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Basharat Peer in New Delhi
The Chinese railway project linking Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, to four Chinese cities is considered by the central Tibetan administration in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, as a security threat to South Asia.
"The project will escalate the military build-up on the Tibetan plateau, which will invite an arms race and the stockpiling of weapons of mass destruction in South Asia," T C Tethong, minister for information and international relations of the CTA, said.
Tethong was releasing a report in New Delhi titled China's Railway Project: Where will it take Tibet?
The report said China's military arsenal on the Tibetan plateau includes 17 top-secret radar stations, eight intercontinental ballistic missiles, 70 medium-range and intermediate-range missiles and 25 airfields.
Some of the missiles stored on the plateau have a range of 13,000km, the report added.
The lack of reliable transport facilities had been believed to have restricted Chinese military manoeuvrability. The advent of the railway will allow Beijing to surmount that hindrance.
"The railway will make troop movement easier for the Chinese and it is a matter of concern for India," Tethong said.
The report quoted the Chinese media as saying that the People's Liberation Army's base in Tibet may be expanded once it is connected to Lhasa by rail. This, along with China's naval base development on Burmese territory, will pose a serious threat to the Indian subcontinent.
Tethong also said the railway project would hurt India economically. "The project will make it easier for the Chinese to dump goods in Nepal and the northeastern states of India, which will have serious consequences for Indian industries."
The railway network on the Tibetan plateau was first conceived in 1911 by Sun Yat Sen, then director-general of the Chinese National Railway.
But China's first railway project in Tibet became operational only in March 1961 and the plan to connect Lhasa with the rest of the China was considered in 1994.
After route surveys, budget allocations were made under the tenth five-year plan for the construction of a railway line between China and Lhasa.
The CTA said the real purpose of the project was not the economic development of Tibet, but its absorption into China.
"The railway project will facilitate the transfer of Han Chinese population to the Tibetan plateau and the exploitation of Tibet's untapped natural resources," Tethong said.
"The project will encourage a massive influx of Chinese settlers, which will lead to the erosion of the foundation of Tibetan culture and identity."
The Tibetan report said the project, which would cost $3 billion, was considered by many as unfeasible. But the Chinese did not seem to be bothered about its financial viability, as President Jiang Zemin said in an interview to The New York Times in August: "Some people advised me not to go ahead with the project because it is not financially viable. But it is a political decision. We will make this project succeed at all costs, even if there is a commercial loss."
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