala.
Qi has been in the post of Party Secretary for only a few
months, but has served as Governor or in other leadership
positions in Zhongdian for a number of years. (Note: According
to our information it is rare for an ethnic Tibetan to serve
simultaneously as both the local party secretary and government
head. End note.) By all accounts, early in his official career
Qi focused on the development of Zhongdian as a natural tourist
destination, and in testament to his efforts the streets of the
town are filled with attractive souvenir shops and restaurants
and bars catering to both Chinese and western travelers.
Construction in and around the town is booming - in addition to
numerous small wooden shops and houses in the old section of
town, the city also boasts a brand-new five-story cultural
center, a new prefecture administrative building, and a large
horseracing arena.


6. (C) A foreign contact working in the field of small business
development for an NGO in Zhongdian told us local authorities
are very eager to stimulate business activity and investment in
the city. For instance, although foreign business owners are
required by Chinese law to post registered capital of 300,000
RMB (approx. USD 40,000),this requirement is largely "winked

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at" in Zhongdian since foreigners are allowed to use the names
of Chinese citizens (with far smaller capital requirements) on
their business licenses. Likewise, tax collection is enforced
very laxly: when authorities attempted in January 2007 to make
Zhongdian shopkeepers comply strictly with tax accounting and
payment regulations, most businesses simply shut down, and
within a few days government authorities had abandoned their
enforcement efforts.

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BUT CONFLICTS REMAIN - INCLUDING AMONG TIBETANS
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7. (C) However, religious, political, and ethnic tension remain
in evidence beneath this apparent increased prosperity.
Shangri-la and Diqing Prefecture are important sites for the
Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. The "Tibetan
Government-in-Exile's Prime Minister" Samdong Rinpoche is from
Diqing and the incarnate Buddhas (rimpoche) of two large area
monasteries in the area have been in exile for many years in
India.


8. (C) According to one contact in Zhongdian, an ethnic Tibetan
graduate student, Tibetan areas of both Yunnan and Sichuan have
been affected by strife arising from devotion to the deity Dorje
Shugden. The Shugden deity is believed by some Gelugpa
adherents to be a benign spirit devoted to the protection of
that school. However, some Tibetan Gelugpa followers as well as
adherents of other schools see Shugden as a destructive force,
with the potential to harm overall Tibetan religious unity
through its perceived animosity to such other schools as the
Nyingma. Consequently, our contact continued, the Dalai Lama
several years ago rejected the worship of Shugden and embraced a
philosophy ("Rime"),which calls for greater understanding and
cooperation between Tibetan Buddhism's various schools and
practices. (Note: Among ethnic Tibetans, followers of Shugden
are popularly blamed for several murders that occurred in
Dharamsala in India in February of 1997, and those involved in
the murders are widely believed to have been planning an attack
on the Dalai Lama himself. End note.)


9. (C) The researcher told Consulate's Political Assistant that,
despite the Dalai Lama's call for Buddhists to end their worship
of Shugden, the practice remains popular in some quarters. Some
Shugden adherents have returned from Dharamsala to Sichuan and
Yunnan to run Shugden temples, and some of those temples are
supposedly supported financially by local authorities. The
researcher added that many Tibetans believe Chinese authorities
are quietly encouraging this worship in an effort to divide the
Tibetan community and to weaken the authority of the Dalai Lama.
For example, one large monastery near Zhongdian, the
Sumtsenling Monastery, consists of eight colleges belonging to
the Gelugpa sect: five of those colleges reject the worship of
Shugden, while the remaining three continue to propitiate the
deity. The researcher said that in 2006 Nyingma believers from
Sichuan attacked a temple in Yunnan devoted to Shugden and blew
it up with homemade explosives (the exact site of that alleged
attack was not identified).


10. (C) No doubt well aware of continued tensions in the area,
local authorities appear to have recently stepped up security
measures, especially following the Litang incident described
above, and in advance of the Diqing Prefecture's fiftieth
anniversary celebrations on mid-September. Local employees of
one NGO reported that their offices had been visited repeatedly
over the last few weeks without previous notice by local
officials believed to be affiliated with security agencies.
During the visits, the officials inquired about recent
activities of the NGOs, but made no overt threats. Likewise, a
tour guide reported that authorities had temporarily banned Han
tourists from visiting Zhongdian until after the Prefecture's
anniversary ceremonies had concluded. And to underscore the
tense security environment, Congenoffs were followed closely
(and filmed) during their visit, even while they met at lunch
with a local contact working in ecotourism development.

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HONGYUAN: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, MARGINALIZATION
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11. (SBU) Situated on the high open plains of Aba Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture in northern Sichuan, Hongyuan's physical
environment and economic conditions are far different from
Yunnan's Zhongdian. Tourists are fewer -- most visitors to Aba

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limit their trips to the Jiuzhaigou national park --
infrastructure is lacking, and there is little construction
underway in the area (although plans for the construction of an
airport have been announced).


12. (C) According to local NGO representatives, Hongyuan's
environment and economy face daunting challenges: rat
infestations, the deterioration of grasslands, and the economic
marginalization of the area's majority ethnic Tibetan
population. Tibetans are engaged mainly in agricultural and
animal husbandry work, while Han and Muslim Hui dominate the
important processing and distribution industries such as yak
meat and cheese. With low levels of Mandarin ability among
local Tibetans, and little entrepreneurial experience, the task
of bringing Tibetans into the area's economic mainstream appears
to be very difficult. And unlike their ethnic brethren in
Zhongdian, Hongyuan's Tibetan population appears to have few
opportunities to move into cash-paying jobs such as construction
or the hospitality industry.

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COMMENT
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13. (C) Despite the local and central governments' marketing of
Tibetan areas as tourist paradises, continued tensions and
potential security concerns remain in Yunnan and Sichuan.
Hongyuan's economic and environmental problems illustrate the
depth of the region's developmental dilemma: increasing
agricultural prosperity is a major challenge, while encouraging
tourism could serve to increase ethnic tensions as more Han come
into contact with their Tibetan compatriots. Official
proclamations to the contrary, the concept of "harmonious
society" is often at odds with reality in southwest China's
Tibetan areas.
BOUGHNER