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FM AMCONSUL CHENGDU
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INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 0060
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 3158

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CHENGDU 000230 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, DRL AND G/STC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  9/6/2032 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON SOCI SCUL CH
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA'S TIBETAN AREAS - SIMMERING TENSIONS AND 
SECURITY CONCERNS 
 
REF: CHENGDU 220 AND PREVIOUS 
 
CHENGDU 00000230  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: John Hill, Acting Consul General, Chengdu, 
Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  Ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan and Yunnan are 
under increased security pressure from government authorities in 
the wake of demonstrations in the town of Litang in western 
Sichuan's Ganzi Prefecture that were set off by the arrest of a 
man calling for the return of the Dalai Lama at a major public 
gathering in early August (ref).  A simmering conflict within 
the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism may be being 
manipulated by local officials, adding to tensions on the 
ground.  Despite the growth of the tourist economy in some 
towns, contacts stressed to us during our recent swing through 
the region their continued concerns over economic 
marginalization of Tibetans and environmental degradation.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Consul General, Congenoff, and Consulate's ethnic Tibetan 
LES Political Assistant visited Tibetan areas of Sichuan and 
Yunnan from August 22-28 in the company of a Bangkok-based USAID 
official and representatives of U.S.-based NGOs Winrock 
International (Winrock) and The Mountain Institute (TMI).  The 
delegation visited sites in and around both Hongyuan (in west 
Sichuan's Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture) and Zhongdian (in 
northwest Yunnan's Diqing Prefecture). 
 
¶3. (C) Originally planned for August 20-29, the trip had to be 
reduced in scope after the Sichuan Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) 
denied permission for the delegation to visit project sites in 
Ganzi. (Note: Although the Sichuan FAO explained that this was 
done for safety reasons due to the bad condition of the 
prefecture's mountainous roads, a more likely explanation was 
its desire not to let us see first hand the implementation of a 
security crackdown following the "August 1 Litang Incident" 
involving calls for the Dalai Lama's return and for Tibetan 
autonomy (ref).  A good contact in Ganzi told us in the 
aftermath of this incident, Chinese authorities had dispatched 
an additional 600 security personnel to Ganzi.  End note.)  Our 
requested itinerary had us driving through Ganzi, including past 
Litang, and then down into northwest Yunnan. 
 
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-------------------- 
ZHONGDIAN'S TRANSFORMATION INTO "SHANGRI-LA" 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) The small city of Zhongdian (or Shangri-la) sits at an 
altitude of 3,340 meters (approx. 11,000 feet) in an alpine 
valley in northwestern Yunnan.  The seat of the Diqing Tibetan 
Autonomous Prefecture, it (and the county in which was located) 
was renamed Shangri-la in 2000, from the famous James Hilton 
novel of the 1930's, in an effort to market itself as a "lost 
paradise" for tourists.  According to local officials, the area 
attracted over two million tourists in 2006, about 90 percent of 
whom were Chinese domestic tourists on package tours.  The 
average stay in the area was only 1.2 days.  Officials told us 
they expect to welcome over three million tourists in 2007. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Both local officials and tourist industry contacts 
attribute Shangri-la's successful marketing to the Prefecture's 
Party Secretary and Governor, an ethnic Tibetan named Qi Zhala. 
Qi has been in the post of Party Secretary for only a few 
months, but has served as Governor or in other leadership 
positions in Zhongdian for a number of years.  (Note: According 
to our information it is rare for an ethnic Tibetan to serve 
simultaneously as both the local party secretary and government 
head.  End note.)  By all accounts, early in his official career 
Qi focused on the development of Zhongdian as a natural tourist 
destination, and in testament to his efforts the streets of the 
town are filled with attractive souvenir shops and restaurants 
and bars catering to both Chinese and western travelers. 
Construction in and around the town is booming - in addition to 
numerous small wooden shops and houses in the old section of 
town, the city also boasts a brand-new five-story cultural 
center, a new prefecture administrative building, and a large 
horseracing arena. 
 
¶6. (C) A foreign contact working in the field of small business 
development for an NGO in Zhongdian told us local authorities 
are very eager to stimulate business activity and investment in 
the city.  For instance, although foreign business owners are 
required by Chinese law to post registered capital of 300,000 
RMB (approx. USD 40,000), this requirement is largely "winked 
 
CHENGDU 00000230  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
at" in Zhongdian since foreigners are allowed to use the names 
of Chinese citizens (with far smaller capital requirements) on 
their business licenses.  Likewise, tax collection is enforced 
very laxly: when authorities attempted in January 2007 to make 
Zhongdian shopkeepers comply strictly with tax accounting and 
payment regulations, most businesses simply shut down, and 
within a few days government authorities had abandoned their 
enforcement efforts. 
 
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------------------------ 
BUT CONFLICTS REMAIN - INCLUDING AMONG TIBETANS 
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------------------------ 
 
¶7. (C) However, religious, political, and ethnic tension remain 
in evidence beneath this apparent increased prosperity. 
Shangri-la and Diqing Prefecture are important sites for the 
Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism.  The "Tibetan 
Government-in-Exile's Prime Minister" Samdong Rinpoche is from 
Diqing and the incarnate Buddhas (rimpoche) of two large area 
monasteries in the area have been in exile for many years in 
India. 
 
¶8. (C) According to one contact in Zhongdian, an ethnic Tibetan 
graduate student, Tibetan areas of both Yunnan and Sichuan have 
been affected by strife arising from devotion to the deity Dorje 
Shugden.  The Shugden deity is believed by some Gelugpa 
adherents to be a benign spirit devoted to the protection of 
that school.  However, some Tibetan Gelugpa followers as well as 
adherents of other schools see Shugden as a destructive force, 
with the potential to harm overall Tibetan religious unity 
through its perceived animosity to such other schools as the 
Nyingma.  Consequently, our contact continued, the Dalai Lama 
several years ago rejected the worship of Shugden and embraced a 
philosophy ("Rime"), which calls for greater understanding and 
cooperation between Tibetan Buddhism's various schools and 
practices.  (Note: Among ethnic Tibetans, followers of Shugden 
are popularly blamed for several murders that occurred in 
Dharamsala in India in February of 1997, and those involved in 
the murders are widely believed to have been planning an attack 
on the Dalai Lama himself.  End note.) 
 
¶9. (C) The researcher told Consulate's Political Assistant that, 
despite the Dalai Lama's call for Buddhists to end their worship 
of Shugden, the practice remains popular in some quarters.  Some 
Shugden adherents have returned from Dharamsala to Sichuan and 
Yunnan to run Shugden temples, and some of those temples are 
supposedly supported financially by local authorities.  The 
researcher added that many Tibetans believe Chinese authorities 
are quietly encouraging this worship in an effort to divide the 
Tibetan community and to weaken the authority of the Dalai Lama. 
 For example, one large monastery near Zhongdian, the 
Sumtsenling Monastery, consists of eight colleges belonging to 
the Gelugpa sect: five of those colleges reject the worship of 
Shugden, while the remaining three continue to propitiate the 
deity.  The researcher said that in 2006 Nyingma believers from 
Sichuan attacked a temple in Yunnan devoted to Shugden and blew 
it up with homemade explosives (the exact site of that alleged 
attack was not identified). 
 
¶10. (C) No doubt well aware of continued tensions in the area, 
local authorities appear to have recently stepped up security 
measures, especially following the Litang incident described 
above, and in advance of the Diqing Prefecture's fiftieth 
anniversary celebrations on mid-September.  Local employees of 
one NGO reported that their offices had been visited repeatedly 
over the last few weeks without previous notice by local 
officials believed to be affiliated with security agencies. 
During the visits, the officials inquired about recent 
activities of the NGOs, but made no overt threats.  Likewise, a 
tour guide reported that authorities had temporarily banned Han 
tourists from visiting Zhongdian until after the Prefecture's 
anniversary ceremonies had concluded.  And to underscore the 
tense security environment, Congenoffs were followed closely 
(and filmed) during their visit, even while they met at lunch 
with a local contact working in ecotourism development. 
 
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-------------------------------- 
HONGYUAN: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS, MARGINALIZATION 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) Situated on the high open plains of Aba Tibetan 
Autonomous Prefecture in northern Sichuan, Hongyuan's physical 
environment and economic conditions are far different from 
Yunnan's Zhongdian.  Tourists are fewer -- most visitors to Aba 
 
CHENGDU 00000230  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
limit their trips to the Jiuzhaigou national park -- 
infrastructure is lacking, and there is little construction 
underway in the area (although plans for the construction of an 
airport have been announced). 
 
¶12. (C) According to local NGO representatives, Hongyuan's 
environment and economy face daunting challenges: rat 
infestations, the deterioration of grasslands, and the economic 
marginalization of the area's majority ethnic Tibetan 
population.  Tibetans are engaged mainly in agricultural and 
animal husbandry work, while Han and Muslim Hui dominate the 
important processing and distribution industries such as yak 
meat and cheese.  With low levels of Mandarin ability among 
local Tibetans, and little entrepreneurial experience, the task 
of bringing Tibetans into the area's economic mainstream appears 
to be very difficult.  And unlike their ethnic brethren in 
Zhongdian, Hongyuan's Tibetan population appears to have few 
opportunities to move into cash-paying jobs such as construction 
or the hospitality industry. 
 
--------------- 
COMMENT 
--------------- 
 
¶13. (C) Despite the local and central governments' marketing of 
Tibetan areas as tourist paradises, continued tensions and 
potential security concerns remain in Yunnan and Sichuan. 
Hongyuan's economic and environmental problems illustrate the 
depth of the region's developmental dilemma: increasing 
agricultural prosperity is a major challenge, while encouraging 
tourism could serve to increase ethnic tensions as more Han come 
into contact with their Tibetan compatriots.  Official 
proclamations to the contrary, the concept of "harmonious 
society" is often at odds with reality in southwest China's 
Tibetan areas. 
BOUGHNER