By Claude Arpi
29 Aug , 2016
Between two swims at the beach resort of Beidaihe, the top Communist leadership undertook a first round of reshuffles in the provinces.
Tibet has now a new boss, Wu Yingjie, 59.
Wu is the longest serving Chinese officer on the Roof of the World. He has been around for more than 40 years. Till yesterday’s he was deputy party secretary (a post that he has been occupying since 2011).
The interesting aspect of the reshufle is that Wu supersedes two Tibetans (Pema Choeling, Chairman of the Regional Congress and Lobsang Gyaltsen, the head of the Tibetan Autonomous Region’s government).
But let us remember that the Communist Party follows a very strict rule, no Tibetan for the top slot.
By appointed Wu, the leadership in Beihaide has obviously played it safe, as he is not a controversial figure and has a long experience in Tibet (mainly in education).
Wu’s predecessor, Chen Quanguo, 61, is expected to become Xinjiang’s party secretary replacing Zhang Chunxian, who according to The South China Morning Post ”will be reassigned to a semi-retired role similar to that of his predecessor in Xinjiang, Wang Lequan.”
The Hong Kong paper says that China’s leadership reshuffle “in line with Xi’s plan to promote reformists.”
Other changes
Hunan party chief Xu Shousheng, 63, has been replaced by his deputy and governor, Du Jiahao, 61. Vice-minister of industry Xu Dazhe was named as Hunan deputy party chief.
Yunnan governor Chen Hao, 62, was promoted to replace the province’s party chief, Li Jiheng, 59.
Another change, Li Xiaopeng, son of former Premier Li Peng, will succeed Yang Chuantang as the transport minister.
Li Xiaopeng was Shanxi provincial governor.
As mentioned earlier on this blog, Yang Chuantang, a member of the Central Committee is an old Tibet hand. A native of Yucheng, Shandong province, he started working in June 1972 and he joined the CPC in June 1976. In 1993, Yang was transferred to Tibet, where he held the position of administrative vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government. He was elected vice-governor of Qinghai province in 2003. In 2004, he became party secretary. Two years later, he was transferred to Beijing where from 2006 to 2011, he served as Vice-Chairman of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission.
No new posting (or ‘demoting’) has been announced for Yang so far.
After the next round of swim?
Wu Yingjie (Chinese: 吴英杰) is born in December 1956 in Changyi County, Shandong province.
He arrived in Nyingchi, Tibet, in October 1974 at the end of the Cultural Revolution.
In 1977 he began working for a power generation station in the western suburbs of Lhasa.
In August 1983 he joined the TAR’s department of education where he worked for the next two decades.
In 1987 he began overseeing elementary and secondary education.
In 1990, he was put in charge of accepting donations of educational resources from other parts of the country.
In 1994 he joined the Autonomous Region Education Commission, rising to deputy secretary in May 1998.
In March 2000 he was named deputy head of the education department, then promoted to head in 2000.
In January 2003, Wu was named Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region;
In June 2005 he took on the regional propaganda portfolio, and joined the regional party standing committee next month.
In November 2006 he became Executive Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In November 2011 he was named deputy regional party chief.
In April 2013 he was named executive deputy party chief.
In August 2016, he became the Communist Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
I repost here an old piece on Wu
The Most Amazing Photo of the Year
As 2013 ends, it is time to distribute awards for the past year.
The Award for the Most Amazing Photo (which was went unnoticed by the French and Western press) is a picture of the senior Chinese Han cadre, Wu Yingjie offering a Tibetan katha (ceremonial scarf) and a thanka (scrolled painting) of Goddess Dolma (Green Tara) to a gullible Member of the French Parliament.
Wu Yingjie was heading a ‘Tibetan’ Han delegation from China’s National People’s Congress to Spain and France.
Wu is also Vice Executive Secretary of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and has become famous for spending months (without any tangligle results) in the restive Nagchu Prefecture of the TAR.
The French parliamentarian, Alain Rodet is the deputy (and mayor) of Limoges from the Socialist Party. Rodet is also Vice-president of France-China Friendship Group in the French National Assembly.
The duo met in Paris on December 17.
China Tibet Online reported: “After briefing French friends [about] the religious policies and conservation status of Tibetan culture, Wu detailed them the great changes in Tibet since its peaceful liberation carried out and the life of local residents who have the biggest voice on the real Tibet.
Wu also wished more French friends could pay a visit to Tibet.”
Mr. Wu just forgot to speak the situation in Nagchu. I often wrote about Mr. Wu’s activities in Nagchu Prefecture on this blog.
I can bet that Monsieur Rodet has never heard of Nagchu and Driru.
But the good deputy will probably soon rewarded a free jaunt to the Middle Kingdom where he will be lavishly received. Having received Wu in the National Assembly should be reciprocated and not asking embarrassing questions to a foreign host too.
A hard core Han Communist cadre distributing a thanka of Tara, considered by all the Tibetans as the Mother of the Tibetan Nation, is a novelty.
This justifies the Award of the Most Amazing Photo of the Year.
Second Prize
A Second Prize to Le Louvre Museum for their knowledge of Tibetan painting.
The Chinese media announced that Han Shuli, ‘a famous Tibetan artist’ has earned rave reviews and won silver award in the 2013 Louvre International Art Exhibition with his work ‘Foresight’.
Han Shuli, is the president of the Tibet Art Association.
The 2013 Louvre International Art Exhibition was held in the Louvre Museum in Paris between December 11 and 15.
Some 500 artists from over 10 countries participated in the contest.
The ‘Tibetan’ Han Shuli explained that his ‘Foresight portrait’ depicts “a goshawk perched high on the Marnyi stone”.
One can presume that this ‘Marnyi stone’ is a sinization of ‘Mani stone’ on which the six-syllabled Tibetan mantra ‘ of Avalokiteshvara (Om mani padme hum) is engraved.
Han said that his black ink and wash painting has benefited from the Tibetan black thangka and the wall painting in the temples of Tibet, while ‘integrating some representative elements of the central plain [Chinese] culture’.
For Han, his masterpiece ‘Foresight’ expresses blessing and rosy prospect for Tibet and the whole country.
Where is Tibet in Mr. Han’s piece is not clear.
Anyway, Mr. Han is said to have brought fame to ‘Tibet’.
© Copyright 2016 Indian Defence Review
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