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INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
‘SMASHING THE SPLITTIST CLIQUE’:
AN ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP INVOLVED
IN THE CRACKDOWN
THE PROTESTS AGAINST CHINESE RULE that broke out in Tibet in March 2008 put
the Chinese government and its administration of Tibet under some of the
most intense scrutiny it has had to face in decades. However, little is reliably
known about which individuals and institutions in the People’s Republic of China
(PRC) are ultimately responsible for formulating and implementing government policy
in Tibet. Instead, China’s complex and factionalized power structures are almost
entirely opaque on the question of Tibet, and the relevant government and Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) officials remain entirely unaccountable to the Tibetan people
themselves. This is partly because of the strong hold of the military over Tibet,
and the latent power struggle between military and civilian elites, which is a perennial
feature of PRC politics.
Beijing’s official explanation for the protests in March 2008 and beyond is that they
were planned by the “Dalai clique” and “hostile anti-China forces” abroad, and carried
out with the intention of “splitting China” by people in Tibet who had been
“fooled” by the Dalai Lama, in particular a “tiny minority” of monks who are described
as “the scum of Buddhism” and the “loyal running dogs of the Dalai clique”.
The Chinese leadership’s refusal to publicly consider the possibility that the unrest in
Tibet could be due to broad dissatisfaction among Tibetans — or even to concede that
the unrest has its roots in Tibet itself — has not enhanced its credibility with Western
and some other Asian governments. Indeed, the calls from foreign governments urging
China’s leadership to enter into substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama on
Tibet’s future is at least a partial acknowledgment by Western leaders of the shortcomings
and failings of China’s policies in Tibet, as well as an implicit acknowledgment
of the Dalai Lama as the pre-eminent representative of the Tibetan people.
Within China, the concept that the Tibet issue is merely an ‘internal affair’ has been
profoundly challenged, both among Chinese intellectuals and governments worldwide
— particularly given Hu Jintao’s public emphasis on projecting the image of
China’s ‘peaceful rise’ and its ‘harmonious society’.
While there is clearly serious debate behind closed doors, and some speculation that
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