Beijing on building spree in Tibet amid tension with India

Beijing, September 4

China is planning more than 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) to accelerate infrastructure investment in Tibet, including new and previously announced projects, sources said.

‘Will sanction Chinese officials, if elected’

Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said that if elected, his administration would sanction Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet. He said he would step up support for the people of the region and expand the Tibetan language services at Radio Free Asia and Voice of America. “It will help get information from the outside world into Tibet,” Biden said. He vowed that as the President, he would meet with the Dalai Lama. PTI

The renewed push to step up development of the remote and impoverished southwestern region signals Beijing’s intent to bolster frontier security amid heightened border tensions with India in recent months, they said.

Earth-shaking changes under CPC: Xi

Beijing: President Xi Jinping put up a strong defence of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), saying the country has witnessed “earth-shaking changes” under its leadership, amid strident criticism, especially from the US, that it pursued a totalitarian ideology. PTI

Last week, during a senior Communist Party meeting on Tibet’s future governance, President Xi Jinping had lauded achievements of frontline officials while also asserting that more efforts were needed to enrich, rejuvenate and strengthen unity in the region. He had said that a number of major infrastructure projects and public facilities would be completed soon, including the Sichuan-Tibet Railway.

‘Malaysia won’t extradite Uighurs to China’

Kuala Lumpur: Minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department, Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof, has said that the country will not entertain requests to extradite ethnic Uighur refugees to China and will allow them safe passage to a third country should they feel their safety is at risk. Reuters

The construction plans include completion of the challenging middle section of a high-elevation Sichuan-Tibet railway link, a railway line between Nepal and Tibet that has remained in the planning stages, and a newly planned dry port in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the sources said.

It was not immediately clear how much of the targeted spending is new, or over how many years it would be invested. — Reuters