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TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN
taking over from Zhu Weiqun, and Ms Liu Yandong, the former head of the UFWD.
Zhu Weiqun has been a Deputy Director of the UFWD since 1998; however, he has a
long involvement in Tibet dating back to 1991 when as a journalist on the People’s
Daily he spent 40 days in the TAR covering official celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary
of the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet. Between 1994 and 1996, Zhu “participated
in the work relating to the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama”, according to
biographical material on him reported in the pro-Beijing Hong Kong media. 34 The article
did not offer any details on what his involvement in the process may have been.
Former Minister of Public Security, Zhou Yongkang
Although now apparently retired from any position with a direct mandate on Tibet,
Zhou Yongkang’s impact in Tibet is likely to resonate for many years to come. Zhou
served on the Central Tibet Work Coordination Working Group between 2002 and
2007 while he was Minister for Public Security, and was Party Secretary of Sichuan
province, which includes large parts of the eastern Tibetan region of Kham, at the
time of the sentencing to death of an influential Tibetan monk, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.
As Sichuan Party Secretary, he also oversaw the drastic reduction in size of two
important monastic encampments, including the expulsion of monks, nuns and Chinese
Buddhists, that had played a pioneering role in the revival of Tibetan Buddhism
following the Cultural Revolution.
During his tenure as Party Secretary of Sichuan province from 1999 to 2002, Zhou
Yongkang was unequivocal in his disregard for minority cultures, even going so far as
to dismiss their religious beliefs, practices, and their languages almost entirely. Soon
after assuming the post of Party Secretary in Sichuan, he was quoted as saying that
Tibetans were “wasting” their money by giving donations to monasteries, that “promoting
religious freedom has caused people so much hardship”, and that teaching
the Tibetan language to Tibetan children “is such a heavy burden” on government
finances — “why bother.” 35
Zhou’s stance marked an unmistakeable reversal of the more conciliatory approach to
Tibet and Tibetan culture which had been adopted by former Party General Secretary
Hu Yaobang in the early 1980s, and set the Party on an aggressive and confrontational
path with Tibetan culture in Kham — the Tibetan province largely incorporated into
Sichuan. This approach is in contrast to the provisions of the Regional Ethnic Autonomy
Law, which ostensibly allows Tibetans to use and develop their language, including
in the affairs of local government, not to mention recognizing religious
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