Economy & Environment |
In June 2006, the Chinese government opened the Gormo-Lhasa Railway, linking Tibet for the first time by rail with the main Chinese rail network. The railway facilitates the ever increasing numbers of Han Chinese travelling and migrating to Tibet; it eases China’s extraction of Tibet’s vast mineral resources and it allows China more effectively to militarise the Tibetan Plateau. The railway is intended to absorb Tibet irreversibly into China and to cement China’s control over the region. Tibetans were not consulted on the railway and fear that the growing numbers of Han Chinese in Tibet’s towns are marginalising Tibetans in key areas of political and economic life.
The newly-opened railway has unleashed a huge increase in tourism into Tibet. In 2007 the number of tourists that arrived in the first ten months of the year (3.72 million) exceeded that of the total population of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). China claims such tourism benefits Tibetans, but tourist activity is concentrated in the towns where Han Chinese dominate jobs in the tourism sector. The sheer number of arrivals is impacting on the spiritual, environmental and cultural integrity of many of the areas affected by tourism. Read more
Tibet’s elevation has produced a unique, resource-rich geology. The opening of the Gormo-Lhasa Railway, deliberately routed through areas rich in minerals, allows China to extract more efficiently Tibet’s copper, iron ore, lead, zinc and gold to fuel its booming economy and lessen its dependence on costly imports. The plundering of Tibet’s vast natural resources without the free, prior and informed consent of the Tibetan people represents a violation of their fundamental right to determine how their economic resources are utilised. Read more
The economy of the TAR has boomed recently, fuelled largely by state subsidies. Tibetans, however, have been largely excluded from this boom. Measured in GDP, the economy of the TAR doubled between 2000 and 2005. Certain areas such as construction tripled. However, the booming sectors are operated by Chinese companies. Employment in these sectors requires Chinese language skills and business connections, therefore Tibetans are employed largely in the agricultural sector instead, which has grown by only one third in the same period. Read more
Due to the unique conditions to be found on the Tibetan Plateau, pastoral nomadism historically represented the primary form of agriculture in Tibet. China seeks to replace this mobile and extensive style of agriculture with more intensive practices. Nomads have consequently been settled in urban areas, their pastures fenced off and excluded from areas designated for industrial extraction. Due to the official failure to re-sow degraded areas with native grasses, the productivity of livestock is threatened. Read more
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