China Calls for ‘Resolute Crackdown’ on Separatists in Tibetan Areas

Chen Wenqing’s four-day visit comes as security is tightened in sensitive Tibet region ahead of National Day on October 1

Maintaining stability and guarding against independence activities are the top priorities for security personnel in Tibetan areas, China’s security chief said during a trip to the western regions last week.

Chen Wenqing, head of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission – the ruling Communist Party’s top security body – said security forces must “resolutely crack down on separatist and destructive activities”.
They must also “resolutely manage religious affairs, while resolutely protecting normal religious activities”, so as to prevent risks, crack down on crimes, and maintain stability, Chen said on the trip that included stops in the Tibet autonomous region as well as the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province.

The four-day tour, which ended on Friday, was Chen’s first regional inspection trip since the party’s policymaking third plenum in July, and came in the lead-up to National Day on October 1.

China is preparing to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic and security is being tightened in the sensitive Tibet region.

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The trip also came less than a month after senior American officials met the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in New York.

Chen visited security units in the Tibetan cities of Lhasa and Chamdo, getting updates on operations in the region, Xinhua said.

In Ganzi, he presided over a meeting on “anti-secession work”, and gave instructions on maintaining stability, according to the news agency.

Nearly 80 per cent of Ganzi prefecture’s 1.1 million residents are Tibetan, the second-largest such community in the country.

Chen also ordered security personnel to carry out more propaganda and education campaigns to increase awareness of national identity among the people of all ethnic groups.

Beyond Tibet, there are 10 Tibetan autonomous prefectures across Yunnan, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai.

Chen has cast the Tibetan security net wider in recent years to include more surrounding regions with large Tibetan populations.

China’s top judges and prosecutors have also made their rounds of Tibet.

Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People’s Court, visited Tibetan courts last week and said that it was necessary to hand down tough punishment to keep up the pressure on “violent terrorism, ethnic separatism and other serious criminal crimes”.

Ying Yong, head of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, also inspected public prosecutors’ offices in Tibet earlier this month.

He also stressed the need for prosecutors to “harshly crack down on all kinds of separatist infiltration, sabotage activities and crimes endangering national security in accordance with the law”.
(Based on the report written by William Zheng published in SCMP)