The Fourth ‘Forum on the Development of Tibet’

Abstract

On 12 and 13 August 2014, China organized a conference titled, ‘Forum on the Development of Tibet’ in Lhasa. Out of the 100 or so participants, about 40 were international participants from about 30 countries. This article materialized out of an interest to probe a few inter-related questions such as what is the point of holding another Forum on development of Tibet when the ‘Tibet work forums’ are already doing that since 1980? Why are there international participants in it? What is the significance of the Forum in the Chinese government’s overall approach to the Tibet question? Interestingly, the conference did not have a dedicated website or it’s like where one could access information about it. On its conclusion, a document ‘Lhasa Consensus’ was brought out, which failed to provide any sense of the conference’s proceedings. Instead, it emphasized Chinese achievements in Tibet and denounced the Dalai Lama and international media for being biased. Outside China, the Forum attracted attention less for its stated agenda but more for its possible objectives. In effect, the organisers lost an opportunity to chart a new discourse on Tibet’s development sans politics. The Forum ultimately seems to be part of Beijing’s attempt at gaining lost ground on international propaganda on Tibet.