Over 2,100 Chinese Communist Cadres Flood TAR in Modernisation Drive

By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 6 Aug: Thousands of Chinese communist cadres are being deployed in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region(TAR) under the “Tibet-Aid Programme” to purposely bring Chinese-style modernisation to health, education and infrastructure to what China calls its “ethnic minority region”. 

According to China Daily, a Chinese state-owned media outlet, since 2022, over 2,100 Han cadres from across China have been sent to the TAR, with more than 3,200 projects launched at a reported cost of 14.28 billion yuan ($2 billion). The stated official goal is to improve healthcare, education, infrastructure, employment, and public services, in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Tibet policy for the new era.

Independent analysts and Tibetan advocacy groups, however, argue that the program serves less as a development initiative and more as a tool of colonial control.

Studies, including Miaoyan Yang’s “Learning to Be Tibetan”, conducted at Minzu University of China, the country’s premier institution for ethnic minorities, reveal that despite official rhetoric about multicultural inclusion and the integration of ethnic minorities, in practice there is “an undetermined commitment to fostering true pluralism or meaningful development of minority cultures”.

While Yang does not explicitly recognise Tibet as being under colonial occupation, her findings highlight the pressures Tibetan students face to conform to Han cultural norms and the limits of China’s claims of “minority empowerment”.

These pressures are further reflected in the estimated one million Tibetan children, some as young as four, who are forcibly placed in Chinese colonial boarding schools. There, they are separated from their families, stripped of their language and traditions, and subjected to ideological indoctrination, highlighting the stark contradictions in China’s policies.

Launched in 1994, the ‘Tibet Aid Program’ is officially portrayed as a humanitarian initiative but has increasingly served as a vehicle for assimilation and strategic expansion. Under Xi Jinping’s rule, the program has intensified efforts to integrate Tibetan society with Han Chinese norms and has extended toward the Indian border through the construction of new border villages, while emphasising healthcare, education, and infrastructure development.