Suning will open its first electronics chain store in the Tibetan city of Lhasa on May 25, 2013.
With the opening of this store, Suning will become the first Chinese nationwide retail chain operator to enter this autonomous region in western China.
As the capital of the Tibet autonomous region, Lhasa is called as the roof of the world. By 2012, the population of Lhasa reached 560,000 and the annual retail sales of social consumer goods in the city were CNY8.8 billion. Of that total, CNY430 million were contributed by the home appliances market.
Meanwhile, the sales of mobile phones, computers, and digital products saw fast growth, and the sales of communications products were over CNY100 million. However, due to the consumer habits and operating cost factors in Lhasa's home appliances market, no large retail chain has entered this relatively small market before.
Sun Weimin, vice chairman of Suning, said that after six months of investigation and preparation, they have gained a full understanding of the consumer habits and market characteristics of Lhasa, and completed the preparation for the new store. This new outlet, which is 3,650 meters above sea level, is not only the highest Suning store, but also built with the highest comprehensive standards.
Suning started its nationwide chain development from 2000 and has maintained fast growth. In 2002, the company entered major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Tianjin; in 2005, it expanded into Wuhan and completed chain distribution in major first-tier cities in China; in August 2009, it opened a store in Yinchuan, marking its entry into all provincial capitals except Lhasa. So far, Suning has developed more than 1,600 chain stores in over 600 cities in China and abroad.
have a realistic disiusscon about China's option in Tibet. Look you can sermonize to your heart's content all you want about immorality of colonialism, rights of self- determination, superiority of democracy over tyranny yada, yada. At the end of the day, it all come down to interests. China will quit Tibet if it's in her best interest to do so. The question is, what's in it for China?I have listed out the pros and cons of possessing Tibet for China at . I will rehashed it for you.Pros:A) Tibet is one big ass of a natural buffer. I will bet you 500 RMB that Indian tanks are not gonna roll over Himalayas anytime soon. India's currently longest ranged missle will have to be placed in Assam on the Tibetan border to have any hope of landing anywhere with more economical significance than a patch of grass and yak dungs. Sure Lhasa and Shigatze might be in the range of Indian missiles, but I doubt anyone is seriously losing sleep over that possibility. B) There might be undiscovered natural resources underneath Tibet's soil. Commodity boom has led to discovery of significant copper and coal deposit in Mongolia in recent year. Could happen in Tibet's vast wilderness yet.C)Tibetan plateau is the ultimate source of water for Asian continent. Great river systems, Yellow River, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Indus, Brahmaputra all have headwater in Tibetan plateau. In a way, Tibet is the third pole on earth. Water shortage will be a serious problem in coming decades for fast developing economies of China, India and Southeast Asia.Con:A)Tibet is currently a blackhole of economic drain on Chinese Treasure. China foots the bill for Tibet's government budget while collecting no taxes from Tibet. According to , in 1996 China spent some $600 million in Tibet .for that same year the United States gave a total of $800 million dollars in aid to all of Africa . I don't even know if Hessler took into account of expense of maintaining 200,000 men army presence.There is no hope for China ever to recover these investments unless large deposit of metal or oil can be discovered AND easily recoverable from Tibet. Big ifs .B)Resentment from local groups (especially the monks) that are not benefiting from Chinese rule.C)Damage to China's international reputationIt might seem Tibet is more trouble than its worth. It will also be quite easy for China to quit Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). We just ship out the soldiers and Han cadres by the newly completed railroad. Will be done in a few month. Most economic Han migrant who came to Tibetan urban centers seeking economic opportunity will leave once the economic activities dries up, as they will will with withdrawal of Chinese government directed investment. Dalai Lama and Tibetan government could return and resume their operation. Chinese government could always use combination of carrots (continuation of aid) and stick (threat of re-invasion) to make sure Tibet is not being used by US or India as anti-China staging ground(no US military base allowed inside Tibet). So far so good. That will be the easy part. We still got buffer zone in Tibetan area of Qinghai and Sichuan.Ah, here we are gonna have a problem. Dalai Lama and his government in exile has repeatedly spoken of six million Tibetans' and put forward the demand for the re-constitution of a Greater Tibet' known as Cholka-Sum' and comprising the areas of U-Tsang, Kham and Amdo'. (see published in 2000 which deconstruct much of the Tibetan myth )You see Chinese word for Tibet is Xi Zang which is a phonetic transcription of the Tibetan word U-Tsang . which together with Western comprise of the region under Dalai government's direct control before liberation by PLA. This region later became Tibet Autonomous Region after Dalai has fled to India and CCP started land reform.Dalai government used to have wider authority over Amdo and eastern Kham as well. But unfornate for 13th Dalai Lama, a bright fellow name Younghusband decide to extend the benefits of British empire by invading and occupying Tibet in 1904. Qing government responded by reasserting Chinese control by sending in Zhao Er Fang to establish direct control.This Zhao Er Fang fellow is quite efficient in his job. From wikipedia entry under Kham: He was sent in 1905 (though other sources say this occurred in 1908)[2][3] on a punitive expedition and began destroying many monasteries in Kham and Amdo and implementing a process of sinification of the region:[4]He abolished the powers of the Tibetan local leaders and appointed Chinese magistrates in their places. He introduced new laws that limited the number of lamas and deprived monasteries of their temporal power and inaugurated schemes for having the land cultivated by Chinese immigrants.Zhao's methods in eastern Tibet uncannily prefigured the Communist policies nearly half a century later. They were aimed at the extermination of the Tibetan clergy, the assimilation of territory and repopulation of the Tibetan plateaus with poor peasants from Sichuan. Unfortunately for Zhao, Chinese revolution broke out in 1911. His solders decide to become revolutionaries and beheaded him.So Dalai government got to keep the rump part of U-Tsang and western Kham. Eastern Kham remain under direct Chinese control was absorbed into Sichuan province. Amdo become part of Qinghai and Gansu.That's why Xiahe's Labrang monastery ended up in Gansu. Now Amdo and eastern Kham, being traditionally the frontier between Han China and Tibetan always had a mixed population of Han, Hui muslim, some dash of other turko-mongol groups as well as Tibetans. Events after 1910 made sure that these area remain a hedgepodge of ethnicities. Han and Hui ethnicities living there are not recent immigrants.Let's even suppose that China entertain the thoughts of giving Tibetan parts of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu to Dalai which his group had no control for nearly hundred years, it will be logistically nightmare to separate which parts goes to Tibet which part remain in China. Think of Bosnia pre-ethnic cleansing days.And China should go through all these trouble to yield an ethnically pure Tibetan state?You think monks at Labrang Monastery would want to live outside of Dalai controlled Tiber?Better to examine the Con part of holding on to Tibet again.A)Economic burden: it's expensive to foot the bill of Tibetan government budget plus the infrastructure development that will be never repaid economically AND the cost of military presence.Hessler put the bill at $600 million in 1996. Let's assume inflation and additional military spending to round the figure off at $1 billion a year.Well compare that to the money that China have wasted investing in American financial industry (Blackstone, we paid $1 billion to aquire stake in Bear Stern last year etc, Don't even get me started on our increasingly worthless piles of American dollars and treasury bonds), this is chump change. China could simply afford to throw away $1 billion at Tibet every year.B.Resentment of Tibetans undermined by Chinese control (read monks) Bite me!C.China's international reputation. Please, even without Tibet, West will find fault with China. Before Lhasa riot, we are being blame for everything from encourage Darfur genocide to suppression of monks in Burma.Look at experience of Russia. Even after Russia discarded the Soviet system, Western media paints a very negative picture about Putin's government. Why? Because Putin is no western lapdog and Russia continue to have divergent interest from the West.West will continue find fault with China because CHINA is not YET a liberal democracy. While China is done with the business of exporting revolution years ago when Mao died, certain people in West (neocons?) hasn't give up the dream of spreading liberal democracies everywhere. I actually don't oppose liberal democracy in China as an end goal. But I digress.An individual shouldn't live out his/her life according to wishes of others. Neither should China.After all bricks and stone but words pah.Sorry pal, there simply not enough incentive for China to change its present policy considering the alternatives.Tibet is like a persistent itch in China's nether region. Not really a life-threatening condition, but to cure it requires surgery on the balls. At the end of the day, it's just not worth the hassle of the cure. We will settle for occasional scratch at the crotch even if most people around us find the sight rather offensive.