What's Really Behind the Tibet Riots?

Robert Hsu, April 29, 2008

Over the past few weeks, the global media has been plastered with headlines and articles about the riots in Tibet and Beijing's response to these riots. People around the world have taken a personal interest in the situation. Countries have gone so far as to threaten boycotting the Beijing Olympics. And protestors have plagued the torch relay across the globe, attempting to extinguish the flame.

With the Tibet riots attracting a lot of attention in the past month, I've received some questions regarding the situation and its impact on China. To help you better understand what is happening, why it is occurring and how it's affecting China, I'm going to share my views on the Tibet riots from mid-March.

To understand what's happening in Tibet today, you first need to know a little bit about Tibet and China's history. So let's take a step back in time to where all the troubles between the two originated.

For 180 years, the Chinese military effectively controlled Tibet. But in 1904, the British intervened, and with the Chinese influence weakened, Tibet declared independence. Then in 1950, Mao Zedong ordered Chinese troops to invade Tibet and reclaim what Beijing believed to be China's rightful territory. Following the invasion, China and Tibet signed a treaty establishing China's sovereignty over Tibet.

Since then, the Chinese government has partnered with members of the Tibetan elite to manage the remote territory. And as the economic growth in China took flight in recent years, the Chinese invested heavily -- billions of dollars -- in Tibet to stimulate the region's economy.

Despite China's investment in the region, there is still wide resentment among the poor Tibetans due to the economic disparity between the elite -- comprised of enterprising Chinese migrants and upper-class Tibetans -- and the impoverished masses. With the billions of dollars that China has flooded into Tibet over the past decade, many upper-class Tibetans and Chinese migrant entrepreneurs prospered greatly. The majority of Tibetans, however, were left out of the economic prosperity.

The Tibet economy has grown around 12% per year for the past seven years. But due to the region's harsh environment and weak economy, Tibet is still one of the most underdeveloped regions in China. So even though Tibet's economy is growing, most Tibetans, outside of the elite ruling class, are still very poor.

China's high inflation rate, which clocked in at 8.3% in March, is only adding to the poor Tibetans' troubles. With the prices of wheat, rice and soybeans more than doubling in the past year, the poorest segment of the world's population is really at a disadvantage. And due to this inflation, the poor in Tibet harbored resentment against well-to-do Tibetans as well as the enterprising Chinese who benefited from Tibet's economic progress.

Like everyone else, Tibetans just want better lives. So as the higher cost of living squeezed the Tibetan poor, the resentment that they'd been harboring towards the upper class and China finally spun out of control. The Tibetan riots started on March 10 when a small group of Buddhist monks in Tibet's capital of Lhasa protested against Chinese rule. After four days, the number of protesters grew sharply, and that's when the masses turned violent.

During the riots, Tibetan monks and civilians alike burned down shops, vandalized properties and caused significant damage. Following the riot in Lhasa, many additional small-scale Tibetan protests broke out in other parts of poverty-stricken Western China.

With the riots spreading and turning violent, the Chinese government sent the police force and military troops to keep the situation under control. Both sides suffered casualties in the process. And in an attempt to regain control and put an end to the riots, over 1,000 Tibetans associated with the protests were arrested.

As you know, the media has played the situation from every angle -- except the right one. The Chinese media claimed that only a few individuals were hurt during the riots, and that the most of the injured were Chinese policemen. On the other hand, the Tibetan side reported that hundreds of Tibetan protesters were killed, and the protests were peaceful. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Unfortunately, because of Tibet's unique political and cultural situation, many outside observers overlooked what Tibetans are really fighting for and focused on secondary issues, such as religious and cultural conflicts.

Personally, I believe that the primary cause of the riots in Tibet was more about economic disparity, than human rights or religious persecution. The thing you have to understand is that although energy and other raw material prices have increased dramatically for years, it is easier for people to adjust to $120 per barrel of oil than $12 per bushel of wheat. People can alter their energy consumption by using public transportation, but there is no adjusting for higher food costs -- they still need to eat. As the prices of grains and meats continue to move higher, there will probably be more social disturbances from poor regions throughout the world.

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