In a speech delivered on 19 December 2009 at a Tibetology conference in Chengdu, Sichuan province, senior Tibetan Communist Party leader Yangling Dorje (Chin: Yangling Duoji) has aired fundamental criticisms of the Chinese authorities' approach toward popular dissatisfaction among Tibetans. Like others before, including political dissidents, he emphasised in particular the contradictions of the regime and the negative role played by clients of the regime, who have little to earn from normality. His speech and other details of the event were reported by the Tibetan website tibetcul.com(1) which has a tradition of skillfully covering politically delicate material and has, at times, been closed down by the Chinese authorities.

Yangling Dorje was born in 1931 in Dragyab in the eastern Tibetan region known to Tibetans as Kham, which is today part of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). He became a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the age of eighteen. In the 1980s, he rose to levels of Party and government hierarchy to which few Tibetans have access. This did not inhibit him from making occasional blunt remarks about failures of the system. For instance, before he was transferred back to China he criticised the way that the considerable funds allocated by Beijing for education in Tibet had brought no progress there because Chinese cadres had hijacked them to educate their own children. Yangling Dorje spent most of his career in Sichuan, first as a Communist Youth League (CYL) leader and then in the party committees of Dege county and Ngaba (Chin: Aba) prefecture, reaching the position of deputy governor of Sichuan. He then spent the years 1980-6 in the TAR in the same position, as well as of General Party Secretary(2) and later Chairman of the TAR Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Back in Sichuan, he occupied various high positions in the CPPCC and central Party bodies and spent more time on cultural work. Yangling Dorje convened the 6th Seminar on Tibet for the Sichuan Provincial Tibetology Research Society, Chengdu, of which he is the general director. Over 120 Tibetan scholars from all Tibetan regions of the PRC attended the meeting.

The subject of Yangling Dorje's speech at the seminar was 'Chinese Government Policy on Ethnic and Religious Affairs' in which he gave his own personal views on the events of '1979, 1989 and 2009 in the Tibetan areas of Sichuan'. He said, "In 1979, I questioned China's policy on ethnic and religious affairs since the 'Cultural Revolution' did irreparable damage to us. In 1989, the Central Government wrongly accused the Tibetans in Sichuan of rising in rebellion, and Yang Shangkun, then President of China, made a policy speech about Tibetans, but as it was highly classified I don't know anything about it. The investigation in Tibetan areas of Sichuan I conducted, however, found no signs of rebellion. I reported to Yang Shangkun that there was no rebellion and how forces above were preparing to restore order although there in fact was no rebellion. How does it come that violent struggles [(Chin: 五斗)] in other areas of China are considered just violent struggles while they get the label of rebellion in Tibetan areas? Some local officials simply made up a story in order to serve their own interests, but it greatly harmed the Tibetans".

On the events of 2009, Yangling Dorje said, "These days, the government promotes a policy of 'three separations', separating religion from politics, religion from education and religion from healthcare. Officials say that religion should not mingle with people's marriage, government laws, governance and healthcare etc, but I think this is a serious mistake."

"First, the monasteries have been rebuilt with the approval of the government, the reincarnate lamas are appointed by the government's religious affairs bureaus, the monks and nuns are citizens of China, and socialism is the policy of China; therefore, it's a mistake to separate citizens from the socialist government, and the idea of separating religion from politics goes against China's policy on religious affairs."

"Second, the issue of separating religion from education is problematic. Religion is itself a sort of education, and without the monasteries and temples there is no education, they are educational and cultural centres. Some people who don't understand anything about monasteries and claim that many things are not allowed under religious freedom, imposing restrictions on monastic activities and putting monasteries under tight control. Some monasteries are earmarked as 'separatist', but this doesn't make any sense. If someone in the traffic department takes a bribe, we punish that person; we don't put the entire traffic department on a blacklist! We need to weaken ethnic identities and strengthen the feeling that we all belong to the one Chinese nation(3)."

"Third, the issue of separating religion from healthcare. If a monk gets sick, of course he will want traditional Tibetan medicine. Tibetan medicine is a Tibetan tradition. Combining Chinese medicine with Tibetan medicine is quite possible just the same way as Chinese and Western medicine are combined. It is impossible for the monks to live without seeing a doctor when they get sick and Tibetan medical science is our traditional healthcare.

"Fourth, the issue that religion should not interfere with government policy. Religion is just a state of mind, so the issue of interference does not arise. The only interference that one might see is that monks are citizens, but they act as citizens so the issue does not make sense. In the Cihai [dictionary], the definition of interference would lead one to suppose that what is meant is that these monks who are citizens should not be involved in government policy, and of course that is wrong.

"The four issues discussed here result from exaggerating things, generalising too much, and seeing things as absolute. The situation in the Tibetan areas has been good, but people pretend there is a lot of splittism and frequent disturbances. According to 1957 statistics, the central government then spent an average of 840 RMB per capita in Han areas and only an average of 340 RMB per capita in minority areas. The investment there was smaller. This is something that the centre should think about".

Other scholars attending the recent seminar on Tibet in Chengdu also expressed their views on China's Tibet policy. A scholar who works for the Sichuan Provincial Department of Finance said: "There is a crisis in ethnic issues in China. If China has already established ethnic equality, then there shouldn't be any ethnic oppression and discrimination. China has ruled Tibetans for 60 years, so how could it be that the 'foreigners and others outside our borders' can still poke their noses into Tibetan issues? It is only if our home is in disorder that it is possible for anyone to infiltrate our people. China should rethink its nationalities policy. Does the problem lie there? The Government wonders why the reincarnate lamas selected by the government are not respected by the believers, but I can tell you the reasons! The reason is that the government supports the theory that religion is the opiate of the people and that reincarnate lamas are fake! Now who would believe in the fake reincarnate lamas selected by those who view religion as opium? Monks who become representatives to the National People's Congress are thereby violating the principles of their religion. These days, officials are promoting tourism in the monasteries and the 'holy' monks are doing ordinary labour. The Government is building a new theocracy. Officials from the Chinese Communist Party's Political and Legal Committee and its Propaganda Department as well as the government's Public Security Department are directing religious activities. Now these officials have come 'living Buddhas' and they are illegally building a theocracy!"  

Another scholar called Tsering Dorje from Derge County said: "Rabiya Kadeer has become a leader of the Muslims because of China's propaganda after the 'July 5' Incident in Xinjiang and we should learn a lesson from it. I've been working for the government since 1964 and I feel now we are carrying out lots of rectifying campaigns. We can't talk about politics without religion; we can't talk about Communism without the masses. I hope the government won't just blame the Dalai Lama when ethnic and religious problems occur. Issues should be dealt with in the place where they occur!"