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Xinlu Liang

The former chairman of Tibet has been placed under investigation for alleged corruption as part of a wider crackdown in the western Chinese region.
The investigation into Qizhala comes at a sensitive time with the exiled Dalai Lama expected to announce succession plans later this year.
Qizhala chaired the Tibet autonomous region’s government between 2017 and 2021.
China’s top anti-graft agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), said on Thursday he was under investigation for “severe violations of law and Communist Party discipline”, the standard euphemism for corruption.
The region’s former party chief, Wu Yingjie, was placed under investigation last year, and expelled from the party and removed from public office last month.
The CCDI said Wu had been “ineffective in carrying out the party’s policies for governing Tibet in the new era and excessively involved himself in engineering projects for personal profit, significantly affecting high-quality development in Tibet”.
A number of other senior figures appointed to the Tibet regional government during Wu’s tenure have also been placed under investigation, including at least three former vice-chairmen of the regional government.


It is unusual for both the former party chief and chairman of a region or province to be placed under investigation at the same time.
Qizhala’s fall from grace coincides with a significant year for the region, with the exiled Dalai Lama expected to announce how his successor should be chosen when he reaches his 90th birthday in July.
According to religious tradition, he will be reincarnated as a child, but there are concerns his death will fuel social tensions within the region.
The authorities in Beijing are likely to challenge the process and have labelled the Buddhist spiritual leader a “separatist” since he fled to India following a failed uprising in 1959.
Beijing is already making its own preparations, with ideology tsar Wang Huning visiting an exhibition about the reincarnation of the living Buddha in December.
In 2021, ahead of a visit to the region by President Xi Jinping, Wu had said China must accelerate the “Sinicisation of religion” in Tibet and increase the party’s influence.
Xi was the first Chinese leader to visit the region since 1990, using the trip to stress that social stability is the main region’s top priority and highlighting the importance of border security following deadly clashes between Chinese and Indian troops the previous year.
Qizhala, 66, an ethnic Tibetan from neighbouring Yunnan province, spent most of his career in the Tibet autonomous region and held a variety of senior roles.
In 2012 he was made Lhasa’s party chief, replacing a Han Chinese official in the role – a move received positively by local residents.

His spell in charge of the regional capital included a trip to the United States in 2016, where he met senior US politicians, including Nancy Pelosi, at the time the House minority leader.
The following year he was appointed chairman of the region’s government – a post that has customarily been held by an ethnic Tibetan.
When he left the post in 2021 he was made vice-chairman of the National People’s Congress’ ethnic affairs committee, a post usually given to officials who are near to retirement, and in March 2023 he was given a similar role on the agriculture and rural affairs committee.


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Former Tibet chairman Qizhala is region’s latest official to be snared in corruption crackdown

Qizhala is the latest senior figure involved in the Tibetan regional government to be placed under investigation. Photo: CCTV

Wu Yingjie, Tibet’s former party chief, is also under investigation. Photo: AP 

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Li Gang, a senior anti-corruption official, was detained last year on suspicion of corruption. Photo:  Weibo/ 球场见626

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Guangzhou, a city of 22 million, is using big data to track the activities of its ethnic minority residents in a model likely to be applied across China. Photo: China News Service via Getty Images

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There is no sign of easing in the Communist Party’s crackdown on corruption. Photo: Reuters

News

China

Politics

The probe by China’s top anti-corruption body has already led to the downfall of the region’s former Communist Party chief and other senior officials


The probe by China’s top anti-corruption body has already led to the downfall of the region’s former Communist Party chief and other senior officials.


Tibet

Corruption in China