Chinese settlements in Tibet

Chinese settlements in Tibet are colonies built by Chinese people in Tibet. One Tibetan administration formally declared its Independence in 1912 and was de facto independent until the People's Republic of China reasserted Chinese claims over the area in 1949.

Many Tibetan independence groups allege that the Chinese government has established these settlements in Tibet in an attempt to sinicize the region. The Free Tibet Campaign in April 1996 made the unproven claim that 500,000 Chinese were to be moved into eastern Tibet to work in copper mines, a project that was to involve the building of several new mining towns. Lobsang Sangay, a leader of the Tibetan Youth Congress, alleged in the Harvard Asia Quarterly that 60-70% of the population in Lhasa now is Chinese and, outside of the traditional Tibetan "Bharkor" market, Tibetans own only 400-450 of the 3,500 to 4,000 shops. Han Chinese also occupy most government-related employment with 95 percent of official Chinese immigrants employed in state owned enterprises.

In 1991 the Dalai Lama declared:

The new Chinese settlers have created an alternate society: a Chinese apartheid which, denying Tibetans equal social and economic status in our own land, threatens to finally overwhelm and absorb us.^[1][2]

See also

• Cultural genocide in Tibet

References