EVENTS

Abstract

‘Give up splittist activities’ is a common refrain in the Chinese leadership’s repertoire when referring to the Tibet issue. What the Chinese call ‘splittist activities’ are basically international campaigns by Tibetans to keep the issue alive, among others. In other words, ‘internationalization of the Tibet issue’, as it is more commonly understood, has been the primary irritant in the Sino-Tibetan conflict. This presentation is an attempt to deconstruct its meaning, emphasis and salience with specific reference to Chinese counter-responses. It will refer to different activities by the Chinese government - primarily white papers and delegation diplomacy - that underscore its strategy to counter Tibetan activities/campaigns. Recently, the Chinese government has also started organizing conferences/forums to present its version of the Tibet issue before the international community.

It is part of a larger study to understand the dynamics of ‘internationalization’ of the Tibet issue to get a sense about how the Tibet issue is being played out at the international stage by both the stakeholders, to the detriment of closer Sino-Tibetan understanding and cooperation. Further, it assists us in understanding the international sources of China’s domestic Tibet policy, as also, how China’s sensitivity to internationalization is affecting its engagement with the Dalai Lama in many direct and indirect ways.

About the Speaker

Tshering Chonzom Bhutia is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies. She has a PhD from the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. Her thesis was an attempt at generating knowledge on the dynamics of the Sino-Tibetan conflict in engendering a sustained impasse by using negotiation theory as an analytical tool. She speaks and writes regularly on this and related themes. In January 2013, she was part of a three member delegation from India to Kathmandu to launch the initiative ‘China-India-Nepal Trilateral Cooperation’, hosted by the Nepal Institute of International and Strategic Studies in collaboration with the ICS and a number of institutions in China. Earlier, she undertook a one month study visit to Taiwan in 2007 where she attended lectures on Taiwanese culture, society, economy and polity. She is currently recipient of an ICSSR project grant to study Indian and Chinese ethnic minority policies.