China is set to build a rail link connecting Xinjiang province with Tibet, part of which will run near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India.
At least 67 people were killed and hundreds injured as a strong earthquake of 7.1 magnitude struck northwest China's remote Qinghai province early on Wednesday, the state media reported.The quake hit the Yushu County in Yushu prefecture at 7:49 am (local time) with a depth of about 33 km, the Xinhua news agency reported.The epicentre of the tremor was calculated to be 33.1 north and 96.7 east, the China Earthquake Network Centre said.
A massive earthquake in a remote northwestern Chinese province killed 589 people and injured 10,000, as thousands still lay buried under flattened buildings, and soldiers and civilians joined efforts to save lives.
These war games are said to be in response to India's augmenting its border defences along the Chinese border. The Chinese have been perturbed with India's plan's to reactivate a forward air base at Noyoma in Ladakh.
The Chinese army conducted its first live fire drills involving both army and air force on the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau, The South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday. These war games are said to be in response to India's augmenting its border defences along the Chinese border. The Chinese have been perturbed with India's plan's to reactivate a forward air base at Noyoma in Ladakh.
Another Tibetan died after setting himself on fire in northwest China's Qinghai province, in the latest self-immolation to protest China's rule. Dazheng, 19, set himself ablaze on Friday night in the Dageri Village of Zekog County in the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
In the first major anti-Beijing protests by Tibetans after the Lhasa riots, hundreds of people from the community attacked a police station and government officials in northwest China, leading to arrests of nearly 100 pro-Dalai Lama monks, authorities said on Sunday.
A Tibetan man died on Friday after setting himself on fire, the latest in a series of anti-government suicide protests in China's Tibetan autonomous prefecture.
Local officials said no casualties have been reported due to Wednesday's quake that hit the Madoi County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province of northwest China at 3:44 pm (Beijing time), tremors for which were also felt in north-eastern Nepal.
'Tibetans will participate in future conflicts with India (in all probability, some were already present in Galwan).' 'As nobody in India would like to have a deadly fight with Tibetan soldiers and officers, the issue needs to be closely followed,' observes Claude Arpi.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
A Tibetan teenager on Thursday committed self-immolation even as China unveiled its once-in-a decade new leadership, led by Xi Jinping, to rule the country. This is the ninth suicide to have taken place since the week-long 18th Communist Party Congress started its session to elect its new leader on November 8.
Stepping up its crackdown against self-immolation protests in Tibet, China has detained 70 suspects for a string of suicides in November last year, coinciding with the once-in-a-decade leadership change in China's ruling Communist Party.
China on Friday operationalised its first fully electrified bullet train in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet, connecting the provincial capital Lhasa and Nyingchi, a strategically located Tibetan border town close to Arunachal Pradesh.
Wang Junzheng, Tibet's new Communist party boss, is on a number of sanctions lists by the US, Britain, the EU and Canada, for his tough role in Xinjiang, aimed at China's Uyghur ethnic minority, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
The situation in Tibet has turned grim with four more Tibetans, including a nun committed self-immolation in the last two days, taking the toll in the restive Himalayan region to 23 this month, increasing pressure on China's new leadership to resolve the vexed Tibet issue.
Tibetans agitating for the return of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama continued to put pressure on China's new leadership with two more protesters burning themselves to death on Tuesday, taking the number of self-immolation attempts to over 80 in recent months.
China on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on the Dalai Lama, terming him the "hatchet man of anti-China forces" and calling the recent spate of suicides by Tibetan monks and nuns as an orchestrated attempt to create chaos.
It would also be the world's highest and one of China's biggest-ever engineering projects.
'Lhasa is more than the Unesco World Heritage Sites it boasts of. It is more than a gateway to the mighty Himalayas.' 'It is about the warmth of its people: Unsaid, unspoken, but felt everywhere,' discovers Shruti Bajpai.
China plans to build a 540-kilometre strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mount Everest, a move that could raise alarm in India about the Communist giant's growing influence in its neighbourhood.
Why is China's supreme leader promoting Han Chauvinism so aggressively, asks Claude Arpi.
The new height is 86 cms more than the previous measurement.
An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale struck the remote Qinghai Province in northwest China at 9:52 am local time on Friday, the China Earthquake Administration said, but no casualties have been reported, as reported by Xinhua news ageny.
Chinese rescuers raced against time to save hundreds of people buried under the rubble three days after the devastating earthquake flattened the remote Tibetan dominated Qinghai province as the toll mounted to 800.
Important for India was Xi's meeting with representatives of PLA officers and soldiers stationed in Tibet. The video of the encounter was interesting to watch, especially the large number of lieutenant generals and major generals, observes Claude Arpi.
Five days after the devastating earthquake in northwestern China, rescuers on Monday pulled out a four-year-old girl and an elderly Tibetan woman alive under the rubble of a collapsed building, even as the death toll rose to 1,944.
"There will be new schools! There will be new homes!," wrote Chinese President Hu Jintao on the blackboard of a makeshift classroom in Qinghai, as he visited the quake-devastated region where the death toll in last week's 7.1 temblor mounted to 1,706 on Sunday.
Nearly two decades ago, then defence minister George Fernandes said: 'China has built roads up to the border, while there has been negligence on India's part.' Since Fernandes uttered these brave words, what has been done on the Indian side? The Modi Sarkar is apparently trying, but little has been achieved so far, says Claude Arpi.
China is worried about the situation post the Dalai Lama and that his reincarnation could surface in Arunchal Pradesh, a region it claims as its own, but which is part of the Indian Republic, says former RA&W Additional Secretary Jayadeva Ranade.
The seventh Tibet Work Forum was held in Beijing on August 28 and 29. Delhi should be deeply concerned, at a time India faces a precarious situation in Ladakh, because the TWF also defines China's western border policies, observes Claude Arpi.
The Chinese authorities have been rapidly building defence infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control, indicating that they are preparing for a long period of tension with India, points out Jayadeva Ranade, the former senior RA&W officer and China expert.
China on Tuesday said that the Dalai Lama can improve ties with it only by giving up wish for Tibetan independence and publicly announcing that Tibet is an inalienable part of the country.
National security, consolidation of border defences and border security highlights China's Tibet policy, points out Jayadeva Ranade, the former senior RA&W officer and China expert.
China on Friday inaugurated its second railway line in Tibet, built at a cost of $2.16 billion, close to Indian border in Sikkim, enhancing mobility of its military in the remote and strategic Himalayan region.
'While wishing the Tibetan leader a long and healthy life, one can hope for a 'selection' of the Tibetan leader in the Indian Himalayas.' 'It is vital for Tibetan Buddhism, but it is also in India's political interests,' says Claude Arpi.
China's ruling Communist Party has cracked down on Tibetans who planned to attend the Kalachakra Puja in Bodh Gaya. But the Tibetan people have dared the Communists by listening to the Dalai Lama's sermons on the Internet and sharing videos on social media.
'Why assail the Tibetan leader at a time when many in China realise that the Buddhist monk is the best bet if Beijing is seriously trying to find a solution to the Tibetan issue?' asks Claude Arpi.
China is spending billions of dollars to improve infrastructure in Tibet and other parts of its border with India. Claude Arpi explains why New Delhi can't afford to ignore Beijing's plans.
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