Chinese President Xi Jinping on discreet visit to Tibet
Chinese President Xi Jinping © AFP
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4 min
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been on the move in Tibet since Wednesday.
He must stay on site until Sunday.
This is the first time that a Chinese head of state has visited Tibet in 31 years.
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It is in all discretion that
the Chinese president
went to the top of the world.
As proof, the New China agency announced this trip 48 hours after Xi Jinping's arrival in
Tibet
.
The visit coincides with the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Tibet by Communist troops, an event celebrated in Beijing as “
peaceful liberation
”.
The Chinese number one received "
a warm welcome from the cadres and popular masses of all ethnic groups,
" commented the state broadcaster CCTV.
According to an account of the visit, Xi Jinping called for strengthening "
national unity
" and "
patriotism
"
in Tibet
.
"
It is essential to strengthen interactions and exchanges between different ethnic groups,
" said the strongman from Beijing,
according to comments reported by CCTV.
"
I fear for Tibet
"
In any case, the stay of the strongman of Beijing in this highly strategic region worries the Tibetans.
"The
more delicate and important a subject, the more the Chinese authorities keep the secret,
" said Tenam, a Tibetan exiled in France and member of ETL, the association of students for a free Tibet.
Me, I'm really worried because, if you look when a Chinese president visits the regions of the so-called minorities, there is nothing good going on. I remember Xi Jinping's 2014 visit to Xinjiang. Afterwards, there was a hardening of Chinese policies. So I fear for Tibet. They will try to really implement Xi Jinping's so-called thoughts on ethnic unity
”.
According to the pro-Tibetan movement International Campaign for Tibet, residents of Lhasa "
reported unusual activity and controls on their movements
" before the visit, citing blocked roads and increased police surveillance.
“
There have been quite a few official announcements about the ban on Tibetan movement in the capital, Lhasa.
They have closed a lot of factories and they say that all movements are very controlled at the moment
”,
adds Tenam.
A message for India
This stay is also an opportunity for the Chinese president to send a message to India, more than a year after
a deadly clash around the
common
border
in the Himalayas. For example, he called on the population to "
defend the national territory
" and then visited fairly "
sensitive
" areas.
“
It is not insignificant that Xi Jinping visited an airport which is not very far from Arunachal Pradesh in India. China has always claimed this part of India. He also took the train from Nyingchi to Lhasa. All this is not trivial, especially with everything that has been happening with India and China since last year. Then perhaps there is also a link with the fact that there was a telephone conversation, for the first time, between the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and the Dalai Lama for his birthday
”
,
advance the Tibetan exile.
Since the anti-Chinese riots in 2008, Beijing has invested heavily in Tibet in the hope of combating the influence of the Dalai Lama.
The protest is still present occasionally, in the form of fire immolations of Buddhist monks loyal to the Dalai Lama.
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