China orders resettlement of thousands of Tibetans

[EV_Ares]

By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers

Bernardo De Niz/MCT
Rays of light bathe a monk at the Sera Monastery outside Lhasa, Tibet
Audio | Narrated slide show - 2:21minutes
Blog | China Rises: Notes from the Middle Kingdom

ZENGSHOL, Tibet - In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans - nearly one-tenth of the population - from scattered rural hamlets to new "socialist villages," ordering them to build new housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.
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NOTE: This makes me think of some of the labels the Bush Admin has given to some of their programs...


The government calls the year-old project the "comfortable housing program," and its stated aim is to present a more modern face for this ancient region, which China has controlled since 1950.

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It claims that the new housing on main roads, sometimes only a mile from previous homes, will enable small farmers and herders to have access to schools and jobs, as well as better health care and hygiene.

Entire article @ link below:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/17185682.htm

[Nikki Stone1]

1. The "comfortable housing program"? Is that like "Clear Skies"?

If there was any truer gauge that democracy is dead....

[Selatius]

2. It's a form of slow ethnic cleansing of the land.

They've been settling millions of Han Chinese into the region for decades now in an attempt to submerge the culture of the land with Chinese culture. This is old-school colonialism.

[BearSquirrel2]

3. I do love the excuse ...

It does make me chuckle everytime some China apologists talks about their need to defend against invasion via the Himalayas.