(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-08 07:16

The Dalai group fabricates the so-called "ethnic issue" to seek the independence of Tibet, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

On various occasions, the Dalai group has kept claiming that the "Tibet issue" should not be ignored". The "Tibet issue" has been turned by them into a tool to win over the support from the Western world and to add more pressure on China. According to the Dalai group, this is the so-called "ethnic issue".

"Ethnic equality" has been mentioned many times in the "appeals" and "statements" of the Dalai group. As they depicted it, Tibetan people are "deeply invaded by the ideas and behavior of the Han people". So they have kept clamoring for "the legal rights and freedom of Tibetans".

Is it really an ethnic problem?

Han and Tibetan ethnic groups were united in ancient times and the friendship between the two ethnic groups has lasted for thousands of years and the two thus have long merged into the culture of China, a multi-ethnic country. Both Tibetan and Han people saved and helped each other during the Lhasa riots, which once again proved the unity between the two groups.

After the peaceful liberation of Tibet in the 1950s, it was strongly supported by the central government and other ethnic groups from the country. Between 1965 and 2004, the financial subsidies earmarked by the central government for Tibet reached 96.87 billion yuan. With the support from both the central and local governments, the living and production standards of local Tibetan herdsman have been greatly improved, and the compulsory education, the medical system and the minimum living security system have been implemented throughout Tibet.

In fact, ethnic minority groups, including Tibetan people, have enjoyed preferential policies in family planning, economic growth as well as social and cultural development. It enables Tibet to keep an economic growth rate of more than 12 percent for seven years on end. In the process of the development, Tibetan comrades are the main body of the cadres in Tibet.

While facing these hard facts, we do not know how the Dalai group can draw the conclusion that Tibetan people are "deeply invaded by the Han people".

They avoid touching upon the efforts and achievements made by the central government and the rest of China to help Tibet get rid of serfdom and lift the people out of poverty. They also turn a blind eye to the great changes in Tibet since the reform and opening-up. They fabricate the "ethnic issue" out of nowhere and hype "the ethnic inequality" in the hope of seeking "greater Tibet" and driving all other ethnic groups out of Tibet. Anyone without biases can see who on earth is creating "ethnic inequality".

(China Daily 05/08/2008 page8)