Hu hails institute for churning out Tibetan cadres, specialists

XIANYANG—President Hu Jintao has written to the Tibet Nationalities Institute (TNI) to celebrate its 50th founding anniversary, which was the first institution of higher learning for ethnic Tibetans set up by the Central Government outside Tibet Autonomous Region.
Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, hailed the institute's "important contribution to the economic development and social progress" of Tibet, which has turned a great number of ethnic Tibetans into high-quality cadres and specialists.
Hu expressed the hope that the TNI would continuously improve its managerial level in teaching, play a better role as the training base for Tibetan cadres, and make greater contributions to improving the life of people of different ethnic groups in Tibet and promoting stability and unity in the region.
A ceremony was held on Sunday at the TNI in Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, northwest China. Raidi, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, who is an ethnic Tibetan and a former leader of Tibet Autonomous Region, attended the celebration.
China issued a white paper on Thursday to acquaint the world with its efforts on the protection and development of Tibetan culture, refuting the charge of the so-called "cultural genocide" in Tibet. It is "published to give the international community a better understanding of the reality of the protection and development of Tibetan culture" and "to further the protection and development of Tibetan culture", the white paper on Protection and Development of Tibetan Culture said. The white paper consists of six parts, "Foreword", "Learning, Use and Development of the Spoken and Written Tibetan Languages", "Inheritance, Protection and Promotion of the Tibetan Cultural Heritage", "Religious Beliefs and Native Customs Respected", "All-round Development of Modern Science, Education and the Media" and "Conclusion".
It is "citing facts to expose the lie about the 'cultural genocide' in Tibet fabricated by the 14th Dalai Lama and his cohorts", and "exposing the deceptive nature of the 'cultural autonomy of Tibet' they clamor for". Over the past half century, and especially since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policies in 1978, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the protection and development of Tibetan culture, it said.
"With great enthusiasm and a highly responsible attitude... the Chinese government has dedicated a large amount of manpower, materials and funds to the protection and promotion of fine traditional Tibetan culture, and vigorously developed modern scientific, educational and cultural undertakings in Tibet, bringing about unprecedented protection and development of Tibetan culture," it stated. "Dalai Lama and his clique and the anti-China forces in the West conspire to force the Tibetan ethnic group and its culture to stagnate and remain in a state similar to the Middle Ages, in effect to become living fossils, while they themselves enjoy the fruits of modern civilization and culture," said the white paper released by the Information Office of the State Council, which is the seventh of its kind on Tibet.
Tibetan culture is a lustrous pearl of Chinese culture as well as a precious part of world culture, it said. "The Tibetan people have developed their culture by means of interaction ad fusion with other cultures, especially that of the Han people. Over the centuries, Tibetan culture has remained a spiritual pillar for the Tibetan ethnic group," it said. Before 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama monopolized both political and religious power. The serf owners, accounting for less than five percent of the total population of old Tibet, possessed all the means of production and cultural and educational resources in Tibet, monopolizing the material and cultural wealth of the region.

—Xinhua