Book review
Tibet Press Watch
July 1995

This book comes closer to a scholarly work than most of the official publications on Tibet. Although the book has faithfully followed the official party line on the Tibet issue, it has some frank discussions on sen-sitive issues, and provides some fresh ideas which only the new generation of Chinese scholars would dare to raise.

The author, Dr. Zhang Zhirong, a young scholar and an assistant professor at the Peking Uni-versity, has authored several books. Dr. Zhang is currently working and teaching in China and is considered a rising Tibet expert.

Interestingly, Dr. Zhang's professor when he was a Ph.D. candidate in Peking University, Prof. Yang Gongsu, was a career diplomat and before serving as Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Vietnam and Greece, he was stationed in Tibet for several years and became the first chief of Foreign Affairs Bureau of the TAR Preparatory Committee in 1956. Prof. Yang has been very active in recent years in China's combat against "foreign interference" in Tibetan affairs. Contemporary Tibet Issue is written "under direct instructions" of Mr. Yang as Dr. Zhang states in his acknowledgment. In the introduction, however, after repeating his usual claims of China's sovereignty over Tibet and after criticizing the Dalai Lama's advocation for Tibetan independence, Prof. Yang makes an in-teresting departure when he writes, "Although the Dalai is the supreme political leader of the exiled move-ment, he is nevertheless different from the 'Exiled Clique', even more different from the radical factions represented by the Tibetan Youth Congress and others. As one of the top leaders of Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai's religious thinking contains many shining points...The Dalai also firmly opposes violence and is trying to solve the Tibet problem through peaceful negotiations with the Central government. These ideas are certainly constructive".

The book dwells extensively on the Tibetan exile movement, the Tibetan government-in-exile, the Tibetan Youth Congress, the internationalization of the Tibetan independence movement, the Dalai Lama's "Five Point Peace Plan", "Strasbourg Proposal", the "International Year of Tibet", and so on. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is also discussed in the book. ICT is described as a "rather successful public interest group" established in the US by the exiled movement. The achievements of the ICT cited in the book include the establishment of the VOA's Tibetan service, Tibetan immigration to the US and providing Fulbright Scholarship to exiled students.

One interesting development in recent years is the close attention that Chinese officials and scholars are paying to the Tibetan call for "National self-determination", and this book dedicates an entire chapter to the issue. It appears the Chinese feel more threatened when Tibetans begin to apply the principle of self-determination to their struggle. Self-determination is described by the author as a new strat-egy adopted by Tibetans to achieve independence.

The author tries to provide a solution to the Tibet problem. He compared his solution with two other solutions suggested by two Western scholars - Dr. Michael van Walt and Dr. Melvyn Goldstein. Van Walt's solution, according to the author, is a "three step resolution" leading from autonomy to semi-independence and finally to total independence. "This solution", Dr. Zhang says, "is almost identical to the Dalai Lama's Five Point Peace Plan and Strasbourg Pro-posal, therefore it is not acceptable to the Chinese government".

The author contends that Goldstein's solution, an "Ethnic So-lution" which advocates Tibet's eth-nic and culture autonomy without altering the fundamental political structure, is surprisingly similar to the Chinese solution of "ethnic regional autonomy." He goes on to say that "Although Goldstein does not use official Chinese rhetoric, he is basically in agreement with China's reform policy in Tibet, particularly those policy carried in nomadic ar-eas." The author says that Goldstein's solution is therefore more acceptable because it is similar to China's own policy.

The author offers his own solution in the form of "Ethnic Regional Autonomy." He asserts that this is the only solution Tibet can have.

The book's most interesting portion comes in the form of the authors concluding statement where he says, " China-Tibet secret talks have been ongoing for more than ten years without any result. If both sides refuse to make any major concessions, it is unlikely that no progress will be made even in the next ten years. Hopefully the two sides will make some concessions on the pre-conditions of the negotiation. Particularly, the Chinese government should guarantee the high degree of Tibet's autonomy and its full implementation, only by doing so the Dalai Lama might be able to get rid of the shadows of the exiled life since 1959, and return to China's national regional autonomy".

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