A military parade and fireworks mark 50 years of the Beijing-controlled autonomous region. For Tibet’s exiled prime minister, this has brought stifling controls and no freedom to Tibetans.

Lhasa (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Schoolchildren waved flags and paramilitary troops marched in full battle dress as China staged a mass rally (with fireworks) in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to mark 50 years since the Himalayan nation became an “autonomous region” under Beijing’s tight control.

Organisers used the occasion to praise Tibet’s economic successes under Communist Party rule, and emphasised the “unity” between indigenous Tibetans and ethnic Han settlers, most of whom are recent arrivals, part of Beijing’s plan to colonise Tibet by changings its ethnic makeup.

“During the past 50 years the Chinese Communist Party and the Tibetan people have led the transformation from a backward old Tibet to a vibrant socialist new Tibet,” said top political adviser Yu Zhengsheng in his address in front of a crowd of thousands gathered in front of the Potala Palace museum in Lhasa.

For Tibet’s exiled Dalai Lama and the country’s exiled prime minister, Lobsang Sangay, there was nothing to celebrate in Tibet for Tibetans who are still subject to occupation and brutal repression.

Using state-of-the art surveillance technology, the authorities closely Tibetans movements and actions. “Such restrictions are unthinkable for a citizen of a free country like India but in Tibet, it is considered the norm,” Sangay explained.

Turning to China’s clampdown on religious freedom in Tibet, the prime minister said that a Tibetan would be arrested and badly tortured, and his family deprived of government jobs and subsidies, if he or she were to be found in possession of the Dalai Lama’s picture. The same goes for the family of self-immolators.

• tibet
• occupation
• chinese
• colonisation
• autonomous
• region
• bantustan