This paper examines the main contours of Beijing's Tibet policy since the start of the reform era (1979 to the present). It argues that throughout this period China's position on Tibet has always been concerned with defending Chinese sovereignty, more specifically jurisdictional sovereignty, over the region. Since 1979, the ways in which the Chinese acted to secure such rights, however, have varied significantly, in two distinct phases. During the initial phase, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Chinese position was marked by the implementation of relatively moderate policies. In the second phase, which began in late 1987, and continues today, the Chinese position on Tibet has been defined by highly critical discursive moves, pointed diplomatic activity, a renewed commitment to use force to silence all opposition to Chinese rule, and the utilization of economic development programs to augment such efforts. This essay contends that three forces were crucial in determining Chinese policy on Tibet during these two periods: the underlying strategic value of Tibet to Beijing within the regional security dynamic, the persistence of historically conditioned, sovereign-centric values within elite circles in China, and the internal and external pressures created by Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening" line. The complexity of these factors suggest that understanding how Beijing acts vis-à-vis Tibet requires that students of international relations and security studies, as well as policymakers and activists, look beyond parsimonious explanations and single-faceted policy directions when considering the "Tibet issue."

Beijing's Tibet Policy: Securing Sovereignty and Legitimacy

Politics & Social Sciences

Carlson, Allen

Politics & Government

East-West Center Washington

This study examines the ways in which large-scale migration and rapid economic change have fueled separatism and ethnic conflict in Papua. It presents an analysis of recent census data showing that three quarters of a million migrants from other parts of Indonesia have resettled in the territory since 1970 either through official transmigration programs or as unsponsored economic migrants. Based on this analysis, the study illustrates how rapid modernization and demographic change have resulted in the displacement and dislocation of Papua’s indigenous population, provoking Papuan resentment and demands for independence. But rapid social change has not only spurred ethnonationalist mobilization; it has also generated ethnic and tribal tensions within Papua. Growing competition for land and resources between settlers and Papuans has given rise to persistent social conflict in Papua. The threat now looms that this social conflict could trigger a larger outbreak of communal and ethnic violence as in neighboring areas. So far Papua has proved relatively resistant to efforts to foment widespread conflict. It remains unclear, however, whether the government can address the deep-seated sense of Papuan resentment leading to alienation and conflict. It could do so by reversing many of its divisive policies and redoubling its efforts to bring services to remote indigenous communities. In the absence of such initiatives, continuing inflows of migrants into the province may well overwhelm the mechanisms for social management that have so far kept conflict from spiraling out of control.

Plural Society in Peril: Migration, Economic Change, and the Papua Conflict

McGibbon, Rodd

<p>This study explores Chinese language policy and language use in Inner Asia, as well as the relation of language policy to the politics of Uyghur identity. Language is central to ethnic identity, and official language policies are often overlooked as critical factors in conflict over ethnic nationalism. In Chinese Inner Asia, any solution to ethnic conflict will include real linguistic and cultural autonomy for major ethnic groups. Language policy has been at the heart of Chinese nation building. Shortly after the inception of the People's Republic of China (PRC), language policy in China's border regions was responsive to local conditions and arguably one of the more flexible in the world. In the last 15 years, however, although China's official language policy has remained constant, its covert language policy has become increasingly assimilative, and tied to geopolitical considerations. This trend has been particularly salient in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where multilingualism and cultural pluralism have been progressively curtailed. This has served to reinforce both Uyghur nationalism and small separatist movements, with potential to undermine the territorial integrity of the PRC and the Chinese effort to build a modern Chinese nation. This study argues that both Beijing and Washington are about to lose crucial political opportunities in this far-flung territory. The PRC should realize that supporting the maintenance of Uyghur language and identity is not antithetical to the Chinese goal of nation building. In fact, it would ultimately support that goal: The United States, for its part, should make clear to Beijing that current U.S. political imperatives will not distract U.S. policy from supporting human rights, including cultural rights, and seek to cultivate a cooperative partnership with China, including the Uyghurs.</p>

The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse

History

Dwyer, Arienne M.

Asia

This study investigates the role of civil society in forging sustainable peace in Mindanao. Civil society's involvement in peace efforts can improve the chances of a lasting settlement-both in terms of addressing underlying causes and in terms of building a constitutency for the concessions needed for a peace agreement. There are limitations to the effectiveness of civil society, however, due both to certain characteristics of these organizations (such as their ideological divisions or their lack of representativeness of the whole Filipino community) and to the inherent nature of civil society (its inability to aggregate interests in order to achieve a wider settlement). In the end, civil society can have an impact in making it politically possible for policy elites to adopt positions other than that of "victory" (which seems to be the preferred policy stance of the general Christian Philippine citizenry). Through articulation of issues and networking, through a! ctivities parallel to the formal peace process, and through their efforts to bridge communal divides, civil society organizations keep alive the prospect for peace in Mindanao that sometimes seems forever elusive.

Forging Sustainable Peace in Mindanao: The Role of Civil Society

Steven Rood

India's Globalization: Evaluating the Economic Consequences

Baldev Raj Nayar

This study investigates the efficacy of counterterrorism laws in democracies by taking the highly pertinent case of Sri Lanka as an example. It compares the use of counterterrorism laws by the Sri Lankan state against two militancies: the Sinhala militancy led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, and the Tamil militancy spearheaded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Based on extensive field research, the monograph argues that while the government's extraordinary legislations were moderately effective against the Sinhala militancy, it was counterproductive in the case of the Tamil militancy. The study elucidates various reasons for the difference: the magnitude of popular support, territoriality, political institutions, diaspora activity, the role of the media, the behavior of the security forces, and the character and strength of the groups leading the respective militancies. It suggests wide-ranging policy options in approaching counterterrorism through the "criminal justice model." This is the twenty-eighth publication in Policy Studies, a peer-reviewed East-West Center Washington series that presents scholarly analysis of key contemporary domestic and international political, economic, and strategic issues affecting Asia in a policy relevant manner.

Counterterrorism Legislation in Sri Lanka: Evaluating Efficacy

N. Manoharan

Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict has become protracted and intractable. The twenty five- year-old civil war has been interrupted numerous times for a negotiated peace and political settlement, yet the conflict has defied deescalation. All failed attempts at negotiated peace have propelled the civil war forward with greater vitality and intensity. Both war and peace appear to be mutually sustaining dimensions of a single process of conflict produced and sustained by two defining dynamics: (1) intense competition for state power between state-seeking minority nationalism and state-asserting majority nationalism; and (2) the fact that the ethnic war has acquired relative autonomy from the political process of the ethnic conflict. Against this backdrop, attempts at negotiated settlement, with or without ceasefires, have not only failed but have redefined the conflict. This study suggests that early deescalation or a long-term settlement is not possible at present. A protracted conflict requires a protracted process of political transformation. Since the question of state power is at the core of the conflict, a credible short-term path to peace should begin with negotiations that aim at, and lead to, reconstituting state power along ethnic lines. This will require a grand ethnic compromise among Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim elites, backed by the people in the three main ethnic formations.

Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Changing Dynamics (Policy Studies)

Jayadeva Uyangoda

Muslim Perspectives on the Sri Lankan Conflict

Dennis B. McGilvray and Mirak Raheem

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