Chinese Government Official Exposes Ethnic Discrimination in China

By Tsering Wangdue / December 31, 2015;

Jampa Phuntsok

Qiangba Puncog (also known as Jampa Phuntsok), a senior Chinese government official, has spoken out for Tibet, saying that the Chinese government needs to make more effort to tackle ethnic discrimination. Qiangba Puncog is an ethnic Tibetan from Kham and vice chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC) standing committee, he is a former mayor of Lhasa and was chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) during the unrest of 2008. Speaking at the party’s on-going committee session, he expressed concern over recent instances of discrimination against ethnic minorities.

“Despite repeated efforts to implement China’s ethnic policies, the problem had generated unwanted social impact and caused strong public reactions from ethnic regions”, said Qiangba (Jampa), adding “Such practices which run counter to the regional ethnic autonomy law must be resolutely rectified”. He said that discrimination against people from ethnic backgrounds means they are denied entry to certain service trades such as transport hubs, security check posts at borders and hotels and restaurant.

The Tibet Times has reported Tsering, a Tibetan from Karze, as saying that Tibetan people traveling to the TAR have experienced many difficulties since 2008 and that party leaders have delayed addressing this problem. He also spoke of how Buddhist holy images are appearing on shoes and trousers as a way of insulting followers of the Buddha Dharma.

The Tibet Times, also reports that Liang, a Chinese resident in Beijing, has described many cases of discrimination against ethnic minorities. Speaking of the situation in Xinjiang in north western China he said that when a Han Chinese hotel owner denies access to people from the Uyghur region it creates an unbearable hatred in their heart.

In an interview with Voice Of Tibet Bawa Kalsang Gyaltsen, a researcher on Sino-Tibet relations and a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile based in Dharamsala, said “The Chinese government should acknowledge this issue and must realise and analyse the faults in their current policy over Tibet”.

China has 56 ethnic groups, including Han. However the 55 non-Han ethnic groups are relatively small despite the autonomous ethnic areas in China accounting for 64% of its territory.