Author: Agencies/Lhasa, China
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 9, 2002
URL: http://dailypioneer.com/archives1/secon3.asp?cat=\wld4&d=WORLD&fdnam=aug902
Tibetans will become a minority
in their own Capital in the next few years as ethnic Chinese migrants pour
into the city to take part in a new drive to develop Tibet's economy, a
top official said.
But the influx of investment and
skilled labour to Lhasa will bring unprecedented prosperity and stability
to the remote Himalayan region, Jin Shixun, Deputy Director General of
Tibet's Development and Planning Commission, told in a news conference
on Wednesday.
It was one of the boldest admissions
yet by a Chinese official on the sensitive issue of ethnic Chinese migration
to Tibet. A policy critics say Beijing is encouraging to swamp the Tibetan
culture.
Jin said 95 per cent of Tibet's
population of 2.62 million was ethnic Tibetan but in Urban Lhasa, about
50 per cent of residents were ethnic Chinese migrants.
"With the introduction of the policy
of reform and opening up, there are more and more people from other provinces
of China who are coming to Tibet to open up their business or make investments
here," Jin said.
"At the moment the population here
in Lhasa stands at around 2,00,000 - about half of them are the migrant
population," he said.
"According to the needs of economic
development and construction and the improvement of the investment environment
and strengthening of tourist infrastructure, there will certainly be a
large increase in these numbers."
China's Communist Government has
ruled Tibet since its troops entered the region in 1950. Tibet's spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in exile in India since fleeing from
his homeland in 1959 after an uprising against Chinese rule.
