Tibetans left out of massive Chinese investment in Tibet

Despite vast levels of investment (310 billion Yuan since 2001, the equivalent of £30 billion) in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), funds have not benefitted the Tibetans, and have actually contributed to their economic marginalisation. The speed and scale of Han Chinese migration onto the plateau, the unequal business and employment opportunities this migration creates were some of the driving forces behind protests in Lhasa against Chinese rule in 2008.

The main reasons for the increasing marginalisation of Tibetans are

• The vast majority of investment from Beijing targets urban industries and sectors that are dominated by Chinese migrants;
  

• Very little is invested in agriculture despite the fact that 85 per cent of Tibetans live off their land. Only 7 per cent of investment in 2005 went to agriculture;
  

• Most Tibetans are unable to compete in a job market dominated by Chinese language
  

Subsidies from Bejing are benefitting industries dominated by Chinese migrants

Growth in Tibet has been fuelled by intensive subsidies and subsidised investment from Beijing. Subsidies are focused on areas of the urban economy such as government administration, construction and tourism in which fluency in Chinese language is required to gain employment. Consequently these areas are dominated by increasing numbers of Han Chinese migrants.Contracts are mostly awarded to Chinese state-owned companies so that the income generated from projects in Tibet goes straight back into Chinese companies and Chinese pockets. The money goes in, but the money then goes straight back out.

85% of Tibetan live off the land yet agriculture receives almost no investment

The majority of Tibetans are farmers and nomads who still derive their livelihood from the rural economy. But, according to official statistics to 2005 almost no investment was placed into rural areas in the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2005, with agriculture accounting for less than 7 per cent of investment. Health, social security and social welfare received only 1 per cent.

Poor education and the domination of Chinese language in Tibet

Tibetans’ ability to get jobs in the growth areas of the Tibetan economy such as government administration is hampered by poor educational opportunities and resulting illiteracy.

Only 11.5 per cent of the Tibetan population had secondary education or higher in 2005. The illiteracy rates for the TAR in the same year was a huge 45 per cent; the illiteracy rate for China as a whole in 2004 was 10.3 per cent. Fewer than 12 per cent of Tibetans are likely to have the degree of fluency in Chinese that would make it possible for them to gain employment in the booming sectors of the economy.

“The primary reason for Tibetans getting lower paid jobs is that they are mostly not educated, and they don’t speak Chinese. Secondly they are not very professionally skilled, and those from rural areas don’t have the social foundation and background in the cities. So to get a job is difficult, let alone getting a good job.......Even the educated Tibetans such as those who have graduated from Tibet University, a lot of them are unemployed.” 29 year old man from Chamdo County

Many Tibetans feel strongly that not only have they been largely marginalised from the material benefits of the growing Tibetan economy; they also feel that their identity, culture and language are being eliminated as a result of the increasing collective Chinese presence on the Tibetan plateau. The Lhasa-Gormo railway which opened in 2006 facilitates the increased migration of Han Chinese to Tibet.

“In Lhasa if I stay around the Potala and Tsolakhang area, and seeing those ancient buildings, I would feel like I am in Tibet. But if I go around to the western side of Lhasa, it is more like a Chinese city, there is hardly anything that we could say it is Tibetan. Besides, Tibetans are unable to compete with the Chinese.” 26- year- old woman from Lhasa