The train to Tibet firmly imprints the Chinese authority over a region that has the potential to cause trouble for the Beijing rulers. Marketed as a project to boost tourism and cut transportation costs, the train to the roof of the world actually has serious security implications for the region.
Cost of transportation between eastern China and Tibet has come down by as much as 75 percent and the time lag has been reduced from over a week to three days.
Until now, goods going to and from Tibet have been trucked over mountain highways that are often blocked by landslides or snow, making trade prohibitively expensive.
Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950, and Beijing says the region has been Chinese territory for centuries. But Tibet was effectively independent for much of that time.
The Tibetans fear larger immigration of Chinese population into Tibet could drastically change its demographic profile and subdue any simmering existing aspirations for independence or autonomy.
India’s attempt to contain China’s control over Tibet provoked the 1962 border conflict in which India suffered a humiliating defeat. Since then India has kept is hands off Tibet, more or less conceding Chinese authority over Tibet. Completion of the train to Tibet project has changed the logistic ability of China to access the territory at short notice and tilted the odds against its neighbors.
