At 'the roof of the world,' parades, dances, and doubts

BEIJING -- China marked the 40th anniversary of what it calls Tibet's autonomy yesterday with a parade of goose-stepping soldiers and singing and dancing Tibetans as well as a pledge to maintain stability and its grip on power in the Himalayan region.

Critics say there is no real autonomy in Tibet, where Buddhist monks and nuns loyal to the region's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, have been jailed and sometimes tortured.

But China defends its rule, saying life has improved for countless ''serfs" emancipated after a failed uprising, which led to the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile in India in 1959.

''Before implementing democratic reforms, Tibet was under the dark serf system. Only today are Tibetans true masters of their own house," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

''Tibet is moving from being basically stable to long-lasting stability," Qin said, adding that China would allow no foreign interference in Tibet, describing it as an internal affair.

Tibet's gross domestic product surged to $2.6 billion in 2004 from $40 million in 1965, the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said.

''Only under the leadership of the Communist Party . . . can Tibet have today's prosperity and progress," the newspaper said in an editorial.

Tibet has been ruled by the Communists since the People's Liberation Army, or PLA, marched into the region in 1950.

The vast, sparsely populated region known as ''the roof of the world" was designated the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1965, a gesture Beijing made to other areas with large ethnic minority populations to give them more say over their affairs.

The Chinese central government sent a delegation to Tibet's capital, Lhasa, led by Jia Qinglin, ranked fourth in the party hierarchy, for festivities marking the anniversary.

About 23,000 people watched a flag-raising ceremony on the vast square at the foot of Potala Palace, home of the Dalai Lama before he fled into exile.

Bayonet-carrying PLA soldiers and about 6,000 singing and dancing Tibetans in traditional attire marched past a stand on the square while Jia and other leaders watched.

Jia shook hands with a group of Buddhist monks and urged them to be ''patriotic."

''Tibet has undergone tremendous changes. Tibet has a great potential and a broad prospect for development. Tibet now faces two major tasks: one is development and one is stability," the state news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying this week.

The state-owned China Development Bank opened a representative office in Lhasa on Wednesday and pledged to provide loans from 2006 to 2010 to help improve Tibet's infrastructure and key industries.

Jia lauded the PLA for crushing the uprising in 1959 and rioting in 1989.

PLA troops were ''not afraid of bloodshed, not afraid of sacrifice, fought heroically, successfully completed their mission, and put down the rebellion . . . and put down the disturbance," the People's Daily quoted Jia as saying.

Xinhua said 13 ethnic Tibetans had been promoted to the rank of major general or lieutenant general in the PLA or the paramilitary People's Armed Police.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign criticized the celebrations as ''a major propaganda opportunity for China to promote its version of autonomy."

Some analysts say Tibetan society is more fractured than ever, with Tibetans becoming an underclass lacking the skills to participate in Beijing-driven industrialization.

The Free Tibet Campaign said recent visitors to Lhasa had noticed a visible increase in police presence. The group called on visiting UN human rights chief Louise Arbour to urge Beijing to drop preconditions for direct contact with Dalai Lama representatives.