Thursday, May 25, 2017

Why was Fan shown the door?

Something rather unusual has happened in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).
An official called Fan Lingmin who had just been appointed Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the TAR’ People's Government, has been sacked.
He served less than a month before being shown the door.
Fang was born in May 1964 in Yuncheng County of Shandong Province.
In August 1983, he graduated from Shandong Normal University Department in Basic Mathematics. 
He was later transferred to Tibet and posted at the Tibet University in Lhasa, first as deputy director of the Academic Affairs Department.
In 2000, he became Vice President of the Party Committee of Tibet University and in 2003, Deputy Secretary of the University.
In 2009, he was promoted as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Tibet University.
In May 2015, Fan became Vice-Chairman of the TAR Government, and Vice-Chancellor of Tibet University.
In February 2017, he was nominated Secretary-General of the Provincial Education Work Committee, in other words in charge of education in the TAR Government.
In April, he was promoted Secretary General of the TAR People's Government.
According to Chinatibetnews.com, on May 17, during the 32nd session of the Standing Committee of the TAR People's Congress, Zhang Yongze took over Fan’s seat, while another official, Zhu Qiang was promoted as Secretary General of the TAR Government.

Why was Fang sacked after hardly a month in the job?
It is a mystery.
The answer can perhaps be found in an article published on May 1 in The Global Times, which alleges: ‘Some CPC members funding Dalai Lama’.
The mouthpiece of the Party says: “A senior discipline inspection official has lambasted some Party officials for allegedly donating money to the 14th Dalai Lama, saying such behavior severely undermines the Party's fight against separatism.”
Wang Yongjun, head of the TAR’s Central Commission of Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said that some Party officials have neglected important political issues and China's anti-separatist struggle: “Some have even donated to the 14th Dalai Lama clique, joined illegal underground organizations and provided intelligence to overseas organizations.”
Wang added that a few Party officials are failing to "uphold political integrity" and are "completely ignoring political discipline. Such behavior has affected CPC coherence and its ability to fight separatism.”
This was serious allegations, though no names were cited.
Qizhala (Che Dralha), the Tibetan heading the TAR government had declared in March: “Tibet is firmly against separatism and cracked down on secession and sabotage activities by the Dalai Lama clique in 2016.”
On May 17, the China News Service further reported that a 2016 report issued by TAR's CCDI “linked 15 Party officials to alleged illegal overseas separatist organizations in 2014 who provided intelligence to the Dalai Lama clique and funded secessionist activities.”
Was Fang one of them?
It is possible.

Che Dralha and his predecessor Lobsang Gyaltsen
A Yunnan Clique?
In the meantime, Fan has been replaced by Zhang Yongze, a 48-year-old Han Chinese from Yunnan Province ...like Che Dralha his boss.
Are we witnessing the emergence of 'Yunnan clique' like there was a 'Nagchu clique' in the past?
Interestingly, Zhang has a Doctor's Degree in hydraulics and river dynamics.
Will he be responsible for damming the Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra?
It is not certain because Fan, his predecessor looked after education.
Zhang started to work in 1997 and joined the Communist Party of China in March of the same year. In 1998, he was transferred to Tibet and assigned to the Environmental Protection Bureau before moving to the Shannan (Lhoka) prefecture.
In 2015, he was appointed as Party Secretary of Shannan Municipal Committee.
Not much is known of Zhu Qian.
Interesting developments on the Roof of the World.

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