Thursday, 2nd July 2015
17:00 – 19:00hr.
FNVA Seminar Room
143, 4th Floor Uday Park, New Delhi

Presentations shall be followed by discussion.

SPEAKER

Dr. Anne F. Thurston is a Senior Research Professor of China Studies at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she is the director of the SAIS-based Grassroots China Initiative, which has a three-fold mission of teaching about and providing internships related to grassroots China, educating the public and policy makers about developments at China’s grassroots, and working with grassroots organizations and local communities in China.

Dr. Anne F. Thurston

Dr. Thurston first visited China in 1978 and been there dozens of time since, conducting research, working, and escorting many American study groups and delegations around the country. Among her books and monographs are The Private Life of Chairman Mao, written in collaboration with Mao Zedong’s personal physician Li Zhisui; Enemies of the People: The Ordeal of China’s Intellectuals during the Great Cultural Revolution; A Chinese Odyssey: The Life and Times of a Chinese Dissident; Muddling Toward Democracy: Political Change in Grass Roots China; and China Bound: A Guide to Academic Life in the People’s Republic of China. She is the co-author with Gyalo Thondup, the older brother of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, of the just published, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong: The Untold Story of My Struggle for Tibet. Dr. Thurston has written frequently for both academic and popular journals and newspapers, including The Atlantic Monthly, China Business Review, The Wilson Quarterly, The China Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and TheChristian Science Monitor.

Dr. Thurston began her teaching career at Fordham University and spent many years as an independent scholar and researcher. She has been a recipient of a number of research fellowships, including the MacArthur Foundation’s Program on Peace and International Cooperation, the United States Institute of Peace, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Endowment for Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio program. She has served as a consultant to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, was a researcher at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University, and was staff for the China programs at the Social Science Research Council in New York. Dr. Thurston received her Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

ABSTRACT

“Anne Thurston will be discussing her role as co-author of the book by the Dalai Lama’s older brother Gyalo Thondup, The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong. The book tells the story of Gyalo Thondup’s life from the time he was a child in Amdo, the family’s move to Lhasa when his younger brother was identified as the new Dalai Lama, to his years spent studying in China under the sponsorship of President Chiang Kai-shek, his return to Lhasa in 1952, his role in the Dalai Lama’s escape to India in March 1959 and later his efforts to negotiate with the Chinese for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. Following that, she will briefly share her perspective on he possibility for political reform in China and say a few words about the current “Washington perspective” on China.”

The post Round Table Discussion appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

PROGRAMME
“Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development” Dr. Emily T. Yeh
“Tibet between Security and Development” Prof. Madhu Bhalla

Q & A Session

Chair

Dr. B. P. Singh is the former Governor of Sikkim and Patron of the Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives.

SPEAKERS:

Dr. Emily T. Yeh is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Her research interests include questions of power, political economy and cultural politics in the nature-society relationship. Using primarily ethnographic methods, she has conducted research on property rights, natural resource conflicts, environmental history, development and landscape transformation, grassland management and environmental policies, and emerging environmentalisms in Tibetan areas of China. Broader research and teaching interests include transnational conservation, critical development studies, the relationship between natures, territory, and the nation, and environmental justice. Her regional expertise is in China, Tibet, and the Himalayas.

Prof. Madhu Bhalla is currently teaching at the Department of East Asian Studies, Delhi University. Before joining Delhi University in 2005, she taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Queen’s University, Canada and Trent University, Canada. Her teaching and research interests lie in the areas of Chinese security and foreign policy, the political economy of China, United States’ foreign policy and International Relations theory. She has published numerous scholarly papers in these areas and contributed several book chapters to edited volumes. Professor Bhalla has held visiting fellowships at the Fudan University, Shanghai and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Sichuan at Chengdu. She has also been a member of the governing body of Laxmi Bai College, Delhi University, and is a resource person for strategic and policy think tanks and media organisations in Delhi.

The post China’s Development Policies in Tibet: Perspectives and Challenges appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

Jesper Svensson, Visiting Fellow with FNVA, in conversation with Jianxin Mu – professor at Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), Ministry of Water Resources, China and Yang Yong – independent geologist and director of the Hengduan Mountain Research Institute on the South-North Water Transfer Project

Question: Chinese experts on the biggest water-diversion scheme in the world

Soon the second leg of the world’s biggest water-diversion project will open: the Central Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP). From 31 October the project will transfer water northward from the Yangtze River system to supply northern China, a region struggling with demand and supply water imbalances. The central route will see 9.5 billion cubic meters of water per year pumped through more than 1,200 kms of canals and pipes from the Danjiangkou dam in central China to the northern provinces of Henan, Hebei and to Beijing. The eastern route, which opened last year, draws 14.8 billion cubic meters of water a year from the lower reaches of the Yangtze in Jiangsu province to the dry cities in Shandong province.

But major pollution issues, mammoth engineering investments and growing pressure on water resources in southern China have called into question the rationality of this high-risk industrial project. In a Chinese newspaper last year, Zhang Jiyao, the former director of the State Department office in charge over the South to North Water Diversion project, declared that the costs for the eastern and middle routes have ballooned to about 300 billion Yuan, $49 billion at current exchange rates, from the earlier estimate of 124 billion Yuan. Yet, despite the contentious politics of the SNWTP and the fact China has lost 27,000 rivers since the 1950s, the CCP seems determined to move its engineering-approach further inland.

With the SNWTP’s eastern and middle route completed, what will happen with the controversial western route from the Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau? We asked two Chinese experts for their views

What is the status of the Middle Route for the South to North Water Diversion Project?

Jianxin Mu – professor at Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), Ministry of Water Resources, China:

Real time data from the Yangtze Water Resources Commission at 14:00 hrs on October 14 showed the water level of the Danjiangkou reservoir had reached 160 meters, which means that the water conditions for the central route has been met. In late October, 9.5 billion m3 will be transferred and around 30% of Beijing’s annual water consumption will come from the central route. As for water quality, a lot of pollution control measures have been undertaken to guarantee safe supply. We want to avoid the pollution problems the project faced along the Eastern route

A key issue is the expense of the project. What is the risk that cost’s might outweigh benefits for the project? Jianxin Mu:

Cost recovery is a problem. National Development and Reform Commission has approved the organisation of the price of water, and based on full cost the price of the transferred water will be twice as much as what Beijing pays now. The current price for Beijing residents (not including water resource and sewage treatment) is 1.7 RMB/m3 but the price of transferred water will be 3 RMB/m3. At present, however, it’s not decided whether this price will be subsidised by government or shared by Beijing citizens.

Yang Yong:

As for the central route of the SNWTP, the total investment is roughly 250 billion Yuan for transferring 9.5 billion m3. With investment per m3 around 25 Yuan and water price is 10 % of it, the price of diversion water is about 2-3 Yuan higher than the current price of water. Yet, if we take into account other costs such as operation and maintenance, ecological compensation costs the water price may be more than 10 Yuan for the recipients in Beijing. As a result, pricing has become a dilemma: if the water-price is too high people cannot afford to use it but if it is too low it will be difficult to recover the costs.

Although the central leg is completed, there are from my point of you at least three factors that put the project at stake. First, the Han River, the largest tributary of the Yangtze River, has been hit by severe droughts in recent years which raises questions about whether the water can meet the needs of the water diversion project. Secondly, the SNWTP has pushed Shaanxi Province in the upper reaches of the Han River to implement a diversion project to take 1.5 billion m3 water to supplement its Wei river. This project will inevitably reduce the amount of water storage to Danjiangkou reservoir. Thirdly, provinces such as Henan and Hebei need extra engineering projects to divert the water from the main route to distribute it to their own provinces. These smaller projects are costly and due to budget constraints local governments can’t cough up the cash.

Does the South to North Water Diversion Project have any ecological benefits? Jianxin Mu – (IWHR):

Yes, I think so. In addition to provide water for domestic, industrial and agricultural use along the route, I believe the project can at least partly address over-exploitation of groundwater resources. But this can only be done by preventing transferring polluted water as well as raising water prices.

Yang Yong – (geologist):

The central route can reduce groundwater overdraft and restore groundwater circulation systems in the north but you cannot divert a third of the water in the Danjiangkou reservoir without reshaping the flow volume and causing environmental problems to the Han River. To deal with the negative impacts for Hubei Province, the government’s response has been to build another diversion project to transfer water from the Yangtze to the Han. Regarding ecological benefits, I’m skeptical. The key is the ability to change the water management practices; change past development-pattern and people’s awareness of water resources attitude. Without putting a limit on human demand for water, the SNWTP and the current development-model will cause more harm to ecosystems.

Last year the Yellow River Basin Commission (YRCC) of the Ministry of Water Resources posted an article on their website about plans to divert the Yarlung-Tsangpo / Brahmaputra: http://www.yellowriver.gov.cn/hdpt/wypl/201302/t20130217_128113.html How serious is China about the Western Route of the South To North Water Diversion Project? Jianxin Mu:

It is true that the YRCC has proposed this idea but you need to have in mind that it is an initial feasibility study of many studies. It needs to get the approval from the MWR, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments. To my mind, the western route will not be implemented within a decade.

Yang Yong:

First, I think there are serious mistakes in hydrological data in this water-diversion article uploaded by the YRCC. Secondly, the Central Government has always dismissed the Great Western Route. Thirdly, from a shipping point of view, the sediment condition in the Yellow River is so bad for navigation/shipping that it is not necessary to divert waters into the Yellow River basin for realising shipping.

In India, under the new Narendra Modi government, there is talk of reviving the Inter-Linking of Rivers Project. What can India learn from China’s experience with the world’s biggest water-diversion project? Jianxin Mu:

I think its rational for India to think in terms of water-diversions given the uneven geographical distribution of water resources. China has strong technical and engineering strength’s but we are still facing problems. Judging from our experience with the overwhelming funding and policy support for the SNWTP, its difficult to achieve engineering-projects without very strong central government coordination and determination.

Yang Yong:

At present, I think humanity is a geophysical force. In India, China and the rest of the world the human-interventions and engineering approaches many times generates a vicious circle with no end in sight. It is time India and China abandon the traditional development-model

The post South-North Water Transfer Project appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

Wednesday, 15th October, 2014 (15:00hr – 17:00hr)

Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives, 143, 4th Floor, Uday Park – 110049, New Delhi

Speaker: Dr. Mumin Chen, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Political Science, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan and member of International Affairs section, Taiwan Think-tank, Taiwan

Abstract: The Chinese government asserts that its policy toward ethnic minorities, National Regional Autonomy (minzu quyu zizhi), is one of the greatest achievements of six decades of Communist rule. The policy identifies the political status of all ethnic minority groups and grants them the right to self-rule, which has greatly alleviated the tension between ethnic minorities and Han majorities and encouraged the former to be supportive of state integrity. In recent years, however, more conflicts between the government and certain ethnic minorities have come into view. The Tibetan unrest in March 2008 and Uighur-Han clashes in Xinjiang in July 2009 are just two of the violent incidents that drew international attention. This paper attempts to examine and evaluate the NRA policy from three different perspectives. The first is to review its development over the past decades with the purpose of seeing how the government attempted to reconcile the opposing goals of granting the right of self-rule to ethnic minority groups and preserving national unity. The second is to examine the arguments regarding NRA by Chinese academics, particularly whether they support central government’s strategy of coercive rule plus economic investment in ethnic minority areas. The third perspective is to employ observations from minority communities to assess the effectiveness of NRA. Focus is placed on how the policy is implemented at local level, and how Chinese scholars address and respond to the problems and challenges derived from the policy.

Dr. Mumin Chen earned his Ph.D. in International Studies from the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, USA (2004). Previous experiences include adjunct lecturer, School of International Studies, Peking University (2001-2002); special assistant to Vice President of Taiwan (2002-2004); assistant professor, National Changhua University of Education (2004-2008); visiting research fellow at East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore (2008); and visiting scholar at Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi (2009). He is the author of International Security Theory: Power, State and Threat (in Chinese, Wu-Nan, Taipei: 2009) and Prosperity but Insecurity: Globalization and China’s National Security 1979-2000 (Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany: 2010). Chen’s research focuses include: international security theory, Chinese politics and foreign policy, and South Asian security.

The post “China’s Policies toward Ethnic Minorities: Developments and Challenges.” appeared first on fnvaworld.org.

Foundation for Non-Violent Alternatives, 143, 4th Floor, Uday Park – 110049, New Delhi

Speaker: Dr. Tsering Topgyal, Lecturer/Assistant Professor in International Relations, Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham.

Abstract: The rise of China and its greater assertiveness is provoking complex responses from neighbouring Asian states. Some states are clearly band-wagoning with China, while others are engaging in various shades of balancing through strengthening formal and informal alignment with America and other Asian states and internal military build-ups, including hedging strategies designed to profit from China’s economic opportunities while preserving the security benefits of America’s ‘pivot’ to Asia and institutional enmeshment. By examining the handling of the Tibet issue by India and Nepal, this paper will show two different responses from South Asia to China’s rise. While Nepal’s policy towards the Tibetans over the decades since 1959 represents a slide from anti-Communist balancing to band-wagoning, India’s handling of the Tibet issue reflects a hedging strategy geared towards preventing the Tibetans in exile from upsetting ties with Beijing in ways contrary to Indian interests, while refusing to curtail the political activities of the Tibetan exiles, in some ways fostering the Tibetan exile polity. These divergent policies from Kathmandu and New Delhi are partly products of the different degrees of pressure that China is putting on them on the Tibet issue on account of their different levels of capabilities, options and resistance towards Chinese.

Tsering Topgyal’s research and teaching interests include Chinese foreign and security policy with special attention to its ethnic conflicts, Asia-Pacific security and politics, Sino-Indian relations, and the Sino-Tibetan conflict. He is currently working on a number of conference and research articles and book chapters on topics such as “Discursive Control as a Foreign Policy Strategy”, “Securitisation and Self-Immolations: shifting the site of inter-subjectivity and sociality” and “Sino-South Asian Relations: India’s and Nepal’s Handling of the Tibet Issue.” He is also commencing work on a research monograph titled “Comparative Securitisation: the construction of Tibet as (In)Security in Sino-Indian Relations.”

The post “Tibet in Sino-South Asian Relations: Indian and Nepalese treatment of Tibetans at a time of China’s rise” appeared first on fnvaworld.org.