apply for official permits<\/a> and register for a national database; the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader reviled by Beijing, fails to make the government\u2019s list of holy reincarnations. The latest Tibetan self-immolation, by an 18-year-old monk, occurred on Feb. 29, just days before the NPC convened.<\/p>\nViolence emanating from Xinjiang is more outwardly directed. Uighurs have launched attacks on public places, such as a train station and market, slaughtering dozens of innocent passersby. Beijing considers the perpetrators part of the global cancer of Islamic extremism, pointing to Uighurs who have joined jihadist groups in other parts of Asia. In an effort to combat surging religious conservatism in Xinjiang, local officials have discouraged women from wearing headscarves and banned young men from mosques at certain times. Government officials are not allowed to fast during Ramadan or wear beards or veils. Notably, not a single female Uighur delegate has worn a headscarf during the NPC.<\/p>\n
The top political leaders of both Tibet and Xinjiang are Han. Indeed, Tibetans and Uighurs have never held the post of regional party chief. Dazzling ethnic costumes may enliven the NPC but the message toward those who question the Communist Party\u2019s treatment of ethnic minorities is uncompromising. While noting that incidents of \u201cviolent terrorism\u201d declined in Xinjiang last year, regional party secretary Zhang recommended continuing a policy of \u201cstriking hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Padma Choling, head of Tibet\u2019s People\u2019s Congress, dismissed the Dalai Lama, who is so beloved by ordinary Tibetans that even the threat of jail doesn\u2019t prevent them from worshipping him in secret. \u201cHe betrayed our country, betrayed our people, betrayed his hometown,\u201d said Padma, of the exiled spiritual leader. \u201cSo far, most activities he has conducted are splitting Tibet from China.\u201d (In fact, the Dalai Lama, who escaped to India in 1959 after a failed rebellion, has for decades called for meaningful autonomy for Tibet, not outright independence.)<\/p>\n
Simmering tensions in these two regions has catalyzed debate in Chinese academic circles about whether the nation\u2019s ethnic policy needs to be overhauled. One faction contends that celebrating differences\u2014such as fancy ethnic dress at the NPC\u2014 could cause China to fracture as the Soviet Union did. The other group argues that allowing a certain amount of diversity only strengthens the nation. NPC delegates gathered at Beijing\u2019s vast Great Hall of the People, however, have failed to delve into substantive debate on the issue.<\/p>\n
Instead, at the Tibet session convened in a Tibet Hall decorated with idyllic scenes of dancing nomads and rainbow-graced mountains, senior official Padma urged foreign journalists to visit and experience China\u2019s ethnic delights. \u201cWe haven\u2019t closed our doors,\u201d he said, \u201cand we always welcome everybody, including media.\u201d In reality, foreign journalists have been banned from visiting the region for years, apart from rare, circumscribed government tours. Indeed, throughout the month of March, which marks the anniversary of deadly ethnic violence that gripped the high plateau in 2008, all foreigners are banned from touring Tibet. Still, 20 million Chinese visited Tibet last year, eager to breathe unpolluted air and explore local Buddhist traditions. This month, the region\u2019s first KFC opened in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, back at the Great Hall of the People, Tibetan NPC delegates have been sporting a modern embellishment to their traditional costumes: pins with the smiling visage of President Xi, who visited the region in 2011, and other Chinese leaders. The badges are reminiscent of those emblazoned with Chairman Mao Zedong\u2019s profile, which were popular during the personality-cult days of the Cultural Revolution. \u201c[Under communist rule] Tibet was transformed from a slave and feudalist society, we were liberated, we got freedom, and became the host of our own house, so Tibetan people have a strong feeling for Chinese Communist Party leaders,\u201d explained Losang Danba, the head of the municipal people\u2019s congress in Lhasa, as to why fellow Tibetan delegates are wearing the pins. \u201cTibetan people are good at expressing their feelings, through singing about the party leaders, or from Mao Zedong\u2019s times, by wearing the leaders\u2019 badges.\u201d Singing, dancing and badge-wearing ethnic minorities are, after all, a mainstay of modern Chinese political theater.<\/p>\n
\u2014with reporting by Yang Siqi\/Beijing<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A profusion of ethnic dress at China’s National People’s Congress fails to hide the deep ethnic tensions in the country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}