The Tibetan blues

My book review of Meltdown in Tibet by Michael Buckley (PanMacmillan), entitled The Tibetan blues appeared yesterday in the Sunday Pioneer (Agenda) .


Here is the link...

This well-documented work delves deep into issues which are bound to get hotter with time, writes CLAUDE ARPI

André Malraux, the famous French Philosopher and General de Gaulle’s Culture Minister once said, ‘The 21st century will be spiritual or will not be’. Without denying the role that spirituality can play in the present planetary crisis, it is obvious that if the world leaders do not rapidly take some drastic actions to solve the planet’s environmental issues, annihilation will befall upon humanity by the end of the current century.
Michael Buckley’s, Meltdown in Tibet, delves deep into these burning issues. His well-documented work deals with topics which are bound to be hotter as the years pass by. Buckley says that he isn’t a scholar who analyses problems from air conditioned rooms, he sees himself more as an adventurer. The Canadian environmentalist has extensively travelled on the Asian roads, more particularly in the Himalayas and the Roof of the World where he witnessed the changes brought about by the wild development of modern China. He is an Asia-trotter, having spent most of his time in our continent, particularly in Tibet. His book, Heartlands: Travels in the Tibetan World had earned him the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award.
He is also a keen rafter and points his finger towards the Tibetan plateau: “Glance at a physical map of the Tibetan Plateau and you will see why the rivers of Tibet are so important to southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Tibetan plateau is the source of the major rivers of this vast region, stretching all the way from the coast of China in the east to Pakistan in the west. Ninety per cent of the run-off from Tibetan rivers flows downstream into China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, Nepal etc. At the tail-end of those same rivers lie the world’s largest deltas...close to two billion people rely on Tibet’s waters-for drinking, for agriculture, for fishing, for industry.”
The first lines of Meltdown in Tibet accurately highlight our century’s vital issues: the fate of more than half of humanity depends on the waters from Tibet. Speaking about the water situation in China, Xinhua recently admitted a ‘domino effect on water supply’. The Chinese news agency was commenting on the first comprehensive study of China’s glaciers which proves that on an average, 244 sq km of glaciers disappear every year. The Chinese glaciologists “had warned of ‘chain effects’ that could have an impact on water supplies in the country’s western regions” …and one should add, on India.
The figures come from the survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which found, “China had 48,571 glaciers in its western provinces, including the Tibetan regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces.” This is indeed not encouraging news, but despite the impending shortage of water in the long-term, China continues to dam rivers originating from the Third Pole; Buckley explains this terminology: “Outside of the Arctic and Antarctic, the Tibetan Plateau has the largest store of ice on earth, leading to its designation as the ‘Third Pole’. …In terms of human impact, however, meltdown of Tibetan Plateau glaciers will have far greater repercussions.” Even the Chinese scientists agree that there is far less scientific data available on the Third Pole than on the Arctic and Antarctic .
An interesting feature of Buckley’s book is that the author links different issues which are not correlated at first sight. When he speaks about the ‘Crisis at the Third Pole’, he asks, ‘What does a rain of black soot have to do with this?’ He himself answers the question: “There is no doubt that greatly elevated CO2 emissions from both China and India are leading causes of warming on the Tibetan Plateau. But for glacial meltdown, another significant factor may be the rain of black soot...Lumps of coal burned in households in China result in a tremendous output of black carbon, or soot, also referred to as black soot. …Black carbon from cities in both India and China travels on air currents and gets trapped on the Tibetan Plateau.”
That is not all, the carbon particle, being black, absorbs the heat from the sun “both while floating in an air column or once settled on the ground — or the ice”. Everyone has experienced that wearing white clothes in summer is cool, as white reflects the light (and the heat) but if you have a black shirt, you will soon feel the heat. Scientists say that when the sun’s rays hit the earth, a certain percentage of the energy is reflected back into space. The amount of radiation reflected is called, the albedo. The sun’s energy at the poles reflects more rays (and heat), it has a high albedo. The more ‘black’ particles and the less snow and glaciers, the faster the earth will warm up with incalculable consequences for the small humans living on it. It triggers a vast exponential domino effect.

'We have only one Tibet'

Chapter after chapter, Buckley enlightens us on the ‘Ecocide on the Land of Snows’; on why Tibet matters so much today; on the fate of the mighty rivers of Tibet and their damming (‘What on earth are China’s engineers up to?’); on China’s appetite for energy (‘Where is the thirsty dragon going to guzzle next’); on the fate of the nomads parked in new ghettos (‘Vanishing Nomads, Vanishing Grasslands’) or Plundering the Treasure House (‘How much can an ecosystem take before it collapses?’). He believes that Beijing’s water policies dictated by their new godhead, i.e. ‘Development’, will lead Asia to natural disasters.
In the chapter ‘Downstream Blues’, he mentions the consequences of the Third Pole’s environmental degradation for India and the possibility of a Himalayan Water War (if the Brahmaputra is diverted, for example). At the end, the author asks a vital question, valid not only for China (Tibet), but for India, Bangladesh or Pakistan too: “Why can’t they just leave the rivers alone?” It’s a difficult question, because development is today a ‘must’ for most modern states.
Is there a way out? A middle path? Buckley does not provide an answer, except mentioning the importance of trans-boundary collaboration. He rightly says: “Water, not oil, is now becoming the world’s most important resource. Though we live on a planet covered by water, very little of it is accessible.” The fate of the 21st century will indeed depend on water; spirituality could perhaps help in bringing some wisdom into humans’ brains and hearts, though it may soon be too late; as the Dalai Lama says in his preface: “We only have one Tibet. There are no backups.”

The new boss of Tibet and Xinjiang preaches 'stability'

Yu Zhengsheng in a mosque in Hotan

Yu Zhengsheng, member of the Standing Committee of the CCP's Political Bureau and Chairman of the CPPCC recently undertook an inspection tour in Hotan, Kashgar, Yili and Urumqi of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He spent 5 days (from May 23 to 28) in the area.
This demonstrates the importance that the Party attaches to the restive Muslim province.
This tour also tends to prove that Yu Zhengsheng has taken over the Chairmanship of the Xinjiang Work Coordination Small Group which will monitor the Xinjiang Affairs.
A couple of days earlier, Yu had chaired his first Central Tibet Work Coordination Small Group in Beijing.
Yu is therefore the Party's strong man for Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan.The exact composition of the Tibet Small Group is not known, though I have mentioned some possible names on this blog.
Apart from the Central Officials, the meeting is said to have been attended by cadres from Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and the Tibetan Autonomous Region.
The Party Secretaries from these areas went back to their respective provinces and gave speeches on the importance of Yu’s comments. 
From Yu's declarations in Xinjiang, one can guess what Yu told the Party cadres in Beijing: he probably called for greater efforts for improving people's living conditions and promoting ethnic solidarity and social harmony. 
He must have emphasized 'social stability'.
In Xinjiang, he also spoke of "effective measures to be put in place to contain the breeding and spreading of religious extremist elements."
On his return to Tibet, Chen Quanguo, the TAR's Party Secretary went for an inspection tour  of the Nagchu Prefecture; he carried Yu’s message to “bring stability and harmony to Nachu".
Unfortunately for Secretary Chen, the day he was returning to Lhasa, thousands of Tibetans gathered in Driru county (Chinese: Biru in Nagchu Prefecture). They met at a sacred Tibetan mountain to demonstrate against the Chinese government's planned mining projects in Driru county.
The Tibet Post reported: 

On May 24, 2013, over 1,000 trucks  [probably cars]  loaded more than 5,400 Tibetans from the four major areas, including Pekar, Nagshoe Phudha and Tsala gathered in Dathang town, near the sacred mountain in protest of the growing Chinese mining tensions in the county; said Mr Ngawang Tharpa, an exile Tibetan in Dharamshala, citing contacts in the region. The mountain is called Lhachen Naglha Dzambha, rich in mineral resources and it has the Gyalmo Ngulchu [Salween River] running through its foothills. Sources said the local Tibetans ultimately managed to stop the mining at the holy Mountain.
The current situation is tense in the Driru county, where the local authorities deployed over fifty military convoys to the protest site, according to sources from inside Tibet.

Two protesters Gonp and Abu would have died in a car accident on their way to the site.
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA): "Mining operations in Tibetan regions have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth.  ...Waste from the mines, in operation since 2005, “has been dumped in the local river, and mining activities have polluted the air,” one source said."
This is bad luck for Mr. Chen who had just come to preach 'stability'.
This is not the first time that such incident has happened.
Last October, two Tibetan cousins Tsepo, 20 and Tenzin, 25, self-immolated in front of a school in Driru.
Local contacts told Tibetans in exile that the cousins shouted slogans calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama before setting themsevlec alight. They also pleaded for all Tibetans to be "united like brothers”.
RFA commented: "Tibetans in Driru have been in the forefront of opposition to Chinese rule in the Tibet Autonomous Region since deadly riots in the region in 2008, with monks and nuns protesting and abandoning monasteries in order to defy 'intrusive' new Chinese regulations."
At that time, Lobsang Gyaltsen, who since then has become the head of the government in the TAR had stayed 2 weeks in the area to pacify the Tibetans.
The Party's senior cadres' exhortations do not seem to work on the local population.
As I mentioned earlier the resentment against the Chinese administration is extremely strong in the region. 
This goes in parallel with the looting of the underground wealth of Tibet. 

Yu tours Xinjiang, stresses curbing extremism, terrorism
Xinhua
May 29, 2013
URUMQI, May 28 (Xinhua) During his tour of Xinjiang, China's top political advisor stressed containing the growth of religious extremist elements and maintaining a high intensity in the fight against terrorist activities.
The tour took Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, to Hotan, Kashgar, Yili and Urumqi in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from May 23-28.
Visiting villages, companies, schools, police stations, a border port and a mosque, Yu called for greater efforts in improving people's living conditions and promoting ethnic solidarity and social harmony.
To facilitate the region's economic and social development and long-term stability, he urged local authorities to fully implement policies that the central authorities have prescribed for Xinjiang.
During the visit, Yu held meetings on safeguarding social stability with local government workers and people from religious circles.
In addition to measures to encourage more religious believers to contribute to Xinjiang's development and stability, he demanded effective measures be put in place to contain the breeding and spreading of religious extremist elements.
"Meanwhile, we should maintain a high intensity in fighting violent terrorist activities in accordance with the law," he said.
Yu also paid a special visit to Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, where he relayed the central authorities' condolences to the survivors and family members of those who died in a deadly clash with a group of alleged terrorists on April 23.
Describing employment as a key aspect concerning both public well-being and social stability in Xinjiang, he called for more support for vocational training and the growth of labor-intensive industries.
Yu also urged efforts to improve ethnic minority language-Mandarin Chinese bilingual education environments at local schools, thus fostering communication among different ethnic groups.
Noting that the fundamental means for Xinjiang to realize stability and prosperity is through economic and social development, Yu urged efforts to quicken the development of specialty industries while protecting the environment.

Mining Sacred Places

On March 29, China’s State media reported that 83 miners had presumably died following a major landslide at the site of a gold mine in Gyama Valley, near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. A few days later, 66 miners were confirmed dead and 17 were declared missing despite massive rescue efforts.
Reports from Tibet further stated that the miners (only two of them were Tibetans) were asleep in their tents when the tragedy occurred. They were buried by a 3-kilometre wide and 30 metres deep mass of rocks and debris.
An ignorant former French PM, Jean-Pierre Rafarin, a great friend of Communist China, recently told a Chinese journalist at the Boao Forum: “I have never been to Tibet. It is a region with high altitude.” But there is more than the altitude; in many ways, Tibet is a special place.
Beijing based writer and dissident Tsering Woeser, brings out another dimension of the tragedy in her blog: “I mention Songtsen Gampo often, always in the hope that those greedy cadres and companies would show some mercy.”
The Gyama Valley is one of the most sacred places in Tibet; it is the birth place of Songtsen Gompo, the founder of the Tibetan empire in the 7th century, the largest empire in Asia at that time. Till recently, several historical places such as the Gyelpo Khangkar, containing an image of the King and his two Chinese and Nepalese queens, were by visited large crowds of Tibetans pilgrims.
Woeser reminds her countrymen: “In Han Chinese culture, the birthplace of all former dynasties’ emperors is considered to be the treasured place of ‘fengshui’, referred to as ‘dragon’s pulse’. Gyama, with its many sacred and beautiful places, is where the ‘dragon’s pulse’ exists in Tibet and it should never have to endure such disemboweling hardship as it does today.”
Unfortunately, Chinese cadres are unaware of the ‘Tibetan pulse’. For Woeser, who visited the place in 2005, the landslide is: “not a natural, but a man-made disaster. Locals say loud and clear how crazy the mining has become there.” The mining project just shows “the lack of empathy by Chinese government towards Tibetan Culture and sentiment”, she bitterly complained.
Ironically, Xinhua had reported in June 2012: “A multi-metal mine in the birthplace of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo has the potential to be among the world's 50 biggest mines of its kind by deposits and may generate an annual product value of 712 million US $ by the end of 2015.”
Jiang Liangyou, Party Secretary of the mine’s owner, Tibet Huatailong Mining Development (under the state-owned National Gold Group Corporation or CNGG), had then promised: “The prospecting results are subject to independent third-party verification overseas”.
It appears now that the foreign advices were not followed, triggering the tragedy.
As late as June 2012, Jiang had boasted: "Phenomenal changes will be brought to Tibet's economic and social development, because, after the expansion, Gyama Mine may generate tax revenue equivalent to one-sixth of the current fiscal revenue of the government of Tibet Autonomous Region.”
Xinhua however admitted: “Before the mining area was taken over by Huatailong in late 2009, a dozen private miners were caught up in a rat race for the rich ore supplies, ignoring their responsibilities to the local community and environment.”
Sun Zhaoxue, general manager of CNGG had publicly announced that Huatailong would honor its social responsibility and “bring local residents long-lasting benefits through environmental protection and community-building efforts.”
That was last year. He had then affirmed: “The answer, in our mind, is to build Jiama into a large, environmentally-friendly mine equipped with leading technologies.”
Ironically, the mine has been projected as the ‘Gyama Model’ by the Ministry of Land and Resources in Beijing, and many Chinese mine managers regularly visited the place ‘to learn from Huatailong's experiences’.
Nine months ago, another manager Teng proudly asserted:"The golden rule we have been following here is to always be responsibility-aware and harmony-aware.”
Today, a report prepared by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, believes that China's large-scale exploitation of mineral resources in Tibet caused the recent disaster.
Tenzin Norbu, the Head of the CTA’s Environment Desk says: "Tibet's rich mineral deposits have become a resource curse for the local residents and ecosystem. Since the late '60s, these mineral deposits have been exploited in various scales, mostly under poor environmental norms and regulations. …The minerals extracted, copper, chromium, gold, lead, iron and zinc are the minerals of greatest interest to Chinese and other foreign miners operating in Tibet."
Interestingly, the President Xi Jinping (then visiting Africa), Premier Li Keqiang as well as the entire Standing Committee of the Politburo personally expressed their grief over the tragedy and “gave important instructions for the rescue work”. The Party seems shaken by the incident; it seems to have become a prestige issue for Beijing. But will the new leadership be able to take the ‘yak’s pulse’? One can doubt in view of the precedents in Tibet.
One collateral: when the China National Gold Group Corporation acquired the rights from the previous owners in 2009, one of them was Rapid Results Investment based in …the British Virgin Island! Some 590 million US $ was paid to this company. The news came soon after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) began leaking the details of 2 million emails and other documents on the famous fiscal paradises. Just a coincidence!

More on the Eldorado

In continuation with my last week posting on the Eldorado (Tibet), here is one more article on the subject. It is published in the China Daily.
The Chinese economic machine needs to be fed with minerals, which are either imported or extracted from China's provinces.
Chang Fushan, vice-chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association explained: "China has formed major resource bases such as those for copper in central area of the Tibet autonomous region, and for nonferrous metals in western Yunnan province, the central-eastern area of Tibet, and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region."
A website, Meltdown in Tibet, has posted excellent Google images of mining sites on the Tibetan plateau. Just have a look.
Meltdown in Tibet also highlight the importance of the railway line: "Mining and mineral exploration have increased dramatically on the Tibetan Plateau since the 2006 arrival of the Golmud-Lhasa railway link, and due to government programs and promotion. Along with the large government and business controlled mines, small unregulated mining operations are popping up all over the plateau. Due to low salaries, minimal health and safety standards, and weak environmental laws, normally uneconomic mineral deposits can be mined profitably by Chinese companies. Corrupt officials are willing to cut costs even more."
Already in 2007, Xinhua had announced: "Chinese geologists have discovered 16 large copper, iron, lead and zinc ore deposits along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway route since 1999, said the country's top geological surveyor here Wednesday.
Geologists initially found five non-ferrous metal deposits along the 1,956-kilometer railway with total possible reserves of more than 20 million tons of copper and 10 million tons of lead and zinc, said Meng Xianlai, director of the China Geological Survey (CGS) under the Ministry of Land and Resources.."
The mouthpiece of the Communist Party added: "They included a copper deposit in Qulong, Tibet Autonomous Region, with a proved reserve of 7.89 million tons, second only tothe country's largest copper mine in Dexing of east China's Jiangxi Province, said Meng. The CGS predicted the possible copper reserves in Qulong could reach 18 million tons, making it the biggest copper deposit in China. Estimated reserves of 760 million tons of high-grade iron ore were found in the Kunglun Mountains on the western Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and southern Xinjiang Province, which the Qinghai-Tibet Railway crosses, said Zhang Hongtao, deputy director of the CGS."
In other words, it was a good investment to 'liberate' Tibet in 1950.

Overseas focus remains key for nonferrous metals
2012-07-09 
China Daily
China will accelerate the overseas exploration of nonferrous metals to meet growing domestic demand, senior industry officials said on Friday.
"Chinese companies have accelerated their exploration of overseas nonferrous mining resources in recent years, making the country an important driver of the global nonferrous metals industry's development," said Shang Fushan, vice-chairman of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.
According to the association, China had overseas mining rights for 80 million metric tons of copper, 30 million tons of lead and zinc, and 6 million tons of nickel by the end of last year.
These mining rights have an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons of copper, 35,000 tons of nickel and 900,000 tons of lead and zinc.
"China's rapid urbanization and industrialization will support the growing demand for nonferrous metals," Shang said.
"However, the domestic proven reserves are far from enough to meet the increasing demand."
He called for continued investment in the mining industry to improve the quality of its products and increase the output of copper, aluminum, lead and zinc.
"The nonferrous metals industry is facing severe international competition," said Chen Quanxun, chairman of the association.
"Since the 2008 financial crisis, developed economies are more focused on the real economy (such as manufacturing), which has led to fierce competition in the mining sector."
In 2011, China's overall output of six major nonferrous metals — copper, lead, zinc, nickel, stannum and stibium — was 8.25 million tons, up 18 percent year-on-year. The growth rate was almost double the average annual growth rate of the output of the six nonferrous metals during the 11th Five-Year-Plan (2006-10).
As a new group of mines will be put into production soon, the output of major nonferrous metals products will continue to grow at a rapid pace in the years to come," Shang said.
He said China has formed major resource bases such as those for copper in central area of the Tibet autonomous region, and for nonferrous metals in western Yunnan province, the central-eastern area of Tibet, and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
At present, the recycling of waste materials, also known as tailings, has huge potential in China, especially red mud, barren rocks and mine tailings.
According to an investigation conducted by the association, the total amount of tailings from nonferrous metals mining between 1949 and 2011 reached 3.8 billion tons.
These tailings contain 1.45 million tons of copper, 730,000 tons of stannum, 200,000 tons of wolfram and 3.2 million tons of lead and zinc, which have the potential to be used in many ways, according to the association.

Tibet: the Chinese Eldorado

On July 4, China Tibet Online published an article entitled, Qinghai-Tibet Railway boosts economy.
It quotes from an official of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company: "the annual growth rate of passenger volume reaches 10.3 percent.”
The article further affirms:

The railway has helped Tibet break through the transportation bottleneck that hindered the local economy, according to Bao Chuxiong, general manager of the railway company.

Also, the cost of transportation of both passengers and goods are greatly reduced, allowing for an increasing volume. The cost for per ton-kilometer was reduced from 0.38 RMB to 0.12 RMB.
Statistics indicated that total weight of cargo increased from 24.91million tons in 2006 to 51.64 million tons by the end of 2011, up 15.7 percent annually.
Tourism also benefits from the railway; thirty percent of the total passengers visiting Tibet use the train. The Chinese government expects that by the end of 2015, Tibet will receive 15 million tourists annually while Qinghai will will get 20 millions.

China also announced that its plans to increase the passenger train services from major cities in China to Lhasa. Wang Tao, a spokesman for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Company said that starting July 9, daily trains will start running between Guangzhou, capital of South China's industrial province of Guangdong and Lhasa; Chengdu-Lhasa trains are also scheduled to follow the same schedule in the very near future.
Xinhua quoted railway officials as saying that the train frequency to Lhasa have been increased in order to 'cope with the travel surge' to Tibet.
Statistics released by the railway company in May said that more than 49 million people have travelled on the Gormo-Lhasa railway since the route opened in July 2006.
But more than tourism, mining explains the exponential growth of the Tibet railways. The article of Xinhua reproduced below shows the ‘economic benefits’ of the railway line for the Chinese economy.
One understands why, 62 years ago, Mao decided to ‘liberate’ Tibet.
In a way, he was a visionary; the Great Helmsman understood that if China wanted to become a major economic power, it needed raw materials and water (though water can't be transported by train,it can be diverted).
Where else than Tibet could he find all these precious goods?
Today, China may say that they want to protect the Tibetan plateau's environment, but the fact remains that the underground wealth of the Roof of the World is taken away to the Mainland, for the benefit of the Mainland.
A few days ago, I mentioned another benefit of the railways on this blog: transportation of troops, armament and missiles for the People's Liberation Army. Mao thought of this too.

Multi-metal mine with world-class deposits rises in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
Xinhua
2012-06-29
A multi-metal mine in the birthplace of Tibetan King Songtsen Gampo has the potential to be among the world's 50 biggest mines of its kind by deposits and may generate an annual product value of 4.5 billion yuan (about 712 million U.S. dollars) by the end of 2015, Chinese prospectors have announced.
Medrogungkar county, home to the Jiama Copper Gold Polymetallic Mine, about 68 kilometers from Lhasa, may dethrone Dexing in east China's Jiangxi province to become the country's biggest copper town in 10 years, said Jiang Liangyou, board chairman and Party secretary of the owner of the mine, Tibet Huatailong Mining Development.
The projections were based upon the initial prospecting finished by Huatailong in 2010 within a land area of nine square kilometers, Jiang said. The company's mining permit covers a total area of 144 square kilometers at an altitude of 4,000 to 5,407 meters.
"The prospecting results are subject to independent third-party verification overseas," he said. "If verified, it would propel the mine into its second-phase expansion."
According to the expansion feasibility report that has already been completed, the subsidiary of the China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (TSX:CGG; HK:2099) would expand its daily processing capacity from the current 6,000 tonnes of ore to 40,000 tonnes since the end of 2015 for 70 years.
"Phenomenal changes will be brought to Tibet's economic and social development, because, after the expansion, Jiama Mine may generate tax revenue equivalent to one-sixth of the current fiscal revenue of the government of Tibet autonomous region," said Jiang.
Official statistics show that Tibet took in record-high tax revenue of 9.663 billion yuan in 2011, up 91 percent year on year. Last year, Medrogungkar became the first Tibetan county to rake in tax revenue of more than 200 million yuan. Also last year, Huatailong posted revenues of about 660 million yuan from its main business and 140 million yuan in profits, and the company paid 118 million yuan in taxes.
First-phase production started in July 2010 with a total investment of 3.5 billion yuan, and the largest copper gold polymetallic mine in Tibet specializes in the exploitation and processing of six metals -- namely, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver and molybdenum.

INDUSTRIAL WEATHERVANE
Located within the Gangdise Copper Metallogeny Belt in central Tibet, the Jiama project has been developing amid disputes. Before the mining area was taken over by Huatailong under the state-owned China National Gold Group Corporation (CNGG) in late 2009, a dozen private miners were caught up in a rat race for the rich ore supplies, ignoring their responsibilities to the local community and environment.
Ensuing public complaints forced the regional government to suspend the operations of the private miners, re-examine the local mining industry and seek a proper way to develop Tibet into "a reserve base of strategic resources" as the central government had required in January 2010.
Although nine key mining zones, including Jiama, had been officially designated as such years before, the local mining industry contributed to less than 3 percent of the region's total gross domestic product and was heavily criticized for jeopardizing the ecology and environment of the "roof of the world."
"As the only mining company parented by a centrally-administered enterprise in Tibet, Huatailong has been challenged to lead the industry by the regional government, blazing an appropriate trail to honor its social responsibility in Tibet and bring local residents long-lasting benefits through environmental protection and community-building efforts," said Sun Zhaoxue, general manager of CNGG.
"The answer, in our mind, is to build Jiama into a large,environmentally-friendly mine equipped with leading technologies," he said.

JIAMA MODEL
People have traditionally associated mineral exploitation with pollution and environmental degradation. How far Tibet could go with its mining industry would depend on whether mining companies could strike a balance between instant wealth and sustainable development, corporate profits and benefits for local residents, said Teng Yongqing, general manager of Huatailong.
"If these balances were not achieved, regardless of the rich mineral resources Tibet may boast, turning this region into a reserve base of strategic resources would be just a pipe dream," said Teng.
What Huatailong has been doing in Jiama over the past two years has been summarized as the "Jiama Model" by the Ministry of Land and Resources, and many of its domestic industry peers have visited the place in hopes of learning from Huatailong's experiences.
"The golden rule we have been following here is to always be responsibility-aware and harmony-aware. You can never be careful enough with these issues. We have had bitter lessons," said Teng.
To ease the hostility among local residents, Huatailong spent more than 32 million yuan on land compensations and another 3.5 million yuan to make up for herders' livestock losses at the hands of the former irresponsible miners.
It also invested 19 million yuan to install the Jiama Industry and Trade Company (JITC), a platform specializing in the transportation, green and labor services within the mine, but held only a 51-percent stake. The remaining stake advanced by Huatailong was equally distributed among the 665 local households of Jiama Township who received an aggregate cash bonus of 330,000 yuan the day the platform was put into operation.
In the following two years, these shareholders have shared in year-end dividends of 1 million yuan and 1.18 million yuan, respectively. Moreover, locals enlisted by the JITC can earn 4,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan a month. By contrast, the average per capita annual net income of Tibetan herders was 4,700 yuan in 2011.
Huatailong has also dedicated itself to boosting local employment. About 35 percent of its total employees, or 294 people, are from ethnic minorities, including 253 Tibetans. Jiama Township has become the most wealthy place in Medrogungkar to date.
"Working with Huatailong is an admirable job here. As far as I understand, people admire us for not just the relatively high salaries we earn, but also out of respect because many of them think the company is trustworthy," said Tsering Dekyi, one of the nine locals who graduated from Northeast University with a major in geological surveying and exploitation through Huangtailong's sponsorship.

CHANGING FOR THE PEOPLE
For Han employees, Huatailong has established a number of behavioral taboos. For instance, they are banned from speaking disrespectfully to locals, not fulfilling a promise, shirking their duties, littering and feeling self-important.
Employees are also given regular lessons on local customs and the Tibetan language so they can befriend local residents and offer a hand when the latter is in need.
Knowing the public fears its production might raise dust and damage grasslands, Huatailong modified its infrastructure construction plan and invested 200 million yuan on a 5.5-km-long tunnel to transport minerals through mountains instead of on the ground.
To date, the company has spent 180 million yuan on various environmental protection projects, including water recycling, land reclamation and tailings disposal. This investment is roughly 11.7 percent of its total investment on the Jiama project -- much higher than the national benchmark of 3 percent.
To conserve water and avoid pollution, the project is a zero-discharge site, as flotation tailings are de-hydrated in a press filter facility above the plant and the filtered water is re-circulated into the processing cycle.
To help local residents and livestock tide through dry seasons, the company spent 1.65 million yuan on building a stand-by water cell that draws water from the Lhasa River, and it invested another 3.3 million yuan on water-saving irrigation facilities for farmers.
"Not everyone in the management can speak Tibetan, but we are open to communicating with every resident. They just come and see. If they crack a smile, we see what we value," said Teng Yongqing.
(Writing and reporting by Cheng Yunjie; Xu Lingui, Guo Yaru and Li Hualing also contributed to the story)

Excavating Tibet

This article of Reuters says: "About 8 percent of the investment will be used to foster the development of indigenous industries, including tourism, mining, agriculture and stock-breeding".
Is mining really an 'indigenous industry'? 
No, it is it purely to feed the voracious economic engine of the mainland.
Gold, uranium, copper, rare earths, etc. will all be exported to China, to feed China's economy/ 
The local population will certainly not benefit from the mining industry. The Chinese leadership will then be surprised if more and more resentment is thus created.
Can the new Party boss Chen Quanguo understand this?
It is true that from the time Chen took over his new job, he has refrained from being nasty, like his predecessor Zhang Qingli, but he needs to do more to win the heart of the Tibetan masses.
Famous poetess and blogger Tsering Woeser wrote an article Songtsen Gampo’s Hometown Is About To Be Completely Excavated: 

I went to Gyama in the summer of 2005. I visited the temple to make offerings to the statue of Songtsen Gampo [Thirty-Third King of Tibet] and met with the elderly man who guards the temple. I also went into the nearby village and to the nunnery built on top of the mountain. Those photos were taken during the trip. Recently I heard that the elderly man who guards the temple already passed away. Because of the pollution caused by mining activities, many villagers have fallen ill and because of the 'patriotic education', which is carried out inside temples, in the nunnery, which I had visited, there are only a few nuns left, all others have been driven out…

...Only because Gyama, just like all other places in Tibet, is rich in natural resources, mining companies established at least 6 mining areas in the Gyama district alone many years ago, ruthlessly exploiting copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc, gold, silver etc. This has led to the destruction of the local ecology and brought disaster to local citizens. Since 2007, a gold miner belonging to the National Enterprise and the China Gold Group with an international background has become the new owner of Gyama. They swallowed many mining areas in one go and had Huatailong Mining Development Limited company subordinating to specialise in mining, everyday exploiting an amount of up to 12,000 tons. Today, Gyama has become the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau’s mining pit with the highest daily output. Last month, the Tibet Daily jubilantly praised: “the weekly sales revenue of Jiama’s copper-polymetallic ore has reached 1.1 billion Yuan.

...Songtsen Gampo's hometown has almost been completely excavated by the China Gold Group. In fact, most part of the entire Medro Gongkar County has almost been bought up; even the county government has sold their land to the above company and moved to a different area.  Many local Tibetans say that one might as well just change the name of Medro Gongkar County into Huatailong County and Gyama village into Huatailong village. In actual fact, it isn’t merely one county or one village, in Lhundrup County near Lhasa, every village has been affected by mining, even far in the west, in Ngari,  everywhere is full of mines. The mountains in Dram on the border have been excavated by gold miners; they might soon even start digging up to the side of Nepal.

...In March this year, the high official Jampa Phuntsok said to the media in Beijing: “Tibet is not only the country’s protective screen in terms of ecology and security; it is also the base where the electricity in the western region is to be transported to the eastern area, a base for mining, the centre of diverse natural life and it will even become one of the world’s main tourist destinations.” Being “a base for mining” as he says, clearly reveals that Tibet’s rivers and mountains will be a scenery of destruction in the future. 

Well, if China 'pumps' money in Tibet,it is certainly not for the sake of the Tibetans. Another aspect, not mentioned in Reuters article is that most of the infrastructure created to 'develop' Tibet can also be used by the PLA in case of conflict with its Southern neighbour.

China to pump $47 bln into Tibet to 2015
Wed, Sep 14 2011
BEIJING, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The Chinese government will pump 300 billion yuan ($47 billion) into restive Tibet over the next five years, with 90.5 billion yuan to finance roads, railways, hydropower stations and other infrastructure, state media said on Wednesday.
The 226 projects the money will support are "aimed at achieving rapid development in Tibet", the official Xinhua news agency quoted deputy governor Hao Peng as saying at an internal meeting on Tuesday.
Key transport schemes will include an extension of the railway from regional capital Lhasa to Shigatse, the traditional home of Tibetan Buddhism's second highest figure the Panchen Lama, and highways to the rest of China, the report added.
Other spending will target housing, health care and environmental protection, Xinhua said.
"About 8 percent of the investment will be used to foster the development of indigenous industries, including tourism, mining, agriculture and stockbreeding."
The billions of dollars China has spent in Tibet over the last few years are all aimed at winning hearts and minds in the unstable Himalayan region, and to better integrate it into the rest of the country.
Similar plans have been unveiled for neighbouring Xinjiang, whose Turkic-speaking and Muslim Uighur people have likewise chafed at Chinese rule.
Tibet's economy has grown more quickly than the rest of China, sped by the completion of a railway to Lhasa and large mining projects, though much of Tibet is still remote and very poor.
But those projects have also brought more Chinese migrants to Tibet, leading to many Tibetans' perceptions that they have been left out of economic growth.
Since bloody demonstrations in 2008, the government has boosted training programmes, subsidies and investment there in an implicit recognition of the economic roots to the violence.
China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since Communist troops marched in in 1950. It says its rule has bought much needed development to a poor and feudal region.
Exiles and rights groups accuse China of failing to respect Tibet's unique religion and culture and of suppressing its people. ($1 = 6.399 yuan) (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Afghanistan and China

In early July, at the end of a prestigious career in the French Army, General Vincent Desportes was summoned by his boss, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the French Chief of Defence Staff. Why?
General Desportes, who is presently Director of the Interservice Defence College in France, had dared to speak out what many civilians and defence officials believe. Desportes gave an interview to the daily newspaper Le Monde in which he stated that the conflict in Afghanistan was ‘an American War’. He also said that the sacking of General McChrystal, the Commandant of the NATO forces in Afghanistan should “open a debate on the tactic decided [by President Obama and the NATO]”. For Desportes, the situation on the battle field has never been worse. After explaining that Obama had chosen “a Middle Path which does not work”, he said that it was time to review the NATO strategy.
The Chief of Defence Staff and his Minister, Hervé Morin were not amused. Though General Desportes is due to retire at the end of July, he will probably be punished for telling the truth.
This incident is symptomatic of the feelings not just in France, but in most NATO nations (including in the United States as witnessed in l’Affaire McChrystal). The main French survey organization IFOP has recently found that 70% of the population is “opposed to the French military intervention in Afghanistan”.
Let us not fool ourselves. In the past, great empires have rarely been built for philanthropic reasons. The British did not ‘civilize’ the Indian subcontinent for the good of the natives, ditto for the French in Africa. The ‘colonized’ countries happened to be rich in raw materials direly required to feed the economic engine of the paramount powers.
The recent happenings in Afghanistan seem to follow the same pattern.
For the past nine years, we have heard of the war against terror forcing more than a lakh of American (and NATO) jawans to risk their lives in the far-away Central Asian land to fight for the good of humanity and destroy asuric Talibans roaming around the country.
Remember. A month after the tragedy of 9/11, the United States, supported by several other countries from the NATO alliance, began bombing the Talibans (more nebulously known as Al Qaeda). The military operations’ objective was to grab the power out of fundamentalist hands and prevent the use of Afghanistan’s territory as a terrorist base. At the same time, nobody in Washington thought that ‘terrorism’ could also have some roots in Afghanistan’s neighbouring country, Pakistan was THE ally par excellence.
Eventually, the Taliban regime of Mollah Omar fell and the NATO forces started to ‘control’ the country. Till then, things were still simple to understand. Unfortunately nine years later, ‘control’ is still missing.
But there is now a new angle to the Afghan imbroglio.
Washington disclosed that its surveyors have discovered more than one $1 trillion worth of in mineral deposits in Afghanistan. The New York Times noted: “it is far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself.”
Gen. David H. Petraeus, commanding the United States Forces declared: “There is stunning potential here …There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
Not surprisingly, one of the first countries to react was China. Xinhua commented on the Pentagon announcement: “it may function as a double-edged sword for the Central Asian country, and it will likely justify continuous US engagement in Afghanistan's rebuilding process.”
Xinhua quotes Wu Dahui, a scholar with the Institute of Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who believes that “Washington has insisted that the stability of Afghanistan relies on its economic rebuilding. The announcement was timed to prove that the US can gain strategically from its involvement in rebuilding the war-torn country. The resources in Afghanistan would feed the US' demand to boost its economy.”
The Chinese themselves are interested to get a share of the cake. In April, Christian Le Mière, the Editor of Jane's Intelligence Review in Foreign Affairs put it thus: “The possibility of cheap resources on its border is of significant interest to Beijing. China has already made the largest single foreign direct investment in Afghanistan: $3.5 billion in the Aynak copper field in Logar province.”
Beijing knows that the Americans and their NATO partners will start withdrawing one day or another. Though China does not want to interfere in the ‘security aspect’, the leadership in Beijing is aware that there is a place to take in the future economy of the country.
The security angle is however not completely negligible, as the leadership in Beijing would not like to see its Western provinces, particularly the restive Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), destabilized.
It was one good reason for President Hamid Karzai to visit China in March 2010. It was his fourth trip to China as President and according to analysts a sign that Kabul has wanted to diversify its patrons and not bank entirely on the US. At the same Time, Beijing is interested by the raw materials in Afghanistan.
In January 2010, Russell Hsiao and Glen E. Howard in The China Brief of the Jamestown Institute mentioned some Chinese moves in the strategic Wakan Corridor: “A recent Chinese report has shed light on three major Chinese developments along the Wakhan Corridor that reportedly began in 2009, which highlight preparations in regional infrastructure along that border.”
The report speaks of a 75 kilometers-long road, extending up to 10 kilometers from the China-Afghanistan border. The road, built by the Chinese Ministry of Defense is badly needed for the transportation of military supplies to Chinese frontier guards. Further, the Chinese have constructed a supply depot to improve the “food quality standard for the police forces”.
The third development is a mobile communications center which would permit the operation of mobile devices along the border. Earlier border troops had to depend on satellite communications. Russell Hsiao agrees that China is not ready to play a ‘strategic’ or military role in Afghanistan.
With the ‘discovery’ that Afghanistan is a rich country (not only for its poppies), cynicism is bound to increase. Many believe that we are witnessing the beginning of a new Great Game, as during the 19th century.
One could ask: where does India fit in this new political and economic order?
Unfortunately, Delhi has a big problem. Were India to get a stake in the minerals, how to bring the raw materials back home? While China may use the Wakhan corridor in the years to come, India has no land route to exploit the mineral-rich Afghanistan. Technically, Indian companies like Arcelor-Mittal or Vedanta could have a chance, for example when the bid for Hajigak iron ore mines opens up, but Pakistan will certainly not allow raw materials to transit through its territory.
The other road through Iran is also doubtful in view of the new UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Manmohan Singh would certainly not like to antagonize his American friends.
For the near future, the Chinese are bound to win the raw materials market in Afghanistan. While the NATO forces are fighting an unwinnable war, Beijing has quietly started tapping the wealth of the country. India may be highly considered by the people of Afghanistan, but in the end China is better prepared and one point is sure, Beijing will put pressure on its all-weather friend, Pakistan not to allow India around.
The recent international conference in Kabul did not alter these basic facts.

Bad news: more mining in Tibet

According to some news agency reports, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced that China had surpassed the United States to become the world's top energy consumer. Though Beijing called it an 'unreliable' data, The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal cited a top IEA official as saying the Asian giant had taken over the top spot in 2009, earlier than expected.
According to the IEA, China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent of energy in 2009, from sources that included coal, nuclear power, natural gas and hydroelectric power -- about four percent more than the United States.  
The Chinese ogre is bound to use more and more the resources 'at home' (read in Tibet). It is bad news for the Tibetans. Today, Xinhua published the following article.

 
China National Gold's Tibet mining project begins production
Xinhua
2010-07-20
China National Gold Group (CNGG) said Monday the first phase of its Gyama polymetallic mine in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, began production Monday, giving a boost to economic development in the mineral-rich region.
Located in Meldro Gungkar County, the first phase of the project has an expected daily output of 6,000 tonnes.
CNNG subsidiary Tibet Huatailong Mining Development Co. started construction on the 8 billion yuan (1.18 billion U.S. dollars) project in 2008.
The mine will eventually have a daily output of 15,000 tonnes, but the company did not say when that will be.
The company will pay up to 700 million yuan per year in taxes once the whole project is operational, according to the company.
Hao Peng, deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party regional committee in Tibet, said the project will promote economic development in Tibet and help meet China's soaring demand for non-ferrous metals.
Sun Zhaoxue, CNGG general manager, said the company invested 250 million yuan in work safety and environmental protection for the project.
CNGG, China's largest gold producer, has more than 1,300 tonnes of gold reserves, 8 million tonnes of copper reserves and 1.2 million tonnes of molybdenum reserves.