According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), Chinese academics have suggested renaming Tibet and using Xizang to refer to the autonomous territory in English to assist in “reconstructing” its image. The region is widely recognized as Tibet and is utilized in media reports all around the world. Changing the narrative could be difficult for China. According to a report on Tongzhan Xinyu, a WeChat account maintained by the United Front Work Department, the request came at an official conference held in Beijing from Monday to Wednesday.
UFWD is an agency in charge of overseeing matters pertaining to ethnic and minority groups. It is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tasked with “united front work”. As quoted, Wang Linping, who is a professor at Harbin Engineering University’s College of Marxism, said: “To establish China’s dominant position in the international discourse related to Tibet, there is an urgent need for an English translation of ‘Tibet’ that can accurately describe China’s position.”
The use of the name Tibet had “seriously misled the international community” over the “geographical scope” of the region
According to him, the use of the name Tibet had “seriously misled the international community” over the “geographical scope” of the region, and Wang also suggested using Xizang. The research stated that “Tibet” is used outside of China to refer to regions in the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan. The report said, “This overlaps greatly with the so-called Greater Tibet long advocated by the 14th Dalai Lama.”
According to local media sources, former Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane (retd) stated on Wednesday (August 16) that Tibetans from all over the world have the right to return to their forefathers’ homeland. Naravane suggested that they learn about their culture and traditions. “Over the decades, China has fully occupied Tibet and made territorial and administrative changes that have transformed the Tibetan identity and culture,” he stated. Gen. Naravane went on to say that China’s most recent white paper says that Tibet has been a part of China since antiquity, or since the 7th century AD, which is “incorrect and an attempt to rewrite history.”