(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-24 19:38

Areas inhabited by ethnic Tibetans in the neighboring provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan, however, are ethically and culturally more diversified, where Tibetans have coexisted peacefully with Han and other ethnic groups such as Hui, Mongolian, Qiang, Tu and Salar for many centuries, Nentwig said.

If exiled Tibetans, under the "anti-assimilation" or "anti-sinicization" slogans, want to fight for Tibetans' cultural or political dominance, this would go against the historical truth and would be unfair for all other residents there, he said.

Old ruling class' accusation? Different story to tell

The scholar listed some historical and geographical reasons for Tibet's relatively slow development compared with other Chinese regions.

Tibet is "unsuitable for a comprehensive industrialization and its agriculture is also handicapped by natural conditions" as large grazing areas there have "such thin topsoil that virtually nothing can be cultivated," he said.

He also called attention to the fact that before 1950, there were no hospitals and no schools except the monastic education.

While acknowledging such huge gap "can not be narrowed overnight," Nentwig noted with delight that the average life expectancy in Tibet has raised from 35 years in the 1950s to the present 67 years.

He hailed the liberation of the vast majority of the Tibetan people from the bondage of serfdom as a "great progress," adding most Tibetans are in much better conditions now than than 50 years ago.

He said the Chinese government's ethnic policy is "enormously generous" and there are many examples to illustrate that China's ethnic minorities are given preferential treatments.

"The Tibetans, for example, may basically have two children... (and) Tibetans in the countryside may have three or even more children" while the one-child policy is applied to the Han.

"The latest census showed that in the past 20 to 30 years, the population growth rate of Tibetans was much higher than that of the Han," he said.

Nentwig criticized some Western media for only reporting the voices of the former ruling class, namely, representatives of the old theocracy, the clerical and feudal aristocrats, who lost their power and can "no longer exploit the people at will," while ignoring the voices of the ordinary Tibetan people who "have a totally different story to tell."

Admitting that China's approach to ethnic minorities still has much room for improvement, he said if anyone wants to criticize China, such criticism should be concrete, constructive and based on expertise.

"It helps nobody if unqualified nonsense is disseminated as many Western media unfortunately have done and are still doing," he said.

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