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INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
The 1989 crackdown in Tibet, overseen by Hu, and which
led to the imprisonment and torture of thousands of
Tibetans following pro-independence protests, brought an
abrupt end to a period of relative political liberalization.
It also set the tone for the ensuing years of political tension,
as well as bringing Hu himself to prominence within the
Party and government.
Hu Jintao was among a core of senior Chinese leaders who
met in Beijing in July 1994 at the “Third Work Forum” on
Tibet to devise policies aimed at rapid economic development
in Tibet while attempting to undermine loyalty to the
President Hu Jintao
Dalai Lama; and as Vice President in July 2001, he participated in the “Fourth Work
Forum”, where similar policies were consolidated under the imperative to “vigorously
lead Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to socialism”.
Under Hu, there emerged a set of policies in Tibet which developed into a political
order, which then became institutionalized by the Third Work Forum. Hu’s most
striking impact upon Tibet was to provide the policy means which grant the Chinese
authorities in Tibet the ‘right’ to intrude into every single aspect of people’s lives;
whereas previously, the state acted upon the perceived threat of Tibetan nationalism
in Tibet’s monasteries and nunneries, Hu’s legacy has been to open the Tibetan people’s
schools, work-places, religious institutions, and even their homes to the same
kind and degree of political scrutiny.
An even more aggressive campaign of denunciation of the Dalai Lama was also initiated
at the Third Work Forum. The apparent formalization of the campaign to
denounce the Dalai Lama was yet more indication that under the influence of Hu Jintao,
the Chinese authorities were rapidly backing away from the relatively liberal
policies on Tibet which had first emerged under Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang:
the meeting to draft documents emerging from the Third Work Forum was chaired by
Hu Jintao. 1
Since becoming president in 2003, President Hu has personally appointed many of
the senior regional leaders in the various provincial-level administrations into which
Tibet is now incorporated, including many from his own personal power base in the
CCP, the Communist Youth League of China (CYLC).
Among these people appointed by Hu are the Party Secretary of the TAR, Zhang Qingli
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