Establishing a workable autonomy in Tibet

Human Rights Quarterly

Volumn 30, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 227-258

  Davis, Michael C ^a  

^a CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG   (Hong Kong)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTHORITARIANISM; AUTONOMY; COMMUNISM; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; HUMAN RIGHTS; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; INTERNATIONAL LAW; MINORITY GROUP; PARTY POLITICS; POLICY IMPLEMENTATION; TERRITORIAL DISPUTE;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; XIZANG;

EID: 44449084472     PISSN: 02750392     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/hrq.0.0001     Document Type: Article

References (160)

1. See Wu'er Kaixi, China Mocks the Olympic Spirit, FAR EASTERN ECON. REV., Sept. 2007, at 23
2. Tibet Could Become Stain on Olympics, French Group Says, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 31 Aug. 2006, at A8. When international reporters have sought to take advantage of the more liberal reportage rules promised in the lead-up to the Olympics by covering controversial issues in Tibet the regime has slapped them down. Press Release, Reporters Without Borders, China-Tibet, Two Reporters Summoned and Warned about Tibet Story, Beijing Games Organiser asked to Clarify Tibet's Status in New Rules for Foreign Journalists (25 May 2007), available at http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22307.
3. Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Tripa (Chair of the Kashag or elected Prime Minister) of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Dharamsala, India (3 Aug. 2006). Chinese officials appear to view these discussions as limited to the status of the Dalai Lama and not including substantive issues. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has stated that if the Dalai Lama "recognizes that Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinese territory" then "we are willing to carry out consultations and dialogue on his personal future." "Dalai Lama must give up secession, says premier." Kristine Kwok, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 17 Mar. 2007, at A6.
4. Interview with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India (9 Aug. 2006).
5. Id.
6. Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche, supra note 2
7. Interview with Liu Hongji and Wang Xiaobin, Tibetology Research Center, Beijing (25 Aug. 2006).
8. CTA Dharamsala, Department of Information and Public Relations, The Middle-Way Approach: A Framework for Resolving the Issue of Tibet (2006), available at http://www.tibet.net/en/diir/sino/std/ imwa.html [hereinafter The Middle-Way Approach]. The Chinese position is described in their White Paper on Tibet. PRC, White Paper on Regional Ethnic Autonomy in Tibet, Information Office of the State Council of the PRC, Beijing (May 2004) [hereinafter Tibet White Paper].
9. In recent years the Dalai Lama has set forth his position a number of times beginning in the 1980s with speeches before the US Congress and at Strasbourg before the European Parliament. Dalai Lama, Address to Members of the United States Congress: Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet (21 Sept. 1987)
10. Dalai Lama, Address to Members of the European Parliament by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (15 June 1988). These original positions have been amended in response to Chinese requirements to make clear he is not seeking independence nor imposing any conditions for discussions.
11. See Tibetan Parliamentary & Policy Research Centre, Autonomy and the Tibetan Perspective (2005), available at http://tpprc.org/ publications/pubs/autonomy_and_tibetan_perspective-2005.pdf
12. The Middle-Way Approach, supra note 5.
13. TABULATIONS ON NATIONALITIES OF 2000 POPULATION CENSUS OF CHINA (2003) [hereinafter 2000 POPULATION CENSUS].
14. According to Chinese estimates the 155 ethnic autonomous areas at regional (5), prefecture (30), and county (120) levels for all ethnic minorities constitute 64 percent of Chinese territory. PRC White Paper: Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China (2003) [hereinafter Minorities White Paper].
15. Mary Huang, "Go west" policy still key to region's development, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 28 May 2007, at A5.
16. See June Teufel Dreyer, Economic Development in Tibet Under the People's Republic of China, in CONTEMPORARY TIBET: POLITICS, DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIETY IN A DISPUTED REGION 129, 139 (Barry Sautman & June Teufel Dreyer eds., 2006).
17. 2000 POPULATION CENSUS, supra note 7.
18. Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (23 May 1951), available at http://www.tibet.net/en/diir/pubs/phri/17point/data/ app1.html [hereinafter 17-Point Agreement] (reproduced in English in WARREN W. SMITH, TIBETAN NATION, A HISTORY OF TIBETAN NATIONALISM AND SINO-TIBETAN RELATIONS 297 (1996)
19. MELVYN C. GOLDSTEIN, A HISTORY OF MODERN TIBET, 1913-1951, at 763 (1989)).
20. "The state may establish special administrative regions when necessary. The systems to be instituted in special administrative regions shall be prescribed by law enacted by the National People's Congress in light of the specific conditions." PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA CONSTITUTION , ch. 1, art. 31 (1982) [hereinafter PRC CONSTITUTION]
21. Articles 2 and 12 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong, enacted by the NPC under Article 31, expressly provide for the exercise of a "high degree of autonomy." The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region arts. 2, 12
22. Article 4 of the PRC Constitution potentially carries such flexibility, providing, "The state assists areas inhabited by minority nationalities accelerating their economic and cultural development according to the characteristics and needs of the various minority nationalities." PRC CONSTITUTION, ch. 1, art. 4
23. This language is, however, further constrained by the numerous provisions on the system to be implemented in national autonomous areas in the PRC Constitution. PRC CONSTITUTION, ch. 3, §6, arts. 112-22.
24. Id., arts. 4, 59, 65, 89, 112-22.
25. Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional National Autonomy,1984, revised 2001 [hereinafter LRNA].
26. See Minorities White Paper, supra note 8.
27. PRC CONSTITUTION, supra note 13, ch. 3, §6, art. 116.
28. LRNA, supra note 15, art. 19. This provision is repeated in Article 66 of the Legislative Law of the PRC, available at http:// www.cclaw.net/library/legislationlaw.php.
29. These laws cover topics unrelated to autonomy and will generally track national laws rather closely. Chunli Xia, Autonomous Legislative Power in Regional Ethnic Autonomy of the People's Republic of China: The Law and the Reality, presented at Conference on One Country, Two Systems, Three Legal Orders - Perspectives on Evolution, Macau, PRC (5-7 Feb. 2007) (citing Organic Law of the People's Republic of China, art. 7, Legislative Law, art. 63, at 10-11) (on file with author).
30. PRC Legislative Law, art. 63, at 10.
31. Yash Ghai, China's Constitutional and Legal Framework for Autonomy, Limitations and Possibilities for Negotiations, draft paper, at 19 (18 June 2005) (on file with author).
32. Separate regulations (translated by Xia as "singular regulations") are regulations made by autonomous legislative bodies on specific issues (e.g., language, marriage, family planning, etc.). Xia, supra note 19, at 11.
33. Id. at 12.
34. Id. at 19-20.
35. Id. at 21.
36. The top Party Secretary for autonomous regions is nearly always a Han Chinese. A recent Human Rights Watch news release notes that even for the Lhasa City Party Committee, the number of Iibetans in the most recent appointment process is at the lowest level in forty years. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, China: Fewer Tibetans on Lhasa's Key Ruling Body Lowest Representation Since 1966 (7 Nov. 2006), available at http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/11/07/china14522.htm.
37. In 1986 - the beginning of the reform period - the number of Tibetans in the City Party Committee stood at 80 percent, while now it appears to be at 26 percent. For the first time since 1980, the head of the Lhasa Party Committee, Qin Yizhi, is also ethnic Chinese. While the Constitution imposes requirements for locals to hold leading government positions, this does not apply to the CCP, which holds all final decision making power. This development follows in 2003 the infusion for the first time of 280 ethnic Han Chinese officials into the local rural governments at the county and village level. Id.
38. See Xia, supra note 19
39. Dreyer, supra note 10
40. Colin P. Mackerras, People's Republic of China: Background Paper on the Situation of the Tibetan Population, report commissioned by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Feb. 2005) available at http://unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=423ea9094
41. THEODORE C. SORENSEN & DAVID L. PHILLIPS, LEGAL STANDARDS AND AUTONOMY OPTIONS FOR MINORITIES IN CHINA: THE TIBETAN CASE (2004), available at http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/ 141208%20bcsia%20monograph.pdf.
42. Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (1949). This document, which contains special provisions on ethnic minorities, is thought by the PRC to have functioned as a constitution of the PRC until the first Constitution was passed in 1954. See Minorities White Paper, supra note 8, § 1.
43. WARREN W. SMITH, CHINA'S TIBET: AUTONOMY OR ASSIMILATION 233 (forthcoming). When Chinese officials from the Tibetology Research Center are confronted with the discrepancy between the current version of autonomy and the looser indirect imperial version they cite advanced technology and modern communications as justification, Interview with Liu Hongji, supra note 4.
44. Huang, supra note 9
45. SMITH, CHINA'S TIBET, supra note 29, at 233.
46. Warren W. Smith, China's Policy on Tibetan Autonomy (East-West Center Washington Working Papers, No. 2 Oct. 2004), available at http://eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/EWCWwp002.pdf.
47. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, China: Tibetan Intellectual Blogs Shuttered (9 Oct. 2006), available at http://hrw.org/english/docs/ 2006/10/09/chinan14364.htm
48. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, China: Tibetan Herders' Livelihood in Jeopardy, Government Must Halt Forced Resettlement of Herders, Provide Redress for Abuse (10 June 2007)
49. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, NO ONE HAS THE LIBERTY TO REFUSE: TIBETAN HERDERS FORCIBLY RELOCATED IN GANSU, QINGHAI, SICHUAN AND THE TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS REGION (2007), available at http://hrw.org/reports/2007/ tibet0607
50. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, Tibet: China Must End Rural Reconstruction Campaign (20 Dec. 2006), available at http:// hrw.org/english/docs/2006/12/20/china14903.htm.
51. Even children advocating the return of the Dalai Lama have reportedly been subject to arrest. Press Release, Human Rights Watch, China: Tibetan Schoolboys Detained as Crackdown Worsens (20 Sept. 2007).
52. Interview with Ven. Ngawang Woebar, President, Gu Chu Sun Movement of Tibet (Association of former Political Prisoners) (3 Aug. 2006)
53. Interview with "Singing Nun" Renchen Choeky, Dharamsala, India (4 Aug. 2006) (After refusing too denounce the Dalai Lama in re-education meetings in their nunnery, they were sentenced to prison for demonstrating in protest in Lhasa and sentenced again while in prison when eighteen nuns produced a singing recording that was smuggled out).
54. See also Abbot forced to step down for not condemning Dalai Lama, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 1 June 2007, at A4.
55. Tibet White Paper, supra note 5.
56. Id.
57. Interview with Karmapa Lama, Dharamsala, India (5 Aug. 2007)
58. Beijing's Panchen Lama returns to home village, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 31 Aug. 2007, at A8.
59. Regulation About Reincarnation of Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism, National Religious Affairs Bureau (13 July 2007), available at http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1159.
60. This regulation seems aimed at heading off the Dalai Lama's planned reincarnation outside of China. US panel attacks rules on "living Buddhas," SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 2 Sept. 2007, at 5. 61 INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS, TIBET: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW 14-21 (1997).
61. The Tibetan areas are the least developed in China. Dreyer, supra note 10, at 129-51.
62. MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP, HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA, CHINA: EXCLUSION, MARGINALIZATION AND RISING TENSION (2007), available at http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/MRG-HRIC.China.Report.pdf. It should be recalled that China has produced another White Paper that covers national minorities generally. Minorities White Paper, supra note 8.
63. MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP, supra note 40.
64. Id.
65. Id.
66. Id.
67. Ghai, supra note 21, at 21.
68. MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP, supra note 40.
69. PRC CONSTITUTION, supra note 13, ch. 1, art. 31.
70. Michael C. Davis, Constitutionalism and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong, 3 LOY U. CHI. INT'L L. REV. 165 (2006)
71. Michael C. Davis, Constitutionalism and the Politics of Democracy in Hong Kong, 30 FLETCHER FORUM WORLD AFF. 165 (2006).
72. Tibet White Paper, supra note 5.
73. Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche, supra note 2.
74. Interview with Liu Hongji, supra note 4.
75. Id.
76. Tibet White Paper, supra note 5.
77. The Chinese analysis of this often engages a retrospective perspective of history that assumes that current "national minorities" such as the Mongols are just another constituent member of the Chinese Empire, which they clearly were not at the time of their conquest.
78. See Minorities White Paper, supra note 8. For analysis of "retrospective perspectives" of history see VICTORIA T. HUI, WAR AND STATE FORMATION IN ANCIENT CHINA AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE 9 (2005).
79. Chinese officials have acknowledged as much about Tibet, speaking of the "four uniques," which include region, culture, significance, and treatment. Barry Sautman, Resolving the Tibet Problem: Problems and Prospects, 11 J. CONTEMP. CHINA, 77, 103 (2002). In a statement issued in Delhi in 1956, Chou Enlai acknowledged that China considered Tibet a special case.
80. Interview with the Dalai Lama, supra note 3.
81. PAMELA CROSSLEY, A TRANSLUCENT MIRROR: HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN QING IMPERIAL IDEOLOGY 327-336 (1999). Crossley notes that these areas fell not under the Qing civil government but under the court of colonial affairs (lifan yuan).
82. CHRISTOPHER I. BECKWIIH, THE TIBETAN EMPIRE IN CENTRAL ASIA 24, 167 (1987)
83. SMITH, TIBETAN NATION, supra note 12, at 73-74.
84. SMITH, TIBETAN NATION, supra note 12, at 83-100.
85. Id. at 103-07.
86. Id. at 111-12.
87. This is believed to be aimed at insuring that the Tibetans in exile do not select a replacement Dalai Lama in exile after the current one passes away, given that the Dalai Lama has indicated that if he dies in exile he will be reborn outside China, US panel attacks rules on "living Buddhas," supra note 37.
88. SMITH, supra note 57, at 121, 134-38, 145, 151.
89. GOLDSTEIN, supra note 12, at 5.
90. See HUI, supra note 54, at 117-216.
91. GOLDSTEIN, supra note 12, at 10-31.
92. Lobsang Sangay, Tibet: Exiles' Journey, 14 J. DEMOC. 119-130 (2003).
93. Dalai Lama, Guidelines for Future Tibet's Polity and Basic Features of its Constitution (26 Feb. 1992), available at http:/ /www.tibet.com/future.html
94. The Middle-Way Approach, supra note 5.
95. "[A] distinctive element of the feudal suzerainty relationship is that the suzerain holds the source of the governmental authority of the vassal state whose ruler he grants the right to exercise the authority autonomously." MICHAEL C. VAN WALT VAN PRAAG, THE STATUS OF TIBET 105-06 (1987).
96. GOLDSTEIN, supra note 12, at 68-80, 832-41. On the side of the Simla Conference the British negotiated a secret boundary between Tibet and India, called the McMahon line, a source of continuing disagreement between China and India. Id. at 75-76.
97. 17-Point Agreement, supra note 12.
98. Id.
99. See GOLDSTEIN, supra note 12, at 759-72.
100. DALAI LAMA, FREEDOM IN EXILE, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE DALAI LAMA 64 (1991)
101. GOLDSTEIN, supra note 12, at 798-803.
102. DALAI LAMA, FREEDOM IN EXILE, supra note 72, at 136.
103. Id.
104. Preparatory Committee for the Tibetan Autonomous Region (PCTAR), Established in April 1956.
105. The Middle-Way Approach, supra note 5.
106. Klaudia Lee, Don't meet the Dalai Lama, China urges foreign leaders, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 21 Sept. 2007, at A12
107. Agencies, Beijing slams meeting as 'gross interference', SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 31 Oct. 2007, at A6.
108. Western Sahara, 1975 I.C.J. 4 (13 Jan.).
109. Reference re Secession of Quebec, [1998] S.C.R. 217 (Can.).
110. For a discussion of the three United Nations General Assembly Resolutions condemning China's human rights record in Tibet (1959, 1961, 1965) see SMITH, TIBETAN NATION, supra note 12, at 492-532.
111. See Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, adopted 14 Dec. 1960, G.A. Res. 1514 (XV), 15 U.N. GAOR, Supp. No. 16, 66, U.N. Doc. A/4684 (1960)
112. Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation Among States, 1970, G.A. Res. 2625 (XXV), Annex, 25 U.N. GAOR, Supp. No. 28, 121, U.N. Doc. A/5217 (1970).
113. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (entered into force 23 Mar. 1976)
114. International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, adopted 16 Dec. 1966, G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. GAOR, 21st Sess., Supp. No. 16, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force 3 Jan. 1976).
115. See HURST HANNUM, AUTONOMY, SOVEREIGNTY, AND SELF-DETERMINATION, THE ACCOMMODATION OF CONFLICTING RIGHTS (2d ed. 1996).
116. Douglas Sanders, Is Autonomy a Principle of International Law, 55 NORDIC J. INT'L L. 17 (1986)
117. Frank L. Kirgis, The Degrees of Self-determination in the UN Era, 88 AM. J. INT'L L. 310 (1994)
118. Hans-Joachim Heintze, Autonomy and Federalism: Which Evolution?, presented at Conference on "One Country, Two Systems, Three Legal Orders - Perspectives on Evolution," Macau, PRC (5-7 Feb. 2007) (on file with Author).
119. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted 12 Sept. 2007, G.A. Res. XXX, U.N. GAOR, 61st Sess., U.N. Doc. A/61/L.67 (2007) [hereinafter Declaration on Indigenous Peoples]. As noted above, the International Human Rights Covenants (IC-CPR and ICESCR) had earlier addressed the basic question of self-determination, as did the International Labor Conventions. International Labor Convention 169, Concerning Indigenous Peoples in Independent Countries (1989) (not signed by China).
120. Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, supra note 85. The four opposing the Declaration on Indigenous Peoples were the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The eleven abstaining were Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burundi, Columbia, Georgia, Kenya, Nigeria, Russian Federation, Samoa, and Ukraine.
121. Declarations that purport to lay down existing law are sometimes viewed as reflecting customary international law. The opening preliminary phrase added to the draft at its final stage before passage indicates that the General Assembly was "[g]uided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and good faith in the fulfillment of the obligations assumed by States in accordance with the Charter." The Declaration, in other preliminary clauses, invokes treaty obligations regarding the right to self-determination and respecting human rights, ultimately invoking the Declaration's role "as a standard of achievement to be pursued in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect." Article 1 then makes clear this existing international status, providing, "Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law. Id.
122. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Switzerland, China Concerned with Protection of indigenous Peoples' Rights (1 Apr. 1997), available at http://ch.China-embassy.org/eng/ztnr/rqwt /t138829.htm.
123. See generally id.
124. A 1986 UN study of indigenous populations included several Asian countries in the study: Bangladesh, Burma, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Study of the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations: Final Report Submitted by the Special Rapporteur, Mr. José R. Martínez Cobo, U.N. ESCOR, Comm'n Hum. Rts., 36th Sess. Agenda Item 11, U.N. Doc. E /CN.4/Sub.2/1983/21/Add.8 (1983). There are thought to be over 370 million indigenous people worldwide. UN adopts declaration on rights for indigenous peoples worldwide, INT'L HERALD TRIBUNE, 13 Sept. 2007, available at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09 /13/news/UN-GEN-UN-Indigenous-Peoples.php.
125. Study of the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations, supra note 90.
126. Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, supra note 85, at 3.
127. Id. art. 3.
128. Id. art. 4.
129. Id. art. 12 130 Id. art 18.
130. Id. art. 19.
131. Hurst Hannum, Territorial Autonomy: Permanent Solution or Step Toward Secession?, in FACING ETHNIC C0NFLICTS: TOWARD A NEW REALISM (Andreas Wimmer et al. eds., 2004).
132. Markku Suksi, Legal Foundations, Structures and Institutions of Autonomy in Comparative Law, presented at the Conference on "One Country, Two Systems, Three Legal Orders - Perspectives of Evolution," Macao, PRC (5-7 Feb. 2007) (on file with Author). Suksi identifies ten such cases with full democratic guarantees within Europe, including Aland Islands, Catalonia, Corsica, Crimea, Basque Country, Azores, Scotland, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Wales.
133. See THE INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STATUS OF TAIWAN IN THE NEW WORLD ORDER (Jean-Marie Henckaerts, ed., 1996).
134. Tibet White Paper, supra note 5.
135. PRC CONSTITUTION, art. 62(13).
136. See Michael C. Davis, Constitutionalism and Political Culture: The Debate Over Human Rights and Asian Values, 11 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 109 (1998)
137. Michael C. Davis, The Price of Rights: Constitutionalism and East Asian Economic Development, 20 HUM. RTS. Q. 303 (1998).
138. ARTICLE 19, THE JOHANNESBURG PRINCIPLES ON NATIONAL SECURITY, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION (Nov. 1996), available at http://www.article 19.org/pdfs/standards/joburg-principles.pdf
139. Wang Lixiong, Indirect Representation Versus a Democratic System: Relative Advantages for Resolving the Tibet Question, in CONTEMPORARY TIBET, supra note 10, at 107-128.
140. Id.
141. Michael C. Davis, The Case for Chinese Federalism, 10 J. DEMOC. 124 (1999).
142. Interview with the Dalai Lama, supra note 3
143. Interview with Samdhong Rinpoche, supra note 2. 145 Interview with the Dalai Lama, supra note 3.
144. Paul Mooney, Dalai Lama attacked with new ferocity, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 21 Aug. 2006, at A6.
145. For an aggressive 2006 Chinese critique of the Dalai Lama's allegedly "splittist" clique see Yedor, China Tibet Information Center, On the "Middle Way" of the Dalai Lama (18 Jul. 2006) available at http://en.tibet.cn/news/tin/t20060718_134212.htm (the name "Yedor" is given for this lengthy critique of the Dalai Lama, though it is unclear if this is a real person).
146. Edward Cody, In Tibet, Dalai Lama Continues to Hold Sway, WASH. POST, 10 July 2006, at A10
147. Jane Macartney, Festival-goers ordered to wear fur or face fines as China flouts Dalai Lama's ruling, TIMES OF LONDON, 27 July 2007, available at http://timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/ article2148342.ece
148. Mooney, supra, note 110
149. SMITH, CHINA'S TIBET, supra note 29, at 219-20.
150. China accuses the Dalai Lama of politicizing the endangered species issue through public displays of the burning of hides. Interview with Liu Hongji, supra note 4.
151. Robert Barnett, Beyond the Collaborator - Martyr Model: Strategies of Compliance, Opportunism, and Opposition Within Tibet, in CONTEMPORARY TIBET, supra note 10, at 25-66.
152. See China: Fewer Tibetans on Lhasa's Key Ruling Body Lowest Representation Since 1966, supra note 26.
153. Interview with Tenzin Tsundue, prominent social activist, Dharamsala, India (9 Aug. 2006).
154. Interview with Lobsang Yeshi, Vice-President of Tibetan Youth Congress, Dharamsala, India (3 Aug. 2006).
155. Interview with Karma Chophel, Chair of the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies, Dharamsala, India (2 Aug. 2006). This general level of frustration may account for the Dalai Lama's increased travel schedule in late 2007 to several countries in Europe, Australia, and finally to the US, where he received the US Congressional Gold Medal.
156. See Yedor, supra note 111.
157. Benjamin Kang Lim, Tibetan says hawks blocking Dalai Lama's return, REUTERS, 7 Mar. 2007
158. Benjamin Kang Lim, Top official dismisses call for Dalia Lama's return, REUTERS, 20 June 2007. It is interesting that Chinese officials accuse the Tibetan government in exile of the same thing, saying they "live on independence; they eat political rice." Interview with Liu Hongji, supra note 4.
159. Even Mr. Rato Ngawang, a well-known former CIA trained Mustang resistance fighter who now supports the Dalai Lama's middle way approach, suspects that settlement would be more likely with a democratic China. Interview with Mr. Rato Ngawang, Dharamsala, India (7 Aug. 2006). He expressed doubts about the efficacy of violent resistance at the present stage and supports the Dalai Lama's middle way approach.
160. Interview with the Dalai Lama, supra note 3.