Jayadeva Ranade
Wang Junzheng, Tibet’s new Communist party boss, is on a number of
sanctions lists by the US, Britain, the EU and Canada, for his tough
role in Xinjiang, aimed at China’s Uyghur ethnic minority, observes
Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished
China expert.
As anticipated in July with the inclusion of Politburo member and head
of the Chinese Communist party central committee’s powerful
organisation department Chen Xi in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s
entourage for his visit to Tibet, major leadership changes have been
implemented in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
Two important appointments, that of a new TAR party secretary and a
new Lhasa municipal party secretary and acting chairman of the TAR
people’s government, were announced on October 19.
The appointments suggest that the Chinese leadership is gearing up to
accelerate completion of the major dual-use infrastructure projects
approved in the 14th Five Year Plan.
The leadership will also have to counter resistance to the
implementation in TAR of tougher policies, like Mandarin being made
the primary language in all schools in Tibet, prescribing a new
history of Tibet and its people, ‘eliminating the influence of the
Dalai Lama’ etc.
The appointment of Wang Junzheng as the new TAR party secretary was
announced two months prior to the current incumbent TAR party
secretary Wu Yingjie reaching the age of retirement.
Reports suggest that Wang Junzheng has already taken over and started
attending official functions.
The official spokesman of China’s ministry of foreign affairs stated
that it had hosted a Global conference on Tibet titled China on a New
Journey: A New Chapter of Development for a Happy New Tibet on October
20 at Lanting.
The statement said State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi
attended and addressed the event, where ‘Secretary of the Communist
party of China Xizang autonomous regional committee Wang Junzheng and
acting chairman of the people’s government of the Xizang autonomous
region Yan Jinhai delivered presentations’.
Immediately prior to his appointment and since 2019, Wang Junzheng was
head of the political and legal commission of the Xinjiang Uyghur
autonomous region (XUAR) overseeing its security apparatus.
Wang Junzheng has been placed on a number of sanctions lists by the
United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada, for his role in
the formulation and implementation of tough policies aimed at China’s
Uyghur ethnic minority.
He worked closely with politburo member and XUAR Party Secretary Chen
Quanguo, who has also been sanctioned by Western governments.
Wang Junzheng, like Chen Quanguo, has dismissed the sanctions as of no
consequence.
It has not yet been disclosed whether Wu Yingjie, who was born in 1956
and has reached retirement age, will be accommodated in the Chinese
people’s political consultative conference or the national people’s
congress. He has been appreciated by Chinese President Xi Jinping
during recent interactions.
Days prior to the appointment of the new TAR party secretary, the TAR
people’s congress on October 8 appointed Yan Jinhai as vice chairman
and acting chairman of the TAR government.
He replaced 63-year-old Che Dalha (Qi Zala) a reputed tough ethnic
Tibetan cadre on the fast track who held important positions in the
TAR.
Che Dalha was born in Yunnan province in August 1958 and brought up in
that province. He came to TAR in 2010.
Over the past couple of years and especially around the period of the
Tibet work forum and NPC in March this year, Che Dalha received
noticeably high media profile prompting speculation that he is being
considered for elevation, possibly even as TAR party secretary.
Che Dalha has now been shifted to Beijing, possibly for a senior
appointment, but his assignment is not yet known.
Yan Jinhai, who has been appointed to replace Che Dalha, was born in
March 1962 in Qinghai province.
He joined the Communist party in December 1983 and served entirely in
Qinghai province before being moved to TAR in July 2020. He graduated
in 1982 from the Qinghai university of nationalities with a major in
Chinese after which he taught at the Huangnan normal school for
nationalities. He is an alternate member of the 19th Communist party
central committee.
He was appointed deputy party secretary of TAR and since January 18,
2021 has been serving as party secretary of Lhasa.
Though his official bio-profile lists him as an ethnic Tibetan, he is
called a ‘fake Tibetan’ by Tibetans possibly because his facial
features resemble those of an ethnic Han.
The third significant appointment is that of Ao Liuquan as party
secretary of TAR’s Nyingchi prefecture.
A Han born in May 1974 in Guiyang, Guizhou, Ao Liuquan joined the
Communist party in July 1996. He graduated from the Sichuan business
administration institute.
He moved to TAR in 1996 and served till 1999 as deputy head of the
Nimu township, Bianba county, TAR. He has served in TAR since then.
Nyingchi is an important prefecture and Xi Jinping has visited it
thrice — first as party secretary of Fujian, then as China’s vice
president and most recently as president.
Nyingchi is the centre of major strategic infrastructure construction
projects including the railway connecting Chengdu in Sichuan with
Tibet’s capital Lhasa and a proposed massive dam on the Great Bend of
the Brahmaputra.
Nyingchi’s official administrative boundaries, incidentally, include
the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The appointments of the TAR party secretary and acting cof TAR have
come as China prepares for the 20th party congress, crucial for Xi
Jinping, late next year.
Another five Communist party cadres were also promoted as provincial
party secretaries on October 19, indicating that Xi is working to
ensure a supportive 20th Party Congress.
Jayadeva Ranade, former additional secretary, Cabinet Secretariat,
Government of India, is the President, Centre for China Analysis and
Strategy.
