Contact is taking a holiday!

China has been releasing statistics demonstrating the “progress” that has been made in Tibet under their occupation, in a report timed to coincide with Tibetan Uprising Day.

In a feature article entitled “In a Sensitive Month, China Touts Progress in Tibet”, the Diplomat magazine reports that “In what is a politically sensitive month, Beijing is moving to counter world opinion on its rule over Tibet”. The article goes on to document China’s claims of progress, saying “the positive numbers released by Beijing seem timed to counter marches and vigils by exiled Tibetans seeking to tarnish China’s image internationally”. The Diplomat article also claims that “Some analysts also give little credence to Chinese government reports, also seeing them as an effort to sway world opinion on Tibet even as the crackdown that began in 2008 persists.”

Prof Dibyesh Anand, Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at London’s Westminster University and an expert on Tibet, observed in a Diplomat interview “When it comes to statistics the Chinese government produces about Tibet, it should always be read with a healthy dose of scepticism”. He added “There is no economic or cultural activity in Tibet that escapes the Chinese efforts to control Tibet and to represent Tibet as ‘China’s Tibet’ to the domestic as well as international audience.”

The article finishes by saying “world opinion is a significant factor, one that China now appears to recognise.”

Chinese state media reported that “the economy of Tibet in 2013 grew 12.1 percent”, and that “the growth rate was 4.4 percentage points higher than the country’s average. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Tibet reached 80.767 billion Yuan (13.19 billion US dollars) in 2013, almost double that of 2009”. The report also quoted Liu Baicheng, head of the regional statistics bureau as saying, “It is the first time that Tibet has ranked at the top with growth speed within the 12 western provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Moreover, Tibet was ranked on top nationwide.” The announcement coincided with the annual session of the China’s National People’s Congress, the first since Xi Jinping was confirmed as President.