Table Of ContentRongxing Guo
China’s
Regional
Development
and Tibet
China’s Regional Development and Tibet
Rongxing Guo
China’s Regional
Development and Tibet
1 3
Rongxing Guo
Regional Science Association
Peking University
Beijing
China
ISBN 978-981-287-956-1 ISBN 978-981-287-958-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-958-5
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To commemorate my mother, whose smile
has never disappeared from my mind in the
past 10 years
Preface
Throughout history race, ethnicity, language, and religion have divided states into
separate political entities as much as physical terrain, political fiat, or conquest. In
China most provinces (or autonomous regions and municipalities directly under
the central government) are on a size and scale equivalent to a European country
in population and land area. They are considerably political and economical sys-
tems in their own right. The differences between these provinces have long been
a defining characteristic of China’s politics. In China, culture is not homogeneous
across provinces; and many ethnic groups also have their own languages and reli-
gions. All of these imply that it is unlikely to enhance the chances of the adoption
of a common standard among different groups of peoples.
In February 2013, when I conducted a quantitative analysis of the driving
forces behind China’s interprovincial (dis)integration, I found two strange results.
The first one relates to the negative effect of distance-related transactions costs
on interprovincial trade which tends to rise over time from 2000 to 2010, while
the second one concerns the different roles that some non-Han ethnic groups have
played in China’s interprovincial relations. As for the latter, the Tibetan and 11
other ethnic groups, unlike the Uyghur and six other ethnic groups (each of which
tends to contribute to China’s interprovincial integration), are found to have con-
tributed to China’s spatial integration (Guo 2016). The first finding is unusual, as it
doesn’t reflect China’s considerable improvement in transport infrastructures dur-
ing the past decades; neither does it conform to the general dynamic pattern of
international trade. More unusual is the second finding. Why have China’s ethnic
groups played different roles in its interprovincial trade?
This book is intended to provide the narratives and analytics of China’s spatial
(dis)integration. Indeed, the Chinese nation is far too huge and spatially compli-
cated and diversified to be misinterpreted. The only feasible approach to analyzing
it is, therefore, to divide it into smaller geographical elements through which one
can have a better insight into the spatial mechanisms and regional characteristics.
To this end, I will choose Tibet—China’s far western autonomous region—as
an in-depth case study, focusing on its special geo-political and socioeconomic
vii
viii Preface
features and external and boundary conditions. The rationale for this kind of case
selection is threefold:
• First, Tibet and its surroundings, Tibetan-based areas, which have roughly one-
fourth of China’s total territory. In terms of land area, they are much larger in
territorial size than any other Chinese provincial administrations (except for
Xinjiang).
• Second, the Tibetans—who are the ethnic majorities of Tibet—are much more
culturally different from the Han Chinese (the ethnic majority of China as a
whole) than most other non-Han ethnic groups in China.
• Lastly, the Tibetan-based regions (including Tibet autonomous region and
the surrounding areas that are under the administrations of Gansu, Qinghai,
Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces), which had been independent states in history,
have been treated by the Chinese central government as the most “sensitive”
and, to some extent, “problematic” regions in China.
China’s great diversity in physical geography, resource endowment, political
economy as well as ethnicity and religion has posed challenges to the studies of
spatial and interprovincial issues. Historical record provides an ample source of
narrative. And narrative matters because it is inherently concerned with causality
recognizing that from the historical perspective some specific events can yield a
multiplicity of equilibria. But narrative alone is insufficient since many questions
are related to events that did not take place (or have not yet taken place) or are
concerned with the motivations behind why certain behavior or events have not
occurred. This is arguably especially true when the accuracy or adequacy of the
data and information on which the narratives are based is in question. Addressing
these issues requires an appropriate model for linking what is observed (or observ-
able) with what is not observed.
In this book, in order to produce more rigorous, convincing research results,
I will use both analytic and narrative approaches. More often than not, analyt-
ics (focusing on theory and analytical models) and narrative (focusing on data
and historical events) each have both advantages and disadvantages in present-
ing a research project. However, the combination of “analytics” and “narrative”
can capture the conviction that data linked to theory is more powerful than either
data or theory alone. A priori, the most relevant advantage of the analytic narra-
tive method is that it allows us to model historical “one-off” processes and events
that have unique characteristics. Likewise, the method renders some problems of
empirical testing of hypotheses manageable. Some political and cultural events
pose insurmountable difficulties to traditional panel data or time series methods.
The basic structure of this book was fixed during my trip to Qufu, Shanghai,
and Hong Kong in October 2013. On my way back from Hong Kong, I was think-
ing about the historical evolutions of and the interchangeability between centers
and peripheries in China. One and a half hundred years ago, Shanghai and Hong
Kong had been China’s most peripheral areas. They are now two major interna-
tional economic centers. And both of them have been playing important roles
Preface ix
in China’s institutional reform and economic development. On the other hand,
Tibet—China’s frontier in the far west—continues to be China’s peripheral area.
Of course, Tibet is quite different from Shanghai and Hong Kong; thus, the com-
parisons between them may not be appropriate. But I believe that if measures
proposed in this book are taken into practice, they could yield positive effects
for Tibet and for China as a whole. Maybe sometime in the future, there will be
another Shanghai or Hong Kong in China’s far west!
Tips for Readers
• Chapters 1–3, and 5 and Epilogue are either narratives or analytical narratives.
They may be most interesting to general readers.
• Chapters 4–6 are either qualitative (narrative) or quantitative analyses. They
may (also) be interesting to professional readers.
• Annexes of Chaps. 2, 4 and 5 include provincial- and interprovincial-panel data
and information that are collected and complied by the author. They may be
useful for those who want to conduct their own research on China’s interprovin-
cial relations.
• Annexes of Chaps. 4 and 6 include some specialized mathematics and statistical
techniques. They may not fit in with general audience.
Beijing, China Rongxing Guo
Summer 2015
Acknowledgments
This book adopts the published materials of mine. Specifically, Sects. 4.1–4.3
of Chap. 4 draw heavily on my paper entitled “Spatial (Dis)integration and
Multiethnic Economics: Evidence from China’s Interprovincial Data.”
My special thanks to Dr. Buddhi N. Shrestha of Bhumichitra Mapping,
Kathmandu, Nepal, who not only agrees with me to use Table 1.1 but he also pro-
vides a detailed map as shown in Fig. 1.1. This book borrows Professor Simon
Shen’s viewpoints on the further reforms of Tibet (see “Territorial fragility and
the future of Tibet: Sub-sovereignty, problems and theoretical solutions,” in:
Rongxing Guo and Carla Freeman (eds.), Managing Fragile Regions: Method and
Application. Springer, New York, pp. 61–79), which are summarized in Subsect.
6.3.2 of Chap. 6.
In addition, I have also benefited from the following individuals and organiza-
tions: Professor Gerard A. Postiglione, Ben Jiao, and Ngawang Tsering for their
article “Tibetan student perspectives about neidi schools” (In: Minglang Zhou
and Ann Hill, 2009, eds. Affirmative Action in China and the United States: A
Dialogue on Inequality and Minority Education. Palgrave-Macmillan, London,
pp. 127–142), which is quoted in Subsect. 2.3.3 of Chap. 2; Professor Melvyn
C. Goldstein for his book The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the
Dalai Lama. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1997), which is
cited in Subsect. 6.3.1 of Chap. 6; China Central Television (CCTV) for its article
“Tibet middle school in Beijing,” which is quoted in Subsect. 2.3.2 of Chap. 2;
China Daily for its articles “Tibetan cadre Kong Fansen” and “Aid program brings
sea changes to Tibet,” which are quoted in Subsects. 2.2.1 and 2.2.2 of Chap. 2,
respectively; and Tibet Daily for its article “Zhang Jiajia and Gesang Wangdui: A
love song rises above the Suoqu river,” which is quoted in Subsect. 5.4.4.
Beijing, China Rongxing Guo
Summer 2015
xi
Contents
1 A Brief History of Tibet ...................................... 1
1.1 Tibet: Treasure in the West ................................. 1
1.1.1 Early Encounters .................................. 2
1.2 Rise and Fall of Tibet ..................................... 3
1.2.1 Tibet as a Unified Kingdom .......................... 3
1.2.2 Decline of the Kingdom ............................. 4
1.2.3 Getting Rid of China ............................... 6
1.3 Tibet in the PRC Era. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.1 Territorial Changes in Tibet .......................... 6
1.3.2 Tibet Without Dalai Lama ........................... 7
1.3.3 Tibet Autonomous Region ........................... 9
Annex ..................................................... 10
References .................................................. 18
2 Chinese-Style Development in Tibet: Narrative ................... 21
2.1 Pairing-Aid Program ..................................... 21
2.1.1 Historical Evolution ................................ 21
2.1.2 Progress and Achievements .......................... 22
2.1.3 Pairing Aid to Tibet ................................ 23
2.2 Aid-Tibet Cadres Program ................................. 27
2.2.1 Motivation ....................................... 27
2.2.2 Performance ...................................... 28
2.3 Inland Middle Schools and Classes .......................... 29
2.3.1 Motivation ....................................... 29
2.3.2 Organization ...................................... 30
2.3.3 Performance ...................................... 33
2.4 Connecting Tibet with Railways ............................ 35
2.4.1 Qinghai–Tibet Railway ............................. 35
2.4.2 Technical Difficulties and Progress .................... 35
2.4.3 Positive and Negative Effects ......................... 37
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