Forced Relocation: for what?

Three years ago, we mentioned a large scale relocation program on this blog.
It looks as if the Chinese government has decided for another round.
On June 30, The China Daily published an article announcing “Thousands to be relocated from high altitudes.” 

 Two days earlier, Xinhua had published another article on the same topic with different figures.
The second article reported that some 26,300 rural residents (from 6,306 households) would be relocated to a site named Sinpori in Lhoka prefecture (City) before August 11, 2022.

Sinburi is located in Gongkar (Konggar) county in Lhoka at 29°18′57″N 90°46′55″E; it is also known as Senburi Cun (森布日村) or Shengbore (省波热).

When one looks at the location, it is strikingly close to the Gongkar airport, the main airport  for civil and military use on the plateau.
Why to bring a new town in this strategic area is a mystery.

The China Daily says that thanks to the Tibet Autonomous Region's (TAR's) relocation policy, “started in 2016, many rural residents living at altitudes above 4,800 meters have been moved to lower valleys more suitable for human habitation.”
The rationale for the scheme is that the nomads living in high altitude in Ngachu City can’t breath at altitude above 4,000 or 4,500 meters. But they survived quite well for centuries.
The mouthpiece of the Communist Party further explains: “The latest relocation plan will help residents from 58 villages in 12 townships in the counties of Tsonyi, Amdo and Nyima in Nagchu. With an average altitude above 4,500 meters, Nagchu is one of the region's highest cities. Residents are mainly herders and nomads, most of whom change their dwelling and herding pastures a few times in a year.”
Why to move nomads to sedentary ghettos?

One of the reasons is that it is easier to control  and monitor the nomadic population when they are brought in these new townships, often located at the border with India (and equipped with facial recognition cameras, etc). 

perhaps because nomads are born-free, they are an issue for the totalitarian regime in Tibet.

Scheme Over in August
The China Daily says that the relocation is planned to be over on August 11, 2022: “The first group of families is expected to arrive in their new community by July 15.”
The article adds that being the busiest time for the nomads: “some residents will remain in their original places.”
What is the big hurry in any case …except if the TAR government is planning to immediately re-employ the nomads on some large infrastructure projects near the airport or at the airport.
Finally, the article says that to ensure the safety, smooth traffic, control of the pandemic as well as proper medical rescues and emergencies, “more than 200 government workers from all walks of life have been dispatched to relocation sites to provide support.”
The government of Lhoka was asked to accelerate infrastructure construction, including housing, water and electricity supplies, traffic, schools and clinics.

A First Article
A few earlier, Xinhua had announced that a total of 17,555 people were to be relocated away from Nagchu City, ”thanks to a local program to improve people's living and protect the plateau region's fragile ecosystem.”
Quoting Wu Wei, director of the regional forestry and grassland administration, Xinhua asserted: “The people had lived in places with harsh weather and relatively backward production and living conditions, where the grassland degraded. The relocation scheme reflects a people-centered development thought, taking into consideration both the ecological protection and people's demand for a better life," Wu said.
The fact is that for centuries, it is the nomads and herders who looked after the conservation of the natural environment; it is of course not mentioned (or even taken into account).
The objectives of the relocation scheme is somewhere else, as Xinhua admits: “The region's overall relocation plan will cover more than 130,000 people in Tibet's nearly 100 townships in eight years.”
This is big, and for India, it is a worry, as many of these new township may come near the border.

The Three Counties
It is worth looking at the three counties from where the relocated herders will come from.
The chart below shows the area and the population of the three counties of Nyima, Amdo and Tsonyi of Nagchu City.

What is striking is that ONE-THIRD of the population is being relocated.
Why such large percentage?
What will happen to these already sparsely inhabited areas?
It looks a certain death for these counties?

Tsonyi (Shuanghu) County
 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Location of Tsonyi Special County

Total Area  =  116,700 km2 (45,100 sq mi)
Elevation = 4,960 m (16,270 ft)
Total Population (2014) =  13,470
Density  =  0.12/km2 (0.3/sq mi)

Simplified Chinese  =  双湖县
Tibetan =   མཚོ་གཉིས་རྫོང་

 Amdo County

 

Location of Amdo County within Tibet Autonomous Region

Total Area  =  43,410.85 km2 (16,761.02 sq mi)
Total Population (2000) =  32,843
Chinese name =安多县
Tibetan name = ཨ་མདོ་རྫོང་།

 

 

 
Nyima County

 

 

Location of Nyima County within Tibet 

Tibetan: ཉི་མ་རྫོང་།, Wylie: nyi ma rdzong,
Simplified Chinese: 尼玛县; traditional Chinese: 尼瑪縣; pinyin: Nímǎ Xiàn)
The northern part of the county is within the Changtang area.
With an area of 72,499 km2 (27,992 sq mi) and a population of 29,000 (2012), it has an average population density of less than 0.4 people per square kilometre.

The scheme raises some important questions:

• Why one third of the population of these three counties are forcibly relocated south of Lhasa.
• What will the life of the pastoral populations who for generations have lived in the Changthang? 
• Can they survive in the new ‘urban’ conditions?
• Why to relocate such a large number of people near the airport?
• Which type of employment will they be given? 
• Is there a mega infrastructure in the pipeline? The area is already served by the Expressway to Lhasa, by the railway line (Lhasa-Nyingchi), by different haighways (G318, G4218), etc. 
• Which type of new infrastructure is China planning?
• A new airstrip for the dual use airport?

The developments in the area need to be watch carefully.

Tibet Infrastructure: new panacea for the Middle Kingdom?

My article Tibet Infrastructure: new panacea for the Middle Kingdom? appeared in The Indian Defence Review.

July 1, 2006 witnessed a tsunami of change on the Tibetan high plateau, the first train arrived in Lhasa.
It was perhaps the most radical transformation since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the upper reaches of the Yangtze river and entered eastern Tibet on October 7, 1950.
On October 31, 2018, China Daily reported that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway had been a driving force of Tibet's growth. The Communist Party’s mouthpiece explained: “Since its opening in 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has been serving as an important driving force for the economic development of Tibet. Linking Xining and Lhasa, capital cities of northwestern Qinghai province and southwestern Tibet autonomous region, the railway, 1,956 kilometers long, is the region's first railway in history.”
According to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company, during the last 12 years, the railway has transported 182 million passengers and 552 million tons of goods.
China Daily run by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China affirmed: “The railway is known as a ‘sky road’, because it is built at the highest altitude and is the longest railway sited on a high plateau. As a result, the geographic conditions brought many challenges, including the high altitude and lack of oxygen, to the operation of the railway.
As a result of the opening of the rail line, the TAR's GDP rose from 24.88 billion yuan ($38 billion) in 2005 to 131.06 billion yuan in 2017. This growth is generally attributed to the railway. It brought a tremendous change in strategic terms too.

Dual Use of Infrastructure
To understand the importance of the infrastructure on the plateau, one has to look at the civil-military integration or dual-use of infrastructure. In 2015, Xinhua first mentioned that the joint civil-military development of airports would “strengthen aviation safety and combat support capabilities."
A joint statement from the People Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) and General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) explained that the integration would include joint maintenance of airport support facilities, joint flight safety support and joint airport management.
Interestingly, the Lhasa Gongkar Airport in Tibet and Sunan Shuofang International Airport in Wuxi in Jiangsu province were the first two pilot airports to implement the 'integration' in China.
It was done during the second half of 2015. The PLAAF/CAAC circular further affirms that "All the civil-military airports will conduct strengthened integration next year."

Work Forum and Stability
During the 6th Tibet Work Forum in 2015, the top Chinese leaders discussed economic and social development in Tibet, and how to ensure the autonomous region achieve prolonged stability." The statement of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) further noted: "Safeguarding national unity and strengthening ethnic unity should be highlighted in work involving Tibet."
It added that: "Efforts should be made to unswervingly carry out the anti-separatism battle, promote the region's economic and social development, safeguard and improve people's welfare, and enhance exchanges and integration of different ethnic groups."
The Politburo (or probably an extended Politburo) agreed that "strengthening Tibetan infrastructure, helping it foster competitive industries while ensuring environmental protection are the means to achieve marked improvement in living conditions and more social cohesion," these were the priorities for the restive region.
The PLA/Civil integration pertains not only to the airports, but the entire infrastructure setup in Tibet should be seen in the perspective of consolidating China’s presence on the plateau; in other words, 'to stabilize the borders'.

New Railway on the Plateau
In September 18, 2018, an article in Xinhua dealt at great length about the ‘LaLin’ section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway. ‘Lalin’ is a short form for Lhasa-Linzhi railway .
The news agency reported that China Railway’s 11th Bureau had successfully laid the first group of ballasts for the Gonggao  station, a new station in the railway line: “thus created the traffic conditions for the passage of the Lalin Railway.”
Liu Jun, the Secretary of the Lhasa-Nyingchi Project told the agency that the Sichuan-Tibet Railway was a key project of the National 13th Five-Year Plan: “Upon completion, it will become another railway artery connecting the plateau with the mainland.”
The ‘Lalin’ section is an important section of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway; this part is relatively easier to build than the eastern part (Nyingchi-Chengdu).
It will have a total length of 435 kilometers with 34 new stations, out of which 17 already exist. It will start in Lhasa and the terminus wil be at Nyingchi City  and follow the Yarlung Tsangbo River .
The construction of this section started at the end of 2014; it will take some seven years to complete the entire project and the speed of the train will be 160 kms/hour; it will be the first electrified railway in Tibet.
The Railway line will cross the Yarlung Tsangpo 16 times. The railway bridges use large-span bridge structures: “The mountains are high in water depth, the rivers are rushing, the technology is special, and the construction is extremely difficult. There are 14 high-risk tunnels out of 47 tunnels, of which 7 are extremely high-risk tunnels,” explained China Railway's 11th Bureau.
Shen Yubin, a project manager for the China Railways Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway Second Division affirmed: “The total length of bridges and tunnels on the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway is 331 km, 75% of the total distance of the line. Of these, there are 120 bridges totaling 84 km, which accounts for 21 % of the length of the line. As a single-track railway, there have been difficulties in construction and logistics transportation while building the Lhasa-Nyingchi Railway.”
To show the difficulty of the project, Shen added: “We have also encountered unique geographical, climatic, and environmental situations, which have brought unique challenges to the beam-laying process."

Visit of Premier Li Keqiang
At the end of July 2018, Li Keqiang, the Chinese Premier visited a construction site of the Lhasa-Nyingchi railway.
Li stressed the importance of the project for Tibet’s development: "The railway project is beneficial for Tibet to cultivate new growth drivers, and it is the right thing that must be done. Full construction work should be accelerated," Li said.
He added that "at present, infrastructure development in the country's central and western regions is relatively weak, and promoting effective investments to improve weak links will not only narrow the gap in regional development but also be helpful for the country to cope with economic downturn.” He further observed: "China should avoid strong stimulus and take targeted measures that are beneficial in both short and long terms."
Many more railway lines are planned on the plateau.

A map of future railway lines
Interestingly, on a map found on a Pakistani website accompanying one of these articles, not only the ‘Lalin’ railway line is prominently displayed, but several new lines are shown reaching the plateau. They are worth noting:
•    The Lhasa-Shigatse-Kyirong section which should be completed in a couple of years (it was delayed due to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake)
•    The Lhasa-Yatung section reaching the Chumbi Valley and the Indian border in Sikkim. It has serious strategic implications for India, especially after the Doklam episode. Though it is rarely mentioned in the Chinese press, it is clearly on the cards (it is not in dotted lines)
•    The projected Yunnan-Tibet railway line which has special strategic implications for India too, particularly for the border in Arunachal Pradesh (in a dotted line). It will join the Sichuan-Nyingchi line somewhere near Chamdo.
•    Korla-Golmud is already under construction. It will be the second major railway line linking Qinghai province to Western Xinjiang.
•    The Shigatse-Rutok-Kashgar line (in dotted line). It may follow the G219 Highway (known as the Aksai Chin road). Will India protest if China starts building a railway on its territory?
•    A new Qiemo-Korla line across the Taklamatan desert. An extension of G216 Highway is under construction. It should be following the highway.
•    The Khotan-Quiemo line in Xinjiang. It will link up with the Khotan-Kashar line. It is probably important for the totally unstable Muslim province, in order to ‘stabilize’ southern Xinjiang and build new model villages/town along the line.
•    The Khotan-Tashkurgan line, leading to the border with Afghanistan.
Tashkurgan has historically been part of the Silk Road. “Major caravan routes converged leading to Kashgar in the north, Yecheng to the east, Badakhshan and Wakhan to the west, and Chitral and Hunza to the southwest” says Wikipedia.
•    A never seen-before project to link Chengdu in Sichuan to Golmud in Qinghai. It will close the loop linking the two provinces on the West and North of the Tibetan plateau and link up Xinjiang through the above-mentioned Golmud-Korla line.
But the plans are not restricted to the railway.

New Roads
In October 2017, the Lhasa-Nyingchi High Grade Highway was opened for trial operations. Quoting from the TAR’s transportation department, Kangba TV reported: “except Songduo Tunnel and Milashan Tunnel , Lhasa-Nyingchi High Grade Highway has been well prepared and begins trial operation from October 1.” The four-lane Lhasa-Nyingchi High Grade Highway is 398 km long; it is designed for a 80 km/h speed.
According to the Chinese media: “The operation of Lhasa-Nyingchi High Grade Highway shortens the travel time between Lhasa and Nyingchi from 10 hours to four hours, which can greatly improve the traffic condition of the golden tour line as well as boost local economy development.”
The train on the same route should follow in some years from now.
Also part of the Lhasa-Nyingchi Highway, China has built a Lhasa-Lhoka (Shannan) Express Line (Highway).
On March 6, 2017, China Tibet News published some pictures of workers on the Lhasa-Lhoka Express Line driving an engineering vehicle. The news agency commented: “At present, the Lhasa-Shannan  Express Line project goes well. This project started on August 26, 2016. The whole line is 48 kilometers with bidirectional four roadways. [It is] designed speed is 80 kilometers per hour. The project can not only bring the benefits of development to both Lhasa and Shannan, but also has a positive significance to improving people’s livelihood and driving the accelerated development of the whole region’s economy industry chain.”
The highway will serve the Indian border, particularly north of the Tawang sector; it will run in parallel to the railway line and have dual use.

The Rongme Ngatra tunnel
Another tunnel project, termed as the world's highest highway tunnel, was opened to traffic in 2017; this time in Sichuan province on the Nyingchi-Chengdu section. The China Daily wrote: “The Que'ershan  Tunnel, stretching 13 kilometers on National Highway No. 317, at Ganzi in Sichuan province, opened to traffic on September 26, 2017. It is said to be the world's highest tunnel on a highway. The tunnel, whose highest point is 4,378 meters above sea level, was completed 15 years after the launch of the project.”
According to the press release: “With the opening of the tunnel, it takes only 10 minutes to pass through the perilous and steep Que'ershan Mountain that stands 6,168 meters above the sea level. The project is projected to become a new impetus to help drive the economic and social development of the remote Tibetan region.”
Each of the tunnels represents a remarkable technological feat.

The Tibet-Nepal Road
On August 29, 2017, the Kyirong-Nepal border post was reopened for foreign travelers. Located in the Kyirong County, Shigatse City , Kyirong border post is a vital landport between Tibet and Nepal. Kyirong border is located 85 km away from Nepal's capital Kathmandu; from China-Nepal highway section, Kyirong docking distance is only about 30 km.
According to the article, the National Highway No. 216  will end in the Kyirong  county, near the Nepal border.
Incidentally, the G318 ends up in Zhangmu, the other landport between Nepal and Tibet which runs from Shanghai to Zhangmu. It is China’s longest National Highway at 5,476 kilometres before reaching Tibet; a 115 km long Araniko Highway then connects Zhangmu to Kathmandu.

The Mythic G216 Highway
Will the extended G216 be a reality one day?
The G216 would start in Northern Xinjiang, from Altay City to Baluntai (in Hejing County); the 857 kms highway would be extended to Southern Xinjiang (Keryia) and later Western Tibet; needless to speak of the immense technical challenge to cross the Kunlun range between Keryia and Rutok (joining the G219 or Aksai Chin road). Keryia in South Xinjiang is located at 1459 m above sea level (asl), while Lake Lighten on the plateau is at 5080 m asl (a 3,500 m climb in some 200 kms!).
The last section of the ‘extended’ G216 (towards Kyirong) would have a length of about 94 kilometers; the geological conditions are complex, said the website: “After experiencing the ‘May 12 2015’ earthquake in Nepal, the geological conditions are even more inestimable. The original roads at the Kyirong Port have been seriously damaged, and the subgrade has subsided in some sections.”
The main bridge in this section is said to have collapsed “and the road surface was broken and cracked.”
The town of Kyirong is only about 24 kilometers away from the Nepal border; it is today the main channel for land trade between China and Nepal.
The point remains that if the terminal section of G216 towards Kyirong is ‘difficult’, it is nothing compared to the section which will try to cross the Kunlun range, north of Lake Lighten. Is it another mad dream of the Emperor in Beijing? Is Beijing dreaming of a New Silk Road linking Central to South Asia via Nepal? Difficult to say today ...the engineers have to cross the Kunlun first.

Gongkar Airport in Lhasa
We should not omit the airports.
This year, the Tibetan capital city received a record 4 million passengers according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s Tibet office; the passenger volume at Gongkar Airport, the largest airport in the TAR, exceeded 2 million in 2013, and 3 million in 2016.
Tibet’s civil aviation industry has witnessed a quick development thanks to the application of new technologies since the country's reform and opening-up four decades ago, noted the Chinese media.
Tibet now has 10 airlines operating a total of 81 routes, enabling convenient connections between Tibet and most of the major cities in China, according to CAAC. It is estimated that the airport will see 4.3 million passengers by the end of 2018.

New terminal opens at Nyingchi airport
In March 2017, Xinhua announced the second-largest airport terminal in Tibet has started its operations in Nyingchi: “The new terminal, the sixth to open in Tibet, is located at Nyingchi Mainling Airport. It covers an area of 10,300 square meters and will be able to handle 750,000 passengers and 3,000 tons of cargo annually by 2020.”
Nyingchi is located at an average elevation of 2,950 meters above sea level.
Xinhua says: “The city has attracted more visitors in recent years thanks to tourist attractions such as its peach blossom festival.” More than three millions according to Chinese statistics.
Incidentally, the Bayi Township, owned by the PLA and located nearly, is served by the same airport. The Indian border will be well-serviced …in case!

Three New Airports in Tibet
On June 9, 2018, the CAAC and the TAR government announced that Tibet would soon have three new airports. The announcement came during a Conference held in Lhasa on June 8. A communique stated: “Construction of the three airports, all above the altitude of 3,900 meters, should begin in 2019.” Xinhua gave the official rationale: “Tourist travel will be more convenient, and economic development in Tibet's agricultural and pastoral areas will also be assisted.”
The Chinese-language press provided more information about the location of the three airports; one will be located in Lhuntse in Lhoka (called Shannan by the Chinese) area, north of the Upper Subansiri and Tawang districts of Arunachal Pradesh, the second will be between Tingri and Lhatse counties of Shigatse City, north of Zangmu, the border post with Nepal, and the last in Purang, near the trijunction Nepal-Tibet-India, north of Pittoragarh district of Uttarakhand (on the yatris’ route to Mt Kailash).
While Tingri airport is near the Nepali border, the two other (Lhuntse and Purang) are at a short distance from the Indian border.
The airports should be completed in 2021; by then, there will be eight airports in the TAR (plus three close to the Indian border in Xinjiang, i.e. Kashgar, Hotan and Yarkand).
The news agency added: “At present, the preparatory work for the three airports is underway. The preferred sites have been determined, and the construction of temporary weather stations at each site is completed.”
The three airports will be high altitude airports; they will be operated by companies including Air China, China Eastern Airlines or Sichuan Airlines already involved in Tibet.
One has to understand Xi’s plans for Tibet. The ‘core’ leader had declared: “Govern the nation by governing the borders; govern the borders by first stabilizing Tibet; ensure social harmony and stability in Tibet and strengthen the development of border regions.”
Over last few years, the authorities in Tibet have started implementing the emperor’s theory, while the Party’s propaganda is doing its best to entice the local Tibetan population to side with the Communist Party. This is a serious development, unfortunately largely ignored in India.

The protectors of the sacred homeland and the builders of happy homes
It is necessary to say a few words about a related development on the border: The Xiaogang model villages.
This new development is often mentioned in the speech of the TAR’s local satraps; it is said that the inhabitants of China’s borders (with India) will be “the protectors of the sacred homeland and the builders of happy homes.”
It has taken a concrete shape with the mushrooming of new ‘model’ villages and towns on the Tibetan side of the Indian border, mainly north of Arunachal Pradesh; officially, the scheme is linked with ‘poverty alleviation’, but also ‘defence of the borders’. These model villages are called Xiaogang, moderately well-off.
It has another connotation. The 40th anniversary of “China's reform and opening up” celebrated across China in 2018 put a great emphasis on an event which took place in 1978, when 18 farmers in Xiaogang village, in Anhui Province, signed a secret agreement to divide collectively-owned farmland into individual pieces and drop the collectivization of the Great Leap Forward (GLF), which between 1958 and 1960 resulted in some 40 million casualties; in Xiaogang itself, 67 villagers out of 120 had died of starvation between 1958 and 1960.
Forty years later, the name Xiaogang is been used for a different project, which should worry India: the building of a large number of ‘model’ villages along the border.
On October 19, China Tibet News reported that since the beginning of 2018, Tsona County, north of Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang District, has been “vigorously promoting the construction of border ‘Xiaogang’ villages”.
Several senior Communist leaders have visited the new villages, either north of Kibithu in the Lohit valley; in Metok, north of Upper Siang district; in Yume , north of Takshing in Upper Subansari or in Lepo, Marmang and Tsona, north of Khenzimane and Tawang. As mentioned earlier, the Lhuntse airport will serve the Tsona and Yume areas.
The new project was given publicity soon after the conclusion of the 19th Congress, when Xi Jinping sent a reply to two young Tibetan herders who had written to him introducing their village, Yume. According to Xinhua, Xi “encouraged a herding family in Lhuntse County to set down roots in the border area, safeguard the Chinese territory and develop their hometown.” Xi acknowledged “the family’s efforts to safeguard China’s territory, and thanked them for the loyalty and contributions they have made in the border area. Without the peace in the territory, there will be no peaceful lives for the millions of families,” he wrote.
The two Tibetan girls, Choekar and Yangzom had told the CCP’s Secretary General about their “experiences in safeguarding the border area and the development of their township over the years.”
The girls’ village, Yume is located in Lhuntse county, not far from the remote Indian village of Takshing, which incidentally has recently been linked by a motorable road. Xi further hoped that the girls’ family could “motivate more herders to set down roots in the border area like kalsang flowers,” blooming in hard conditions.
China is to invest 110 million yuan in the Yume Well-Off Rural Construction Project; to start with, 56 sets of light-steel prefabricated residential houses are being built, linked by two new municipal roads, a central park and six squares. Electricity and water have already reached the border village. And this is not the only example.

Implications for India
All this is worrisome for India, though Beijing is presently facing a serious problem: can it afford all these new infrastructure projects?
Who will finance these mega-developments, especially if the US President turns the screw on the Chinese economy and if Xi continues to ‘invest’ in Africa, Pakistan or elsewhere, outside the Walls of the Middle Kingdom?
It is a serious question, though difficult to answer.
Further, the US ‘squeezing’ of China is bound to create ‘differences’ within the Communist leadership about the investment ‘priorities’ and …when the Emperor and his courtiers start fighting among themselves, the ‘stability’ of Kingdom is jeopardized.

Cashless 'modern' Tibet

While Indians are struggling with the demonetization scheme introduced by the Narendra Modi Government on November 8, Cashless Tibet is blooming, at least according to Xinhua.
On January 4, the official news agency reported: “While Tibet evokes images of ancient traditions for many tourists, people are discovering they don't have to give up modern conveniences when they travel in the far western region.”
The article cites a tourist from Fujian Province who was able to pay through Alipay at a fast food chain in downtown Lhasa. Xinhua adds: “The restaurant opened in March, and within a month, customers no longer had to pay in cash.”
Alipay.com is a third-party online payment platform launched in 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma.
A store manager explains: “Mobile payments have not only improved efficiency, but also save tourists a lot of time withdrawing money from the ATM."
For Xinhua, “Going cashless has become the new normal for Tibetans,” adding “restaurants, souvenir shops, and movie theaters all provide online payment services.”
The number of Internet users in Tibet would have reached 1.639 million in March 2016.
According to Alipay, 83.3 percent of payments in Tibet were conducted via mobile phones in 2015, topping the country for four years in a row.
Norbu, a Tibetan who works at the Lhasa branch of the People's Bank of China is quoted as saying: “This year's online transactions rose significantly compared to previous years. Partly because more stores accept online payments, but more importantly, it shows a change in consumption and payment habits among the public in Tibet."
In another article, Xinhua quotes Alibaba's financial branch Ant Financial saying that the company's 2016 annual report shows that 90 percent of online payments in Tibet were made on mobile devices.
It is far higher than in the more developed coastal provinces of China.
China now boasts that due to communication signal coverage, farmers and herdsmen, even the remotest villages in Tibet can use cell phones to purchase daily necessities online.
It is probably an exaggeration.
Xinhua also said that over 80 percent of mobile payment users were born in the 1980s and 1990s. Shigatse Township ranked first in online shopping in Tibet, with consumption per person exceeding 10,000 yuan (1,430 U.S. dollars) for the year. QR codes are used for payment are common in restaurants and shops.

Airlines booming
In the meantime, Chinese statistics, for what they are worth, say that in 2016, the Tibet civil aviation set a new record with more than 4 million passengers flying to Tibet. According to the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Administration, the number of passengers had crossed 3 millions in December 2014.
The same statistics say the airports have grown from one to five, airline companies increased from one to nine, airline routes from one to 71, cities connections from one to 41 and staff from 16 to more than 2,300.
Wang Zhaojun, head of the TAR's Planning and Statistics Department stated that Tibet has now gained a valuable experience of operation on the plateau. 
During the 13th Five Year Plan Period (2016-2020), the airports of Lhasa Gongkar, Nyingtri Mainling and Chamdo Bangda will be ‘reconstructed and expanded’.
I mentioned earlier on this blog, the design of Terminal 3 of Lhasa Gongkar Airport is ready. By 2025, the capacity of the new terminal will be 9 million passenger and 80,000 tons of cargo.
SF Airline should officially launch all-cargo flights from Chengdu to Lhasa in March 2017 “to meet the consumer demand for air cargo transport as the online shopping has become a part of Tibetan people’s lives.”
There is no doubt that Tibet is changing.
Is it for the good? It is another question.

New highway, Lhasa-Nyingtri  and Gongkar-Lhasa.

New Terminal for Lhasa Airport

Recently, the design of Terminal 3 of the Lhasa Gongkar has been made public.

It is said that the design was inspired by “traditional Tibetan culture in the pursuit of  the heart of the sun and the moon - the eternal Shambhala". 

What does this mean? Is not clear.

China Tibet Net added that this project will “not only meet its functional purpose, but also perfectly combine architectural style and regional culture".

I leave it to the readers to decide if the culture of Tibet is represented in the model.

Importance of Gongkar Airport
On July 1, China Military Online had reported that new steps had been taken to “help PLA Air Force (PLAAF) cope with emergencies.”
A joint meeting on the development of military-civilian integration of dual-use airports of the PLAAF had been held in Beijing on June 17.
On the agenda was the "Interim Provisions of Operation Security at Dual-use Airports of the PLA Air Force." The PLA website said that it is based on win-win principles for both the military and civilian sides.
The new arrangement, to integrate the development of military-civilian airport resources between the PLAAF and civil aviation is being implemented, noted the website, which further explained: “Its main purpose was to establish a complementary management mechanism with smooth coordination and shared resources to gradually form a support capability that guarantees flight safety at peace times and meets combat needs at wartimes.”
Beijing believed that “two [first] airports [Lhasa and Sunan Shuofang] are good examples of dual-use airports.”

Why Lhasa Gonggar Airport?
As it provided “important support for Tibet's economic development and national security in China’s Southwestern region.”
Lhasa Airport has always been the hub to ‘defend' China’s borders …against India.
China Military Online remarks: “On the one hand, as an important force in Tibet’s transportation, the airport has made great contributions to Tibet's economic construction. It has safely transported more than six million passengers in total since it was put into use. The cargo throughput also surpassed 140,000 tons.”
It adds: “On the other hand, the airport is an important channel to transport the PLA's new recruits and strategic materials to Tibet. The airport is also a major ‘airborne bridgehead’ in Southwest China.”

Today, Xinhua announced that the number of passengers 'handled' by Lhasa Gonggar Airport will exceed 3 million in 2016: "it shows the rapid development of its civil aviation industry," says the agency.
For the first time in 2006, the Lhasa airport saw the number of passengers crossed 1 million and in 2013, it reached 2 million.
A senior regional civil aviation official told Xinhua: "The rapid growth in passenger numbers at Lhasa airport shows people's confidence in Tibet's social stability, and is a symbol of the rapid economic development of Tibet."
For the Chinese authorities, the so-called stability of the plateau is clearly linked to the number of passengers using the 71 routes from the Mainland to Lhasa.

Incidentally,  on November 25, China Daily announced that more than 20 new highways will be built in the TAR in 2017 (with a total investment of more than 33 billion yuan or 5 billion US dollar).
Among them, a highway between Lhasa and Shigatse Airport and the one between Gongkar Airport to Tsethang.

Will Chinese tourists fly over Tibet

Landing at Gongkar

How do Chinese tourists go to the Roof of the World?
Though the official figures for 2013 have not been published as yet, one can safely bet that between 13 and 14 millions Han tourists visited Tibet during the last year. 
Let us not forget that Beijing's target is 15 millions for 2015.
How do these visitors reach Lhasa?
China Tibet Online reported yesterday: "Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region received a record 2.76 million air passengers in 2013, up 24.4 percent from the previous year".
Quoting the regional civil aviation authorities, it says: :"Tibet opened 13 new air routes last year, bringing the total number in the region to 48 and the number of cities linked with Tibet to 29."
Sonam Tsephel, an official at Lhasa's Gonggar [Gongkar] Airport stated: "The decreasing number of days with sandy weather in recent years has contributed to the increasing air passenger traffic."
Statistics from the regional meteorological bureau, if correct, tends to prove that while the number of 'sandy' days in the vicinity of the capital's airport was about 206 in the 1980s, it has dropped to about 100 now.
But is it really a factor which stops the tourists to use the plane?
The number of passengers at the Lhasa Gongkar Airport, which was opened in 1965, crossed 1 million in 2006 and 2 million in 2013. It is expected to be more than 3 million in 2014.
Tsephel, as any good official, follows the Party line and attribute the increased flow of visitors to 'sound social stability and economic development'.
The same publication, China Tibet Online informed us that, according to statistics of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway: "The Lhasa Railway Station has carried 1.01 million departing passengers in 2013, a 10.44 percent rise from 917,900, the figure in 2012; the number of arriving passengers has hit 1.10 million, a 13.11 increase year on year."
One could ask, where the 100,000 passengers vanished?
This is not answered by the authorities.
Zhang Qiang, head of the Lhasa Railway Station explained that "the station has enacted a more proactive marketing policy and completed the mission during the Spring Festival peak season."
I have written in detail about the 'proactive marketing policy'.
Zhang said that  312,000 passengers departed from the station during the summer holiday alone, adding "the Qinghai-Tibet railway, since inauguration on July 1, 2006, has carried 12.64 million passengers."
Now, some mathematics!
If you add the 2.76 millions air passengers to the 1.1 million using the train, you reach a figure close to 4 millions using air and train.
My question is: how do the other 10 milions or so of Chinese Han reach Lhasa?
In flying in the air like the great yogi Milarepa?
Probably not. So, how?
It can safely be deducted that they come by road from the mainland (Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan or Sichuan provinces).
Ten millions visitors on the mountainous roads of the Tibetan plateau is not a joke. I can bring only a tremendous air pollution.
At the same time, Chen Quanguo, Tibet Autonomous Region's Communist chief recently declared that "protecting every mountain, every river, every tree, every blade of grass is essential".
Speaking at a regional economic conference in Lhasa, Chen affirmed that the regional government has adopted four measures to improve environmental protection and economic development.
He listed these measures:

• To create strict standards for emissions on new projects, guaranteeing that they do not harm the ecology.
• To take strict control measures on the exploitation of mineral resources and sets the protection of the environment as a priority.
• To tighten the schedule for ecological conservation to be done between 2013 to 2030 and launch afforestation projects along four rivers to create tree coverage of more than 66,670 hectares.
• To strengthen the supervision of ecological conservation and implements administrative measures on regional environment protection.

Flying mystics of Tibet

Further, Chen spoke about ensuring that the main "rivers and lakes on the plateau maintain a high water and air quality and to control total pollutant emissions within the State-approved range."
Chen affirmed: "Tibet invested 4.8 billion yuan (770 millions US dollars) over the construction of ecological shelter zones and carried out a total compensation of 2.8 billion (450 millions US dollars) toward subsidies for grassland ecological conservation".
In his calculations, Mr. Chen has probably forgotten to take into account the increasing number of Chinese tourists visiting Lhasa and its surroundings.
Ten millions visitors coming by road bring a considerable air pollution.
But perhaps the Communist Party Secretary will offer to the Han tourists advanced courses in yoga and teach them some of Milarepa's techniques.
That would be good.

Chinese Multirole Combat Aircrafts stationed in Lhasa Airport

J-10 stationed at Lhasa Gongkar Airport

A few days ago, I wrote about the dual use of airports in Tibet.
More information has come on the military use of one of these airports. According to Open Source Imagery Intelligence (OSIMINT), the latest satellite imagery release from Digital Globe shows a new flight of aircrafts at Lhasa’s Gonggar [or Gongkar] airfield in Tibet.
The website says: “This time a flight of J-10s have appeared further reinforcing prior analysis.”
Three months back, OSIMINT had confirmed that some J-11, the Chinese version of the Su-27, were deployed at the Lhasa airfield. At that time, OSIMINT contradicted Indian news reporting suggesting that these deployments were ‘new’ or related to the events in Ladakh.
OSIMINT says that ‘historical’ imagery shows a J-10 flight as far back as 2010 and argues that the fighters usually do yearly rotations.
However, older imagery does not show any IL-78 refueling aircraft, at the Gonkar airfield (as it was claimed by the IBN in its report), says OSIMINT which also asserts that some other imagery (dating of June 11, 2013) demonstrates that there is no deployments of surface to air missiles (SAM) on a site located less than 2 miles from Gongkar.
In May, India’s IBN Live had affirmed that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) had deployed Su-27 (J-11) fighters at the Gongkar airfield to 'put additional military pressure' on India and as a direct answer to the Indian Air Force (IAF) stationing Su-30MKI fighters in Chabua and Tezpur in Assam, “these fighters [the Sukhois] can hit targets deep in Tibet and mainland China”, had said the news channel.
The IBN report added: “Due to the altitude, the fighters can take off only with less weapons payload or fuel. China has probably solved the problem by stationing an aerial refuelling aircraft at Gongkar or nearby. This will increase the range and endurance of the Su-27s”.
It had made a link with the border tensions in Ladakh and the ‘new’ deployment: “China has been engaged in a deliberate upping of the diplomatic and military pressure on India, probing for weaknesses, testing India’s resolve with the expectation that India will blink and back down.”
For OSIMINT, “the narrative painted by IBN and its related sources appears to be far off the mark. Firstly, the statements suggesting hardened positions such as underground aircraft hangars at Gongkar, is a complete fabrication. Likewise, are the statements suggesting China has positioned air-to-air refueling aircraft at Gongkar or nearby airfields”.

J-10 at Gongkar Ariport

OSIMINT continues: “The deployment of fighters does not appear to be related with recent events in Raki Nala [in Ladakh]. Satellite imagery suggests that Chinese PLAAF aircraft may have started making ‘winter’ rotations to the airfield since at least 2011.”
In May 2013, OSIMINT did not believe that the J-11, then deployed in Gongkar, was a response to Su-30MKI at Chabua and Tezpur: “that notion even seems ludicrous considering that one small flight is hardly a match against two entire Su-30MKI squadrons in Assam.”
Apart from the above controversy, it is a fact that the Gongkar Airport near Lhasa comes under the Chengdu Military Region (MR) while Ladakh functions under Lanzhou Military Region.
Developments in Chengdu MR are a priori not linked to happenings in Lanzhou MR.

Gongkar is also a civilian airport

In an article The Organizational Structure of the PLAAF, Kenneth W. Allen explains: “According to PLAAF 2010, the PLAAF currently has a three-tiered vertical command structure for its operational forces: PLAAF Headquarters, Military Region Air Force (MRAF) Headquarters, and the unit and subunit tier, from air corps level down to platoon and even squad level.”
There are seven MRAF headquarters which comprise the second tier, Allen says: “Each MRAF is organized according to its missions and battlefield environment. Thus, no two MRAFs are organized exactly the same way. However, each MRAF has subordinate air divisions, SAM brigades or regiments, and antiaircraft artillery (AAA) regiments, as well as radar brigades and regiments, communications regiments and companies, and support units and subunits.”
It would be strange to reinforce the airfields in a Military Region [Chengdu] to support another MR [Lanzhou].
But that it not all, ‘things’ have been happening in both Lanzhou’s and Chengdu’s MRAFs.
In December 2012, I wrote on this blog: “China is prepared to any eventuality. A Chinese military website recently reported that China's Air Force (PLAAF) staged one of its largest-ever drills.”
At that time foreign commentators had linked the drills with the tensions with Japan and China's southern neighbors over territorial claims, though according to The People's Daily the exercises were conducted in Xinjiang (Lanzhou MR): the "air combat exercises involving more than 100 pilots were held over 11 days last month in the vast northwestern region of Xinjiang. Pilots practiced engaging in dog fights and countering electro-magnetic interference."
I had asked: “why to organise the drills in Xinjiang, which part of Lanzhou Military Region (MR) bordering Central and India (Ladakh/Aksai Chin), if the exercises are meant to improve the preparedness for an eventual conflict in East China Sea.”
The report had mentioned: “Aircraft taking part came from 14 separate units and included China's most modern jet fighters, the J-10 and J-11, along with older models and two-seater Sukhoi Su-30s purchased from Russia. The exercises are a vivid demonstration of China's vastly improved military capabilities that have unnerved other Asian nations and spur a renewed U.S. focus on the region.”
Also in December 2012, China Military Online announced that the PLAAF "recently conducted a comprehensive support drill for multi-types of aircraft on double-runway under information conditions at an airport in southwest China. Nearly 100 fighters of over 10 different types open the curtain of the base-oriented transformation of the combat support mode of the PLA Air Force."
This time it was in the Chengdu Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chengdu Military Region which borders Arunachal, Bhutan and Nepal.
China Military Online asserted that the aircraft took off and landed on the double-runway for 12 sorties within 10 minutes, adding: "At the same time, more than 200 support vehicles of various types and hundreds of officers and men were making preparation before aircraft's taking-off and carrying out maintenance after aircraft's landing for various types of aircraft on the parking aprons on the east and west sides of the airport."

J-10

A few words about the Chengdu J-10 (J-10 Vigorous Dragon) aircraft:
It is a multirole combat aircraft, manufactured by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation in Chengdu, Sichuan. It was inducted in the PLAAF in 2005. More 270 planes are said to have been built till date; the cost of one plane is being about 28 million US dollars.
Apparently the project started in 1988, in response to the Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27, then being inducted in the Soviet Air Force. The aircraft was initially designed as a specialized fighter, but later became a multirole aircraft capable of both air to air combat and ground attack missions.
The first pictures of the J-10 appeared in January 2007, when photographs were released by Xinhua. Some sources said a J-10 prototype had crashed during flight test. This was denied by The PLA Daily.
The last test flight programme and live firing of air-to-air missiles, was carried out in December 2003.
During the Musharraf’s days, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) would have signed a contract for 36 planes, making it the first export contract for the J-10.