China Loan a Threat to Tibet

Acting in the name of poverty alleviation in China, the World Bank approved a plan to help Beijing finance the relocation of 58,000 Han Chinese and Chinese Muslims from the barren region of Qinghai province to the more fertile Tibetan plateau. This is part of a huge Chinese project to solve local poverty through the resettlement of tens of millions of people. The wisdom of China’s resettlement policy aside, what is so objectionable about the World Bank-backed plan is that it does not take into consideration the potentially damaging effect this would have on the population of the plateau, a land the Tibetans consider theirs. The bank should withdraw its financial support and concentrate on more productive projects aimed at raising the living standards of the poorest Chinese by helping them develop local economies.

The growing migration of Han people--who make up the bulk of China’s population--into Tibet for economic reasons is already brewing an explosive mixture. A recent report by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations warned that the influx of Chinese “creates the very real danger” that Tibetans will be displaced in the economy and compounds resentment between the two peoples. The proposed resettlement would make political accord between Tibet and China even more difficult to achieve.

Moreover, although the bank strenuously denies it, the plan might well help the Chinese to exploit the labor of Chinese prisoners incarcerated in labor camps on the plateau. The prisoners form a substantial segment of the local labor market, and entanglement of the bank in the prison economy might be simply unavoidable.

The bank, which acted over U.S. objections, has agreed to postpone the payment of the $40-million loan for several months pending a review of the ecological and cultural effects of the resettlement program. It should have taken these factors into consideration in the first place.