Chinese-state media boasts of patriotic events since 2018

In March 2019, Chinese official media reported on an ideological campaign launched in Chamdo prefecture, central Tibet, aimed at enhancing loyalty to the party and the work carried out by party members and carders.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities in Chamdo have targeted every level of society from work offices and schools to community groups and the family as part of their efforts to promote President Xi Jinping’s New Era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.

 

According to Chinese state-media over 26,000 institutions have been in receipt of patriotic education events in Chamdo over the past year alone. This has involved CCP committees conducting more than 25,000 theoretical study events and more than 6,700 cardres weekend lectures. More than 36,000 events entitled ‘three sessions and one lesson’ have also taken place at regular intervals among the Chamdo CCP members.

 

These lessons have coincided with a drive for Tibetans to work towards their own economic development under the banner of the “Sacred Land Guardian and Happy Home Builder” campaign, and the ‘Four Speaks and Four Loves’, a region-wide policy which encourages Tibetans to vocalise support for the Chinese Motherland. Last month, Tibet Watch reported on the implementation of the latter policy at Sera Monastery in Lhasa.

 

Up to now, Chinese authorities have also conducted more than 3,100 sessions publicising the China Dream, a project closely connected to Xi’s presidency, and over 4,200 education events promoting the benefits enjoyed by Tibetans today compared with previous generations. This CCP narrative, which highlights Tibet’s feudal political system prior to the Chinese invasion, was most notably promoted in Beijing’s 2019 White Paper on Tibet.

We have also obtained images from nearby Lhunze County, in central Tibet, which shows schoolchildren engaging in patriotic activity.

 

 

These numerous campaigns and educational sessions are part of an ongoing attempt by the CCP to promote patriotism across Tibet, and thus diminish anti-China or separatist feelings amongst Tibetans.