LHASA: CONVERSATIONS WITH TAR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000188

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP/CM, DRL, G

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/10/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KHIV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: LHASA: CONVERSATIONS WITH TAR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

REF: A. CHENGDU 183

B. CHENGDU 184

C. 2007 CHENGDU 297

D. 2007 CHENGDU 298

E. 2007 CHENGDU 236

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




1. (C) Summary: In a week of meetings with Tibet Autonomous
Region (TAR) foreign affairs, religion, health, education, and
tourism officials, ConGenOffs' interlocutors generally responded
readily to questions but at times showed considerable unease.
TAR officials apparently believe that the March unrest in
Tibetan areas was instigated by the Dalai Lama and was not the
result of internal problems. A senior Foreign Affairs Official
conceded that Tibetans love the Dalai Lama. However, a TAR
religious affairs official argued that Tibetans do not love the
Dalai Lama since there is no "economic basis" to do so, and
"alleged love" for him is just cover for a political plot.
Health and Education officials claimed progress in fighting
epidemic disease and illiteracy in recent years. TAR HIV
detection capability has reportedly improved. End summary.


2. (SBU) From August 25-30, Consulate personnel were permitted
by Chinese authorities to visit the Tibetan Autonomous Region
(TAR) for the first time since the March outbreak of unrest.
Previous cables on this visit (refs A and B) reported gleanings
from ConGenOff's impromptu conversations with Lhasa residents
during down time in the official schedule.

TAR FAO: Dalai Lama Instigated March Unrest
--------------


3. (C) At a dinner hosted by the TAR Foreign Affairs Office at
which Deputy Director Liu Yaohua and all FAO department heads
attended, ConGenOff asked if they agreed with a Ganzi Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture (Sichuan Province) State Security official
who told the Ganzi Daily in mid-July that the widespread March
protests were directly fermented and directed by "The Dalai Lama
and foreign enemy forces led by the United States." They all
broke out laughing. After they stopped, however, Deputy
Director Liu asserted, "But we do believe that the unrest was
fomented by foreign forces. After all, how can protests arise
so quickly all over Tibetan regions of China unless they were
directed by foreign forces?" Director Liu added that "Tibetans
do love the Dalai, but he has been taking advantage of them for
his own political purposes."

TAR Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau
--------------


4. (C) ConGenOffs met with TAR Ethnic and Religious Affairs
Bureau Vice Director Ngapoe Jigme. Ngapoe Jigme is the son of
Ngapoe Ngaway Jigme, the now-100-year-old signer of the 1951
17-Point Agreement between the Dalai Lama's government and the
PRC that formed the framework for Tibet's place within the PRC,
and the brother of a Radio Free Asia employee. Ngapoe Jigme and
his staff invited questions and answered them politely even
though answering some questions appeared difficult at times.
Jangchup, a Tibetan who heads the Religious Affairs Committee
within the Bureau, was calm at first but gradually became
visibly uncomfortable as questions became more sensitive. At
times when Jangchup was about to respond, the Vice Director or
even our accompanying TAR Foreign Affairs officers would
interject. In response to a routine question, Jangchup calmly
replied that that there are 46,000 religious venues in the TAR
and that 50 living Buddhas have been officially recognized since

1990.


5. (C) When asked whether monks and nuns may venerate the Dalai
Lama, he became more uncomfortable, slouched in his chair and
replied that the Dalai Lama left 50 years ago and China has
spent a great deal of money to develop Tibet. Tibetans do not
love him because there is no "economic basis" for them to do so.
The only purpose of having his picture is a political one, he
asserted, which is illegal.


6. (C) When asked why the Beijing-recognized Eleventh Panchen
Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, lives in Beijing instead of at his own
Tashi Lhunpo monastery in Shigatse, Jangchup started to giggle
awkwardly. Vice Director Ngapoe Jigme took over, replying that
the previous Panchen Lama spent much time in Beijing since he
had responsibilities with the National Peoples' Congress, so it
is normal that this Panchen too spends much time in Beijing.
When asked about the Dalai Lama-recognized Eleventh Panchen
Lama, it was again the Vice Director Ngapoe who replied, saying
that the recognition of Gendun Choeki Nyima was illegal and he

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is a private person who is doing well and is in good health.


7. (C) When ConGenOff asked how many monks and nuns were
arrested in the March 14 events, Jangchup began to twitch and
blink rapidly and hurried out of the room. Vice Director Ngapoe
replied that the Chinese Government's list of 90 persons
involved in rioting included the names of some monks.

TAR Health Bureau
--------------


8. (SBU) TAR Health Bureau officials said that access to free
medical care has improved significantly in rural Tibet in recent
years and cited improvements in several key health indicators.
Average life expectancy rose from 35 years in 1959 to 67 years
in 2007. The TAR population grew from 1.1 million in 1959 to
2.81 million in 2007. Tibetan language materials on preventing
epidemic diseases are widely distributed in rural areas. The
TAR has 1,339 clinics and hospitals at various levels and 58
maternal and child health care centers. Herder women are given
financial incentives to have children in hospitals, and now
about half of them have children in hospitals. Foreign health
organizations active in the TAR include UNICEF and NGOs such as
SEVA (a Canada/U.S. NGO),the Belgian branch of Doctors Without
Borders and the U.S. Southeast Asia Fund (Meiguo Dongnanya
Jijin). Mobile medical units, the officials added, serve
villagers in remote areas. An anti-epidemic network tracks
unusual disease outbreaks throughout the TAR. An emergency team
is ready to deploy on short notice to areas where disease
outbreaks have been reported. Health Bureau officials said that
the TAR has been very successful in arranging mass immunizations
of herders in Tibet's most remote areas.


9. (SBU) TAR health officials claimed that HIV/AIDS is largely
under control, though they are on guard against the disease
entering from bordering countries and provinces. (Note: see
ref E for a contrary assessment from Swiss Red Cross staff
working in Shigatse). The first HIV/AIDS case in the TAR was a
foreigner found to have HIV in 1994. Since then, 56 cases of
HIV/AIDS have been found in the TAR, including 5 cases of
full-blown AIDS. Two of the patients have died. Of the 56
individuals discovered to have HIV/AIDS thus far, 41 have been
male and 15 have been female. Twenty-two have been from the
TAR, with others coming from foreign countries such as Nepal and
India. The main transmission routes of HIV in the TAR have been
needle sharing among intravenous drug users, the illicit sex
trade and mother-to-child transmission. The TAR Health Bureau
works with an Australian government assistance program on
preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. Over the past
several years, the equipment and resources of the TAR health
bureau for detecting HIV have improved considerably. The TAR
still faces a serious HIV control challenge, however, since it
is surrounded by areas with serious HIV problems -- Sichuan and
Yunnan Provinces, Nepal and India. The officials expressed
concern about a rise in intravenous drug use among Tibetan
herders and farmers.


10. (C) The meeting with the health officials became somewhat
tense when ConGenOff asked about the impact of programs to
settle herders to semi-urban areas. An ethnic Han
epidemiologist with 20 years of experience in the TAR, including
two years riding on horseback in remote areas to do
immunizations, became very nervous and unhappy and told
ConGenOff that the resettlement programs had been a great
success. The epidemiologist said that while the average herd
size had decreased under the program, the quality and health of
the animals had greatly improved.

TAR Education Bureau
--------------


11. (SBU) A vice director of the TAR Education Bureau said that
Tibet's school system offers a choice of Chinese language or
Tibetan language elementary education. In 63 counties of the
TAR, compulsory education has been extended to nine years. From
2004 to 2007, total funding on education in the TAR was 442
million RMB (roughly USD 60 million). The national "Two Exempts
and Three Guarantees" (ermian sanbao) policy of eliminating
school fees and miscellaneous fees and providing free room and
board for poor students in compulsory education is applied
throughout the TAR. Classes in rural primary schools are
generally taught in Tibetan, while schools in towns and cities
use Mandarin Chinese.


12. (SBU) From junior high school onwards, math and science are
taught in Chinese, even in the Tibetan language-track schools.
Tibetan children experience difficulty keeping up with their
peers in the Chinese language schools in some subjects, the vice
director explained, because of the language barrier. The vice
director explained that the TAR has experimented with

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Tibetan-only education at the high-grade levels. Results have
been, however, because the students lacked the Chinese language
skills necessary to succeed at university. Tibet University is
expanding to about 5000 students, mostly from the TAR. A new
science and engineering campus that opened in 2007 will provide
more training for Tibetans, though all science and engineering
courses will continue to be taught exclusively in Chinese.
Advanced vocational and technical subjects are taught in
Chinese, the vice director said, due to the lack of Tibetan
language curriculum materials.


13. (C) Literacy campaigns, according to an adult education
expert who participated in the meeting, have been successful in
70 Tibetan counties representing 65 percent of the TAR's
population. Literacy work among adult herders and farmers has
been successful, bringing the adult (age 15-50) literacy rate in
many areas to nearly 100 percent. After first claiming that
Tibetan adults are considered literate if they can read a
Tibetan language newspaper, the expert later acknowledged that
the literacy standard used for compiling government statistics
is significantly lower: the ability to "read and write simple
notes." Adult literacy classes for herders are held regularly
at township schools.


14. (SBU) A TAR Education Bureau official said that there are
now 27,000 students in TAR institutions of higher education,
including Tibet University, the Lhasa TAR Police Academy and the
TAR Agricultural and Animal Husbandry College in Nyintri
Prefecture. Of these 27,000 students, 14,460 or 54.8 percent
belong to ethnic minorities.

Exam Bonus Points for Minority and Han Students in TAR
-------------- --------------


15. (SBU) Note: The June 25, 2008 issue of Tibet Daily (pp.
7-16) listed students who had been assigned extra points on the
2008 university entrance examination. Many of these were Han
students who also received bonus points for residing in the TAR.
Many of the Han students are listed as the sons and daughters
of People's Liberation Army soldiers (the 33rd detachment of PLA
Air Force unit 95561 in Lhasa was mentioned in the list) and of
government cadres sent to the TAR as part of the "Help Tibet"
program. Ordinary Tibetan students, including those from remote
areas, accounted for 3.5 pages of this 10-page list. The
children of teachers (mostly Tibetans) represented an additional
1.75 pages. Children of Government or Party cadres, who are
overwhelmingly Han, constituted 3.75 pages, while the rest of
the list included children of ethnic Han businesspeople (0.5
pages) and children of "Help Tibet" Party or Government cadres
(also 0.5 pages). (Note: The very high proportion of ethnic
Han high school students representing the TAR in the national
university entrance exam is interesting since hard figures on
the numbers of Han living in the TAR are politically sensitive
(refs C and D).)

TAR Tourism Bureau
--------------


16. (SBU) Officials of the TAR Tourism Bureau said that during
2007, one tenth of the tourists to the TAR came from foreign
countries. Japan led with 78,000 tourists, followed by the
United States with 45,000. Most foreign tourists are retirees,
with the oldest last year being 85 years old, so the Tourism
Bureau works closely with tour operators to ensure the
availability of emergency medical care. Though the officials
did not provide precise figures for 2008, they said tourism has
dropped off sharply as result of the March unrest. Of those
foreign tourists who have visited in 2008, 60 percent have been
from the United States.

Potala Palace
--------------


17. (C) ConGenOffs visited the Potala Palace and met with Jamba
Kelsang, the chair of the Potala Palace Management Committee.
(Note: Jamba's grandfather and earlier ancestors held the same
position at the Palace.) When ConGenOff began speaking in
Tibetan, the director continued in Tibetan and provided basic
information about the Palace, including the number of monks
currently in residence (150). At this point the TAR FAO
official accompanying the delegation became alarmed and asked
ConGen's ethnic Tibetan LES, "What is he saying?" (Note:
During previous visits to the TAR, ConGenOffs have been
accompanied by several ethnic Tibetan FAO officials. These
Tibetan cadres were nowhere to be found during this trip).


18. (C) Jamba Kelsang explained that cataloguing of all
properties in the Potala Palace is underway using color
photography and a computer system. The previous record was done
in black and white. The reception and study rooms, but not the

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personal quarters, of the present Dalai Lama are open to
tourists. (Comment: ConGen's Tibetan LES, who has visited
Potala many times observed that the Potala Palace cast of
characters included mostly ethnic Han People's Armed Police,
members of the Potala Palace Management Committee, and monks
dressed in civilian clothes. Potala monks have dressed in
civilian clothes for the past six years. The monks generally
stay in a corner and observe but avoid interaction with
visitors).
BOUGHNER