“The Cultural Revolution was exported from China to the High Plateau by the Communist Party, much as opium was forced upon China by British gunboats — and eagerly consumed by the Chinese. Do we condemn the starving coolie for resorting to narcotics to escape the pains of his empty stomach, or do we censure the drug-pushing masters of a foreign empire who, despite endless pleas and petitions, directed the expeditions? There is no doubt that individual Tibetans committed despicable acts in the course of the Cultural Revolution; and many of them today hold senior posts in the regional Communist Party. In fact, such deeds are now viewed as a badge of party loyalty. Wang fails to mention the fact that in China, in the 1980s, the CCP purged “three categories of people” who had committed crimes during the Cultural Revolution, but that in Tibet, despite repeated appeals by leaders such as the Panchen Rinpoche, no such purge took place. Hu Yaobang noted in his speech at the Tibet Work Forum in 1984 that he had received written submissions from both traditional leaders and CCP members, urging the Party to expel such people; instead he promoted them, saying they could be reformed. The real reason was that the Communist Party could not find anyone else they could trust to run Tibet so dutifully. The stark contrast between the policy implemented in the TAR and that applied to the rest of China highlights the classic colonial tactic, often observed in Western imperial practice, whereby the hegemonic power seeks to cultivate loyal and servile natives to guard its interests. China rules Tibet differently from China, because there it faces the problems of being a colonial power.” FROM TSERING SHAKYA: BLOOD IN THE SNOWS

ADMIN NOTE: I’ve edited this comment, adding quotation marks and the source. The full article is already linked to in my original post above. Rob

To understand why the ‘authorities’ would not necessarily side with the radical Red Guards, you have to know the root cause of the Culture Revolution. CR was a campaign to purge ‘the Liberal Establishment’ inside the party. Both State President Liu and party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping disgraced during the CR. In Wang’s book, he described how the Tibet Party Chief later died in the hands of the Red Guards.

It’s impossible that a mass movement in such a scale would happen without either the incitement of Party ‘activists’ (Tibetan or not) or the participation of the local people, just like in other parts of China. Wang’s question is, isn’t Tibet supposed to be different?

One point that does seem a bit questionable: Wang says that the destruction of the temples “must have” had massive Tibetan participation; and yet in the 1970s Tibetans accounted for only 23% of leading cadres. I can accept that many Tibetan people did physically participate in the breaking up of the buildings. But can we really be sure that this was their own idea? Is it not equally likely that they were told (made?) to participate by Han superiors, and complied because the power of the clergy had been broken?

The point in the first paragraph is well taken, though. I had never considered this aspect of modern Tibetan history at all, before reading this piece.