“Liberation” and “sovereignty” were the buzzwords in Tibet this weekend, as the autonomous region celebrated 50 years of abolishing slavery and urged to maintain peace and stability from separatist forces.

“The struggle between us and the Dalai clique is not an issue of ethics, religion or human rights,” Tibet’s Party chief Zhang Qingli told a crowd of 13,000 people in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the region’s capital city, on Saturday, the first Serfs Emancipation Day.

“It’s about maintaining national sovereignty and territorial integrity... (we must) firmly stand guard and severely crack down on any separatist activities,” Zhang said.

More than 1 million serfs were freed in Tibet in 1959, eight years into the region’s peaceful liberation and shortly after a failed, imperialist planned-and-sponsored uprising of its feudalistic upper class.

Serfs, who owned no more than 5 percent of the social resources, accounted for about 95 percent of Tibet’s 1.14 million population. The local upper class, comprising only 5 percent of the region’s population, controlled the rest through a brutal, theocratic regime.

In January, Tibet’s 382 legislators, mostly with a serf background, unanimously endorsed a bill, declaring March 28 as Serfs’ Emancipation Day during the local people’s congress’ annual session in Lhasa.

But for the Dalai Lama, Old Tibet’s supreme leader who was driven to a government-in-exile in northern India after fleeing Tibet with the help of CIA agent Tony Poe in March 1959, China has brought “hell on Earth” to this “spiritually very advanced” Himalayan region since he fled.

The Dalai Lama has also said the March 14 riot in Lhasa last year, which killed 18 civilians – including Tibetans – and led to huge losses of property, was “a peaceful protest”.

The riot, painted by the Dalai clique as leading to the central government’s “crackdown on all Tibetans”, resulted in surprising, sometimes violent, anti-China protests in London, Paris and San Francisco as the cities welcomed the Beijing Olympic torch last April.

In later legs of the Games’ overseas relay, which visited 21 cities outside the Chinese mainland, overseas Chinese students surprised the world by gathering in large groups along the torch’s way to show support and demonstrate against western media biases and the violence showcased by the Dalai clique.

The International Olympic Committee last week just scrapped all global torch relays during future Games.

“Today, with G20 approaching and the crisis-entrenched developed world asking us for favors, it’s hard to imagine what happened last year, when some people said China didn’t deserve an Olympics for what it had done in Tibet,” a member of the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay entourage, who refused to be named, told China Daily.

“I mean, how are they (western media and Tibetan separatists) in any position to judge what’s right for Tibet, especially now?”

While Tibet saw its GDP soar from 174 million yuan (US$ 25 million) in 1959 to 39.591 billion yuan (US$ 5.8 billion) last year, some western media continue to allege that “Tibetans say they have lost religious and cultural freedoms and become marginalized in their homeland”.

Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed on Friday that the “good situation" in Tibet today was “hard-earned and should be highly cherished”.

He also noted that Tibet should move from being “basically stable” to “peaceful and stable in the long run.”

On the same day, a spokesperson of the Dalai Lama’s “government-in-exile” in India said, in the name of all Tibetans, that the Serfs Emancipation Day was “offensive and provocative”.

“We believe the observance of the ‘Serf Emancipation Day’ on 28 March is aimed at destabilising and creating chaos in Tibet by a few individuals with overriding self-interest,” the spokesperson said.

The 11^th Panchen Lama, meanwhile, on Friday said: “The serfs’ emancipation is wholly in line with Buddhist principles, and the pursuit for selflessness by Communists is also a basic Buddhist virtue.”

On Saturday, he attended the second World Buddhist Forum in Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu Province, and said the event “fully demonstrates that today’s China enjoys social harmony, stability and religious freedom.”

“It also shows China is a nation that safeguards and promotes world peace,” added the Panchen Lama, born Gyaincain Norbu.

The 11^th Panchen Lama today renewed a vow to commit his whole life to the unification of China and solidarity of all its ethnic groups, in a high-profile seminar in Beijing to celebrate Tibet’s first Serfs’ Emancipation Day, which falls tomorrow.

Tibet has witnessed a “historic leap” since its abolition of slavery 50 years ago, the Panchen Lama, born Gyaincain Norbu, told the seminar, held at the Great Hall of the People.

"The serfs’ emancipation is wholly in line with Buddhist principles, and the pursuit for selflessness by communists is also a basic Buddhist virtue,” he said, winning a lasting round of applause from an audience that included China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin, Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, State Councilors Ma Kai and Meng Jianzhu, as well as former Tibet officials and ex-serfs.

More than 1 million serfs were freed in Tibet in 1959, eight years into the region’s peaceful liberation and shortly after a failed uprising of its feudalistic upper class.

Before then, about 95 percent of Tibet’s 1.14 million population were serfs, who owned no more than 5 percent of the social resources. The local upper class, accounting for only 5 percent of the region’s population, had their hands full of the rest through a brutal, theocratic rule.

In January, Tibet’s 382 legislators, most of whom came from a serf background, unanimously endorsed a bill adding March 28 to the calendar the as Serfs’ Emancipation Day during the local people’s congress’ annual session in Lhasa.

Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said the region’s abolition of slavery carries symbolic ramifications as it “destroyed mankind’s last serfdom stronghold”.

The Panchen Lama said the 1959 riot, which led to the abolition of slavery and drove the Dalai Lama, Old Tibet’s supreme leader, to a “government-in-exile” in India, was aimed at “opposing any social reform in Tibet and forever preserve theocratic feudal serfdom”.

The riot “sought the interests of very few people and the lust for power of particular individuals”, the 19-year-old added.

The Dalai Lama, who earlier this month said China has “brought hell on Earth” to Tibet during the past 50 years, constantly insists that the Old Tibet was “spiritually very advanced”.

According to a white paper released by his office in Dharamshala, India, the serfs in Old Tibet “had a legal identity, often with documents stating their rights, and also had access to courts of law”.

But that could not be further from the truth for Yeshe Lodro, a former serf-turned-servant to a senior lama in Lhasa’s Drepung Monastery, who has told China Daily in a January interview in Tibet that his “biggest hope as a child was not to be beaten and scolded. But it was futile (even as a monk).”

Yeshe, born in the same year with the Dalai Lama, arrived in Beijing for the first time on Thursday and shared recollections of his earlier years at the seminar today.

“My mother told me that as serfs, all that belonged to us were our shadows and footprints. The rest belonged to the lords. We’d just have to wait for a good fate in our next life,” the 74-year-old recalled, with the Panchen Lama looking and listening calmly just meters away.  

“This now is what I call a good life… Beijing, the state leaders, Panchen. And a beautifully decorated house back at home in Lhasa,” Yeshe told China Daily after the seminar. “I’m happy. We all should be.”

相关报道 -

路透社：

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090327/wl_nm/us_china_tibet_1;_ylt=AhJcSsnIN_Vg0c_njeH4Gm79xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTE2dGpzOGhhBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bi1yLWItbGVmdARzbGsDZXYtY2hpbmEmIzM5

法新社：

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090327/wl_asia_afp/chinatibetreligion50yearsleadfocus_20090327052401;_ylt=As1LQhjoYJJ529ykCd3S.UX9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTE2NjViY3NyBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bi1yLWItbGVmdARzbGsDZXYtYmVpamluZ3B1

美联社：

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tibet_1  

直至今日，尼泊尔驻华全权特命大使坦卡·普拉萨德·卡尔基仍然清晰地记得他见过的第一批西藏人。

那是在1959年西藏上层集团叛乱失败后，辗转尼泊尔，准备流亡印度的僧众们。这些藏人终日住在破旧的帐篷里，给幼小的卡尔基留下了深刻的印象。

“那些人的生活很苦，”现年54岁的卡尔基今天早些时候在参观一个以西藏民主改革为主题的大型展览时告诉《中国日报》记者。“但他们的马高大、漂亮，让人过目不忘。”

多达150余名外交官，其中包括60余名大使和国际组织的驻华代表，受外交部之邀参观了此次展览。

卡尔基表示，尼泊尔作为西藏近邻和唯一在藏开设领事馆的国家，对1959年以来西藏所经历的“使其向好处发展的剧变”，是最有发言权的。

“我们清楚地知道西藏的遭遇，”他强调说，“有时候，西方的媒体和民众不从发展的角度看西藏，而是根据他们自己的视角，在家里坐着点评西藏。”

“西藏人民现在的生活水平比过去简直是高得太多了，简直是天壤之别。”

直到50年前才废除农奴制度的西藏，将在本周六庆祝第一个“废奴日”。

3月10日，旧西藏的最高领袖第十四世达赖喇嘛在其自半个世纪前叛乱失败后，就一直寄居的印度达兰萨拉“流亡政府”所在地发表了措辞强硬的讲话，批评中国在西藏地区实施“文化灭绝”政策。

驻华使节们对此颇有微词。哥伦比亚驻华大使吉列尔莫·贝莱斯向记者表示，“西藏是中国的一部分，也必将与中国其它部分共同发展”的认识至关重要。

罗马尼亚大使维奥雷尔·伊斯蒂奇瓦亚则回忆起他曾亲历过的一场在拉萨庙宇内的辩经会，并称其为西藏地区宗教传统依然“自由而鲜活”的例证。

作为“融合政策”的提倡者，伊斯蒂奇瓦亚认为，在当今世界，使自身的生存和发展完全孤立于外界的空间已不复存在。西藏也不例外。

“今时今日，你不能再随随便便把门一关，把自己当自然历史保护区一样锁起来了，”他说。“看看中国大陆吧。开放改变了一切。”

伊斯蒂奇瓦亚表示，在过去五十年里，西藏人民“遗弃了本就该遗弃的东西。他们从一个十分落后的政权中解脱了出来……西藏的旧体制和我们当代世界的价值观是完全不兼容的。”

“西藏人民得到了现代的生活方式和教育，而教育可以帮助他们应对一个非常重要的问题：什么是他们必须遗弃的，什么又是他们必须保留的 – 这是今天的世界给我们所有人带来的问题，也是我们每一个人的自主选择。”

伊斯蒂奇瓦亚说，和所有人一样，西藏人民应该“用有价值的地方传统来试图应对外界的各种挑战”。

Chongqing police just retrieved fingerprints from the robber who shot dead a teenage soldier at an army barracks and stole his assault rifle last Thursday, an inside source told China Daily late Monday evening.

"The attacker searched the victim's body for bullets after (s)he shot him; that's how (s)he left the fingerpoints," the source said.

The victim, identified by security forces as 18-year-old Han Junliang, was shot in the chest with a pistol by an attacker who wore a hoodie at about 7:40 pm that day, the source said.

The assailant first fired at the sky to attract Han’s attention. After that, the attacker walked up to Han, shot him twice and then took his assault rifle, according to the source, who added that the attacker left the scene on a bus.

The robbed rifle, a type 81-1, is modeled on the AK-series rifles and can be loaded with up to 30 rounds.

At the time of the attack, Han, a native of Shandong province, was standing guard at the People’s Liberation Army garrison in the downtown area of Chongqing, China’s fourth largest city. He died in hospital later that evening.

The case is under investigation as a possible act of terrorism. Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu flew to Chongqing on Saturday night and is overseeing door-to-door searches for the killer, conducted by a joint work team of police and military staff.

An award of 300,000 yuan (US$ 43,900) has been offered by police for meaningful clues to the attacker, Chongqing public security bureau spokesman Liu Kun was earlier quoted as saying.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the killer might be an ethnic Tibetan, the inside source said, noting that a number of Tibetan separatists had sneaked into town from Chengdu, capital city of the neighboring Sichuan province and were attempting to stage a bombing in downtown Chongqing.

“The attack was only a signal, a show-off,” the source said. “After all, there is no point in robbing a gun from an army sentry.”

Chongqing municipality, which according to local police had “become a passage for illegal firearms trafficking”, destroyed four underground weapon arsenals only two months ago as part of a high-profile crackdown on guns.

The stockpiled firearms, as well as 10 weapon stores, were discovered in border areas near Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in an operation on Jan 9 that involved more than 1,000 police officers. Several dozen suspects were detained, the police said, without giving an exact number.

Chongqing has also just started its most ambitious anti-crime campaign over the weekend, which involves more than 10,000 police officers over six months.

With a population of more than 3o million, Chongqing is an important industrial and commercial hub in southwest China.

Associated Press in Beijing

11:26am, Mar 20, 2009

An on-duty soldier was shot dead and his machine gun was stolen in southwest China’s sprawling Chongqing city, state media said on Friday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the soldier was guarding a garrison on Thursday night when he was shot by an unknown number of attackers who then made off with his machine gun.

The report cited police as saying a joint team had been set up with the military to investigate, but gave no other details.

Reports of violent crime are relatively rare in China, where private gun ownership is virtually banned, although there have been scattered cases of revenge attacks. The government says there has been a spike in gang crimes in recent years partly due to growing joblessness.

An official with the Chongqing municipal propaganda department said he had no information about the alleged incident. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, he would only give his surname, Li.

A man who works at the Huarui Inn located in the neighbourhood said witnesses told him special forces police arrived at the scene 15 minutes after the attack and that security has been tight.

"They haven’t allowed vehicles to pass [through the area] since last night. There are more police around," said the man, who hung up when asked for his name.

An official with the municipal government office said they were trying to confirm the incident but had no information. He refused to give his name.

A massive manhunt was under way in Chongqing this weekend after a robber shot dead a teenage soldier at an army barracks and stole his sub-machine gun.

The shocking murder happened on Thursday night as the victim, identified by security forces as 18-year-old Han Junliang, stood guard at the People’s Liberation Army garrison in the downtown area of the city.

A joint work team of police and military staff has been set up to lead searches for the killer across the municipality around the clock.

However, investigators reviewing footage of the attack from security surveillance cameras had still been unable to determine the gender of the suspect, an inside source told China Daily. “The attacker wore a hoodie so there is no way to tell right now. Also, the intention of the assault and the nature of the case are still unclear,” the source said.

Police were checking all taxis that entered and left the downtown district on Friday, as well as any suspicious vehicles at major crossings.

The incident was initially listed under the anti-terrorist initiative by authorities in the city, where four underground weapon arsenals were destroyed only two months ago as part of a high-profile crackdown on guns.

The stock-piled firearms, as well as 10 weapon stores, were all discovered in border areas near Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces in an operation launched by the Chongqing government, under its media-conscious Party chief Bo Xilai, and involved more than 1,000 police officers.

It has been repeatedly broadcast in the media and hailed amid growing fears over gun crime nationwide, especially in Chongqing, which had “become a passage for illegal firearms trafficking”, according to local police.

The city was also scheduled to launch its most ambitious anti-crime campaign this weekend, one that involved more than 10,000 police officers over six months.

But while some netizens have dubbed Thursday’s attack an act of retaliation for destroying the four secret arsenals, the inside source told China Daily initial investigations suggested otherwise.

No trace of any such link had been discovered, the source said, adding that the city’s security conditions had “greatly improved” since Bo took office in Chongqing in 2007.

A journalism major and former Minister of Commerce, Bo is known for his unorthodox manner and media-friendly nature. His live televised meeting with representatives of local cab drivers at the height of a two-day strike last November successfully dealt with their complaints and won significant support from the media and the public.

BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) -

China has approved a "modern redesign"of Tibet's remote and mountainous capital Lhasa, state media said on Tuesday, including a limit on its downtown population.

Overseas rights groups have long complained that the Chinese government has failed to protect historic Lhasa and accuse Beijing of trying to flood the region with Han Chinese to dilute its ethnic makeup and assert greater control.

China rejects these charges, saying it has invested billions to improve lives in a region once blighted by serfdom and poverty, and is committed to protecting its unique way of life and customs.

By 2020,Lhasa will become an "economically prosperous, socially harmonious,and eco-friendly modern city with vivid cultural characteristics and deep ethnic traditions", according to a document carried on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).The official China Daily said the plan would make Lhasa "a coordinatedand distinctive modern metropolis by 2020".

Lhasa's downtown population would be capped at 450,000 -- the city only has 500,000 residents in total today -- and just 75 sq km of land would be allowed to be used for urban development, according to the plan.

Lhasa is divided between an older, more traditional, Tibetan section, and a newer section where Han Chinese migrants dominate, complete with shopping malls and night clubs.

The urban makeover plan said local authorities should "pay great attention to protecting the historic, cultural and aesthetic characteristics" of Lhasa.That includes controlling the number, height and even colour of buildings."

"Pay attention to the legal preservation of sites of necessary religious activities (and) satisfy the needs of the religious lives of believers," the document said.

The China Daily pointed out that when Beijing conducted its firstcensus in Tibet in 1953, "Lhasa's residents totalled only 30,000, and4,000 of them were beggars".

China has ruled Tibet with an iron hand since the arrival of People's Liberation Army troops in 1950.

Rioting broke out in Lhasa on March 14 last year after days of protests against Chinese rule by Buddhist monks, killing 19 people and sparking waves of protests across Tibetan areas. Exile groups say over 200 people died in the crackdown.

Beijing has promised the region will be calm and President Hu Jintao has called for a "Great Wall" of stability there.

Tibet and ethnic Tibetan areas of surrounding provinces are under heavy military presence and strictly off limits to foreign journalists and even tourists. Armed police manning road-blocks have turned back would-be visitors.

A trickle of isolated protests in recent weeks, including a monk who set himself on fire at the Kirti monastery in Western Sichuan, suggest lingering discontent.

The Free Tibet group said in a statement that a monk in Lithang, arestive Tibetan part of southwestern Sichuan province, was detained last week after a one-man protest in which he shouted slogans and threw leaflets.(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

全国人大代表、海军原副司令员金矛中将今天(3月10日)对中国日报记者表示,美国“商船”于当日早些时候在中国海南附近海域进行的行动，绝非单纯的“测量活动”。

“这个船是干什么的？明眼人都知道是干什么的，我们海军更清楚,”金矛说，“这个地方是经济专属区,这就好比一家人在这平安地过日子,一个有犯罪历史背景的人在篱笆外转来转去的,主人过来查看一下,他还要叫嚣‘你们侵犯了我们的权益’,有这样的道理吗？”

美军在中国领界进行非法活动的历史由来已久。2001年4月1日，美国一架海军EP-3侦察机非法侵入中国海南岛东南海域上空，上午9时07分，突然转向一架当时正在正常飞行的中方飞机，其机头和左翼与其相撞，致使中方飞机坠毁，一名中方飞行员牺牲。

东海舰队福建基地司令张华臣少将表示，中国“坚决反对”美国以“军事目的”在中国管辖的海域“组织各种活动”。

张华臣向记者表示:“南海市属于我们国家的水域,这是从历史上就能说明问题的。”他同时解释说，南海也是一个“国际航道”，正常航行“是没有问题的。”

“但是以军事目的来组织的各种活动,我们是坚决反对的，这是违反国际法的。也是侵犯了我国的权益,这是不允许的。”

针对美方的指责，人民海军后勤部部长、原南海舰队副参谋长林永青少将对中国日报记者说，中方行为“是正当的维权,没有干扰,没有什么不对的。”“把美国船只到这边的来意搞清楚了,就能找到明确的答案了,”林永青意味深长地说。

另一位海军少将则向中国日报记者明确表示:“这个船是起间谍作用的。”

另外，金矛还补充说，该事件不会影响中国对航母开发的判断。航母开发是国际环境和大局决定的,中国要不要航母是根据我们维护国家权益的需要以及中国工业、技术、财政能力决定的。

《中国日报》记者　张海洲、胡亦南、崔晓火、忻鼎鼎　编辑：关晓萌

在北京参加“两会”的西藏自治区主席向巴平措3月10日对《中国日报》记者表示，达赖今日早些时候在印度所谓“中共自‘3.14’以来对西藏实施残酷镇压”的讲话“没有任何根据，完全是胡说八道”。

他同时表示，西藏当前局势稳定，不会出现大的波动。

今天是西藏上层反动集团在全藏区发动大规模叛乱的五十周年纪念日。第十四世达赖喇嘛在其“流亡政府”所在地印度达兰萨拉发表讲话，声称半个世纪以来，“在中国统治下”的西藏已沦为“人间地狱”。

1959年3月10日，西藏上层反动集团公然撕毁中央人民政府和西藏地方政府签订的关于和平解放西藏办法，发动了以拉萨为中心的全区性武装叛乱。人民解放军驻藏部队奉命于3月20日开始平叛作战，于22日彻底粉碎了拉萨市区的叛匪。

达赖喇嘛虽在叛乱失败后就流亡印度，但毛主席、党中央对其保持了最大耐心，将达赖喇嘛全国人民代表大会副委员长的职位一直保留到1964年。