19 January 2008
Work to begin on Shigatse rail link
(Xinhua) Construction is expected to begin during 2008 on the 254-km extension line of Qinghai-Tibet railway linking the cities of Lhasa and Shigatse (Chin: Xigaze). The line is expected to be completed by 2010 at a cost of US$1.42bn (UK£ 721.4m; EUR€ 960.5m) state media reported. "Experts are still working on the designs and environmental assessments of the extension line and, the government officials have started calculating compensation to those who will lose their land and properties to the railway", Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) chairman, Qiangba Puncog said in Lhasa.
22 January 2008
Legqoq, Qiangba Puncog re-appointed
(Xinhua) The first session of the 9th Tibet Regional People's Congress re Legqog as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the TAR People's Congress, and Qiangba Puncog as Chairman of the People’s Government of the TAR (provincial governor). Both have been in their posts since 2003.
22 January 2008
China and Germany vow to take “relationship to a higher level”
(AFP; Handelsblatt; Der Spiegel; Xinhua; ChinaView; huliq; Financial Times) Germany and China have announced that their bilateral relations have returned to normal after tensions following Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting in September 2007 with the Dalai Lama. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister and Vice-Chancelor, held talks in Berlin with Yang Jiechi, his Chinese counterpart, and said that the event marked "a return to normality in our relations". Mr Yang said: "China values its ties with Germany", adding that Beijing was ready to "take our relationship to a higher level". Prior to the meeting, on 20 January, a Chinese government speaker expressed satisfaction over a German pledge to "firmly adhere to one-China policy" and "recognise that Taiwan and Tibet are parts of Chinese territory". On 21 January, Chinese Science and Technology Minister Wang Gang clarified that Angela Merkel is welcome in the Chinese capital "at any time, also for the Olympic Games". Merkel's meeting with the Dalai Lama sparked a dispute between Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU) who rule Germany in a coalition but remain bitter electoral rivals. Steinmeier, a deputy leader of the Social Democrats, criticised the Christian Democrat Chancellor's meeting with the Dalai Lama as "shop-window politics". Sources close to the German Foreign Ministry, dominated by the Social Democrats, said that China and Germany are still "a long way from a trusting, cooperative relationship" and describe the meeting on 22 January as a success for Steinmeier’s "secret diplomacy", allegedly conducted with the Chancellor "not clued in on the details". Also, the Asia-Pacific Committee of the main German industry federation welcomed the move as a "very important step", mentioning "strong fears that a longer period of tensions would have hit trade deals and investment contracts". However, Ms Merkel noted: "We’ve all made clear that relations between Germany and China are important. The Chancellery has done that, I’ve done it and so has the foreign minister". In previous statements she also said, "Friends must be able to bear a disagreement".
24 January 2008
China sees little optimism in anti-desert fight
(Reuters) Chinese Deputy Forestry Minister Zhu Lieke admitted that the fight against desertification in the western regions of the PRC, including vast tracts of the Tibetan Plateau, was so far largely unsuccessful. Speaking at a news conference at the end of an international desertification conference co-hosted by the United Nations, Zhu said the Chinese government spent billions of dollars planting trees to hold back the spread of the sands, but "in some areas which have been treated, vegetation has only just started to grow back and is very unstable". "If there is no effective solution in certain areas, the deserts will only keep spreading. In desert areas, there is a problem that damage continues at the same time as work goes on to turn back the sands", he added. Zhu outlined no new measures or funding to fight deserts, but re-affirmed an earlier government goal of bringing the problem "fundamentally under control" by 2010.
26 January 2008
New records in overseas tourists arrivals
(Xinhua) The number of overseas tourists arriving in the TAR grew by 136 percent in 2007, said Wang Songping, deputy head of the TAR tourism bureau. The region received 365,000 foreign visitors, or 210,500 more than 2006, and they reportedly brought in revenue of US$135.3 million, (UK£68.8m; EUR€91.4) up 122 percent year-on-year. Japan replaced the United States as the largest source of overseas tourists to Tibet, and accounted for 78,000 visitors, 5.2 times the figure of 2006, Wang said. As a whole, the TAR hosted a record high of more than 4 million tourists both inland and overseas tourists, which represents an annual growth of 60.4 percent. The region's revenue from tourism surged 75.1 percent year-on-year to 4.85 billion Yuan (US$668m; UK£340m; EUR€451.4m). Tourism revenue accounted for 14.2 percent of the gross domestic product in Tibet last year, 4.6 percentage points higher than the previous year. However, official statistics do not reflect which part of this revenue actually benefits Tibetan enterprises and individuals. For 2008, the number of visitors to the TAR is expected to hit 5 million, or 25 percent more than 2007, and tourism revenue is officially predicted to reach 6 billion Yuan (UK£420m; US$826m; EUR€558m), up 24 percent. Local authorities attributed the tourism boom to overseas promotional drives, the opening of the Golmud-Lhasa railway and of the third civilian airport in Nyingtri (Chin: Lingzhi).
28 January 2008
China encouraged to continue ban on tiger trade
(PTI) The US-based Save the Tiger Fund (STF) called on the Chinese authorities to maintain its 15-year-old moratorium on the trade in tiger parts, warning that lifting the ban would be "disastrous" for the big cats. The trade, whose routes go mainly through Tibet, continues to endanger the existence of the few remaining wild tigers in India and Nepal. STF quoted results from a poll conducted in China and disseminated by the official news agency Xinhua according to which 95 per cent of the population across the country backed the tiger trade ban, imposed in 1993, and 77 per cent said the ban was important for China's image. Almost 95 per cent said they would abstain from the use of tiger products to save the big cats, Xinhua said. "The results (...) present the strikingly clear message that most Chinese people care so much about wild tigers that they are willing to change behaviour that threatens the survival of tigers in the wild", Judy Mills from STF was quoted as saying.
29 January 2008
China reports bird flu outbreak in poultry in Tibet
(Reuters) – Chinese officials have detected an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu in poultry in the TAR. A total of 1,000 poultry have died of the disease in Gongkar (Chin: Gongga) county since 25 January, while another 13,080 have been culled, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its website (www.agri.gov.cn). "The National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the virus as a subtype of the H5N1 strain", it said. Chinese state media reported earlier this month that a total of 4,850 poultry had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turpan, in Xinjiang, since 29 December, prompting authorities there to cull another 29,383 birds.
31 January 2008
China to build permanent Tibetan antelope monitoring station
(Xinhua) Chinese officials have announced the establishment of a permanent monitoring station to watch Tibetan antelopes, or chiru, to safeguard the breeding of the endangered species. A number of wooden or brick-structured houses are expected to be constructed along the bank of Zonag Lake in Hoh Xil Tibetan Antelope Nature Reserve as of May to allow three to five forestry and veterinary staff to maintain a permanent presence in the area. More than 30,000 female Tibetan antelopes flock to the lake region between May and August every year and 80 percent produce their young there. Previously, researchers and anti-poaching patrols visited the area during the breeding season but they stayed in tents.
31 January 2008
Gyaltsen Norbu makes rare public appearance
(Xinhua) Gyaltsen Norbu (Chin.: Gyaincain Norbu), the boy chosen by the Chinese authorities for the position of 11 Panchen Lama, paid a formal visit to Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC). The visit took place at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, apparently in connection with the forthcoming celebrations of the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) and the first session of the 9th Tibet Regional People's Congress. Wu is said to have called on Gyaltsen Norbu to "further study policies made in the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC)" in October 2007, probably referring to criticism of the Dalai Lama for receiving the US Congressional Gold Medal and appeals for "social harmony" in Tibet. Wu also encouraged Gyaltsen Norbu to "take responsibility to enhance China's reunification" and urged him to "constantly improve Buddhism's accomplishments and seriously follow Buddhist taboos". Gyaltsen Norbu is quoted as confirming he would have "gained in-depth understanding of the CPC's pursuit of interest for the common people" at the 17th CPC National Congress which he attended as a non-voting delegate and vowing support to the Party's leadership as well as "make more contributions to the Tibetan economy and social harmony by guiding more religious work to adapt to China's socialist society".
