The 70th Anniversary of “Peaceful Liberation” Held in Tibet, the Giant Portrait of Xi Jinping Towers-BBC News

“The peaceful liberation of Tibet 70 years ago was an epoch-making turning point in Tibet’s history,” You Quan said. “The huge and earth-shaking changes in Tibet fully prove that without the Communist Party of China, there would be no new China, and there would be no new Tibet.”

In his subsequent speech, Wang Yang, Chairman of the Chinese National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, cited Tibet’s achievements in economic development and poverty alleviation, including 15 years of publicly funded education.

At the same time, he stated in a written statement that it is necessary to combine national unity propaganda and education with “socialist core values ​​education, patriotism education, anti-separatism education, education on the contrast between old and new Tibet” and Marxist education to promote the Tibetan people’s sense of national identity.

“(70 years ago) we completely drove out the imperialist forces, set off a wave of magnificent national reforms, and ended the history of the unity of politics and religion and theocratic control of power,” he said. “Millions of serfs who turned to be the masters cheered, the sun of the nobles has gone down, and our sun has risen.”

Although many provinces and cities in China are facing a new wave of epidemics caused by the mutant new crown virus strain Delta, most of the officials and people participating in the celebration meeting did not wear masks and did not maintain social distancing.

This may be because there have been no new cases of COVID-19 in the local area for more than 560 consecutive days. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in 2020, this highest administrative region in China has only confirmed one case of new crown pneumonia.

However, compared with the 60th anniversary meeting held ten years ago, the process of this meeting is still streamlined, and there is no military parade or mass demonstration.

It is worth noting that there are two giant portraits erected on both sides of the square, one of which is a giant standard portrait of Xi Jinping himself, and the other is a collection of heads of the five generations of CCP leaders from Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping.

Official media images show that the towering blue-bottomed portrait of Xi Jinping is three to four stories high, even exceeding the height of the trees behind and the balloons next to it.

During Mao Zedong’s period from the 1950s to the 1970s, Chinese propaganda officials often displayed portraits of Mao Zedong at rallies and ceremonies to strengthen personality worship and ideological control, but this situation became more and more after Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” Less.

However, after Xi Jinping came to power, portraits of himself and the former leaders of the Chinese Communist Party have been increasingly placed in public places and even some temples in Tibet.

At the conference, Wang Yang, on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, presented the Tibet Autonomous Region with a congratulatory plaque inscribed by Xi Jinping on “Building a Beautiful and Happy Tibet, and Realizing the Dream of Rejuvenation Together”, and presented a congratulatory plaque to the Panchen Erdeni.

The “Peaceful Liberation of Tibet” referred to by the Chinese government refers to the process by which the newly-founded Chinese Communist regime successfully realized the stationing and control of Tibet through military operations and negotiations in 1951.

In the past, the Qing government stationed troops in Tibet and dispatched ministers stationed in Tibet to implement management. However, during the period of the Beiyang and National Governments of the Republic of China, Tibet was semi-independent and was actually controlled by the spiritual leader Dalai Lama and the Kashag government. After the Communist Party of China established its political power in 1949, it declared sovereignty over the Tibet region and sent a number of troops to advance into Tibet.

In the Battle of Qamdo in 1950, the Tibetan army suffered a crushing defeat. In 1951, the central government and the local government of Tibet signed the “Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet”, which determined that Beijing would manage Tibet’s foreign affairs in a unified manner, and the Tibetan army would be incorporated into the People’s Liberation Army.

However, in 1959, as Tibetans protested against the rule of the CCP, the People’s Liberation Army and Tibetan soldiers and civilians had serious armed conflicts. The conflict ended with the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile in India. The Chinese Communist Party announced the abolition of the Kashag government and preparations for the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The central government has since implemented land reform in Tibet and abolished serfdom. The Dalai Lama and the “Tibetan Administrative Center” of the Tibetan government in exile are called “separatists” by the CCP.

The CCP often uses the serfdom system under the old political and religious regime in Tibet and the rapid economic development to justify its rule. However, the Tibetan government-in-exile believes that Tibet has a unique culture. The arrival of the Han assimilated the lifestyle and beliefs of the Tibetans and destroyed the ecological environment of the plateau.

Although the Chinese authorities have not yet controlled Tibet to the same level as in Xinjiang, Beijing is increasingly strengthening its control over this border region of 3.1 million Tibetans in the name of ethnic unity.

In August last year, at a high-level meeting on the Tibet issue, Xi Jinping called for actively guiding Tibetan Buddhism to “adapt to a socialist society” and emphasized the need to “cast a sense of community for the Chinese nation.”

A month before the conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping rarely visited Lhasa. This is the first visit to Tibet by a top Chinese leader in more than 30 years.