I’ve travelled and worked fairly extensively in the PRC and as best I can tell, there is the real possibility that regionalism, ethnic and socio/economic differences will ultimately do to China what was done to the USSR. You have got North/South, Urban/Rural, numerous ethnic groups and tribalism that has been bottled up but is just waiting to bubble to the surface.
China is simply not some monolith populated with homogeneous peoples.
Ping.
The people of Tibet deserve better than Chinese rule. I hope more conservatives make cause with them.
oy.
All of post-conquest Tibet's land belongs to the "Chinese people". Since 99.5 per cent of the Chinese population is composed of Han Chinese, this means 99.5% of Tibet's land belongs non-Tibetans. (Although in reality, 100% of the land in China belongs to Communist Party cadres, no matter what your land title might say - the title can be canceled without notice, or appeal). I think the Tibetans were quiescent for decades because the communists let them continue living on their ancestral lands, even though these lands now theoretically belong to the people (i.e. the local party cadres, for the duration of their tenures). As Moose Dung Mao Zedong used to say, a single spark can start a prairie fire.
On The Ground reports (through Japanese TV tonight).
Two of importance:
a) Troops pouring into Tibet from Communist China, are coming in from the furthermost areas with Red China, away from Tibet. i.e. reporters are noting vehicles coming in as far from as former Manchuria (Heiliungjang, etc). This confirms to the traditional Soviet and China crackdown of sending troops to rebelling areas with ethnics not connected in the remotest way to the area to be suppressed, to be more effective. It will be easy to order troops from Harbin to fire upon citizens in Lhasa in this way.
b) PLA troops are covering over their tanks that have the Chinese PLA marks ("81": 八一) for the 8th Route Army, with newspapers, to avoid coverage from foreign media or others (side and front of the tanks where these normally appear--a Japanese military specialist commented on the photos taken out of Tibet by Japanese tourists today). I saw these photos on Japanese TV just two hours ago.
(9:00 a.m. Eastern, Easter Sunday morning)
