The Chinese call the Tibet region, which is home to Mount Everest, the “roof of the world.” At 9 km above sea level, it is the highest peak in the world. It has been an autonomous region of China since 1955. That is, it gained autonomy before our Kurdish brothers, who had to wait till 1970 to see the signing of the agreement between the Iraqi government and the late Kurdish leader, Mullah Mustafa Barzani.
Comparing development in Chinese Tibet since Mao Zedong’s era and the state of affairs in the Kurdish region of Iraq is difficult. Indeed, this is the case despite the Iraqi-Kurdish civil war having ended in 1990, the region having an independent parliament, receiving a budget allocated to it by the Iraqi state, and the oil revenues that have been pouring in since the US occupation of Iraq.
In any case, we sincerely hope that our Kurdish brothers will find the keys needed to open their political future in Iraq, especially since they have the Zagros Mountains, the Hamrin Mountains, the Qandil Mountains, and the Azmar Mountains, which are a series of highlands extending from Türkiye to Iran, passing through Iraq.
I began by referring to Chinese Tibet, and I will continue to discuss it because this region, which is distinct from every other country in the world, has entered a new era of development and change. The extreme poverty engendered by the feudal system of slavery and its infinite injustices is being wiped out.
The Chinese Communist Party has made use of its capacity to use culture, arts, and human connections to depict the lives of the old system of slavery in plays. Slaves steal dogs to eat; then the feudal lord comes to beat and torture them until the hero of the play dies, and his wife loses her sanity! Their children are subsequently tortured to death.
In fact, “The Slaves’ Tears” is a theatrical performance that the Chinese continue to watch generation after generation. It is not popular because it is fun; in fact, it is not fun at all. Rather, the play is watched to celebrate the new Chinese regime that abolished feudalism and the slave system.
In looking to the future, China did exclusively focus on developing famous cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The whole country and over 600 cities have benefited from the state’s development efforts. The Great Wall of China is no longer China’s world wonder. Indeed, Tibet has presented to the world a model for contemporary cities, promoting the urbanization of rural, remote areas and ensuring all of their needs, including schools, universities, hospitals, modern housing, markets, commercial centers, ports, factories, and subways. It is enough to mention that one metro station is 31 floors underground!
For your information, China has built subways in Tel Aviv. It is also currently financing a three billion euro project to build subway and train networks in Tripoli. However, the project has been put on hold due to the political turmoil in Libya. This is also what happened in Baghdad - after the maps of networks were completed in the eighties, the project remained in the drawers of the Baghdad Municipality after a grave digger issued a fatwa a few years ago claiming that subways are “haram” because they disturbed the sleep of the deceased!
There is no harm in lengthening the article slightly. All backward societies across the globe are eager to move beyond extreme poverty, deprivation, illiteracy, disease, and ignorance. They all want to lead comfortable lives, and this transition is impossible amid the financial and economic state corruption that plagues some of these countries, or the clamor of missiles, drones, and armed militias.
It took China eighty years, almost a century, to overcome illiteracy, poverty, famine, feudalism, disease and civil strife. Today, it is a superpower and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, sends satellites to outer space, and has embassies in all countries of the world. Every major power on earth fears its wrath.
Every year, Tibetans commemorate the suffering of slavery and the cruelty of feudalism. The New China News Agency (Xinhua) says that through humanitarian reforms, the residents of the villages of the Tibetan highlands went from leading a life of slavery to leading a life of comfort. Residents refer to the remnants of their former life of slavery: huts, tools used in torture, and prisons.
The Chinese government has prioritized eradicating poverty since 2012. That year, over 80 percent of the Chinese population lived beneath the poverty line, and so the state built infrastructure (roads, water, electricity, and housing facilities) across the country in response. I do not say this to promote Chinese propaganda but because of my appreciation of the value of freedom, allowing citizens to lead a decent life, eradicating poverty, and building modern housing, kindergartens, hospitals, and roads.
And China did a good thing when it showed its willingness to replicate its experience in the forests of Africa, where countries continue to suffer from the repercussions of European colonialism over a century later. The brotherly nation of Sudan, for example, is now trapped in the swamp of civil war after dreaming of becoming a prosperous, civilized, and free country.
If it had not been for the Chinese people, their resolute determination, and patience, China’s current President Xi Jinping would not have been able to proudly bring the Silk Road back to life gradually despite the not-so-distant wars and not-so-simple crises. The Chinese president dubbed what his country has achieved as a “miracle.” It is not difficult to see why; China has taken hundreds of millions out of poverty to become a prosperous country. Eight hundred thirty-two governorates and 128,000 villages that had been poor in the past have been removed from the poverty map.
However, the Chinese government has emphasized - drawn the attention of developing countries to - the need to encourage self-development among the impoverished. This reduces the likelihood of re-impoverishment, whether by having too many children or through health epidemics pushing down incomes.
Nevertheless, a series of new corruption probes have rattled China’s finance sector, which is worth $60 trillion, according to Sky News. Zhujia Ningnan, a Chinese corruption expert (a position that most Arab countries desperately need), told another website that the Chinese leadership saw a genuinely “serious problem” and seeks to avert the threats to stability and confidence that financial corruption can give rise to, as seen in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. Denial does not fix anything.
