The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping made an unannounced visit to China Occupied Tibet (CoT) on July 20-21. The visit was significant for multiple reasons especially this being his maiden visit to Tibet as President with the India-China standoff continuing in Eastern Ladakh. Xi began his visit landing by air at the Nyingchi Mainling Airport located at an altitude of 2049 metres and later travelled to Lhasa by train.

Nyingchi is just 17 km from the border with Arunachal Pradesh where on June 25 this year China operationalised a bullet train running on an electric line from Lhasa to Nyingchi. Lhasa to Nyingchi is also connected by an expressway which is approximately a five hour journey but with the electric bullet train this journey can now be negotiated in three hours. Headquarters of two PLA Mountain Brigades (52 and 53) are based at Nyingchi. Xi addressed PLA officers and called upon them for strengthening the “war preparation”.

Earlier this year, China had marked the 70th anniversary of its assertion of sovereignty over Tibet

According to Chinese media, Xi inspected operation of the Sichuan-Tibet railway during his visit. China began construction of the 435.5-km long Lhasa-Nyingchi section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway in March 2014. Starting from Chengdu (capital of Sichuan Province), the Sichuan-Tibet Railway traverses through Ya'an and enters Tibet via Qamdo. Ya’an-Nyaigchi segment is not ready. When finally completed, the rail-line will have 47 tunnels and 121 bridges. The 48 hour journey from Chengdu to Lhasa will be reduced to 13 hours. China achieved this feat ahead of the centenary celebrations of China’s Communist Party (CCP) commencing July 1, 2021 by employing some 20,000 engineers and labourers working continuously by day and by night.

Earlier this year, China had marked the 70th anniversary of its assertion of sovereignty over Tibet. At Lhasa, Xi was reportedly welcomed by locals – out of fear? Xi told them, “All religions and people of all ethnicities in Tibet will march towards a happy life in future. I am full of confidence as you all are. Lastly, I will not delay your dancing. Let me say this, I wish everyone a happy life and good health.” The hollowness in his speech was conspicuous with China hell bent to destroy all religions or at best allowing them with an overload of communism.

China has been systematically destroying Tibetan culture and history

China has been systematically destroying Tibetan culture and history. According to Radio Free Asia, public movement was restriced during Xi’s visit to Lhasa, work in factories and sites was halted and flying of kites and drones prohibited. Tenzin Lakshay spokeman for Tibet government in exile tweeted, “Xi should understand the true aspiration of Tibetan people and resume dialogue to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict.”

Amid international criticism over the crackdown on activists, journalists, and locals in Tibet, China is accused of torture and brainwashing locals. Similar to Xinjiang, China runs so-called “vocational training” programmes, under which at least 5,00,000 rural Tibetans were coerced to move from the land they have historically lived and pushed into menial jobs. In the ‘Freedom Report 2021’, released by Freedom House, an independent US-based think tank, Tibet joins Syria as the worst place in the world for civil rights and political freedoms.

The visit of Xi Jinping was to signal the following:

• Continued assimilation of occupied Tibet into mainland China.
• Showcase to Tibetan population the development of far flung areas.
• Signal to India, China’s rapid development of border infrastructure and its military implications, particularly opposite Arunachal Pradesh. China is also developing an air base at Shakche opposite Ladakh.
• Xi’s call to PLA at Nyingchi to strengthen war preparation was to convey China’s offensive intent.
• Indicate hardening of China’s stand on its border with India.

However, the mere fact that Xi’s visit to Tibet was unannounced implies the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is wary of the unrest in Tibet and perhaps was scared of anti-Xi demonstrations and maybe even attempted assassination. This is not difficult to fathom considering the continuing genocide of Tibetan population over past decades. Perhaps visit to forward location like Nyingchi was also to paint Xi Jinping as some sort of ‘dare devil’. The visit also provided the opportunity to divert attention from the CCP’s internal unrest against Xi as also the dissent among the Chinese population against the repressive regime.

In a report released by an independent US-based think tank, Tibet joins Syria as the worst place in the world for civil rights and political freedoms

According to a recent report, one of China’s biggest genomics firms, the BGI (which is linked to the PLA), is collecting and storing data of millions of pregnant women globally who take the company’s pregnancy test. Branded as NIFTY, this non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) is one of the world’s top-selling tests taken during early pregnancy to detect abnormalities in a developing fetus. Scientists and researchers point out that though other NIPT testing companies re-use data, none has links to a government or a track record with a national military, unlike BGI.

In a study published in 2018, BGI used a military supercomputer to re-analyse NIFTY test data to identify the prevalence of mental illnesses. However, researchers singled out Tibetan and Uyghur minorities to find links between their genes and their characteristics. Another study published by BGI with the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing explored whether drugs interacting with genes could protect the soldiers belonging to Han Chinese, the country’s majority ethnic group, from a brain injury at high altitudes in Tibet and Xinjiang. All this could be a cover for something else; given the sick and psychotic mentality of the CPC who had no compunction about bombing the world with ‘Wuhan Virus’, China may be researching how to kill the genes of Tibetans and the Uyghur altogether.

The mere fact that Xi’s visit to Tibet was unannounced implies the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is wary of the unrest in Tibet and perhaps was scared of anti-Xi demonstrations

China’s offensive and bullying attitude has changed dramatically since Xi Jinping became China’s President in March 2013. In July 2021, two new nuclear missile sites have been discovered in China. The first field in the Gansu province having 120 silos was discovered by researchers at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies in California in early July. This was followed by the Federation of American Scientists picking up a second field having 110 silos some 1,930 km west of Beijing through satellite imagery.

This combined number of 230 missile silos is considered the largest single expansion of China’s nuclear force. Nuclear weapons are meant for deterrence and China maybe increasing its deterrent because Xi’s policies and aggressive actions (Wuhan Virus included) has turned a large number of nations against China. At the same time, Xi dreams to dominate the world and he may turn out to be a worse psychopath than Adolf Hitler.