China is slowly but surely tightening its grip on Tibet. The latest sign is the ‘upgradation’ of the status of the Tibet Armed Police’s Political Commissar. The Global Times yesterday announced : “China’s Central Military Commission upgraded the political status of the political commissar of the Armed Police Corps of the Tibet Autonomous Region, indicating the central government’s determination to safeguard regional stability”. The Communist mouthpiece quotes ‘experts’. Major General Tang Xiao, the Political Commissar of the Tibet Armed Police Corps, under the People’s Armed Police, will now enjoy a new ‘treatment’. He will be treated at par with the head of a corps-sized military body, (equal to that of officials at a provincial or ministerial level, according to The Global Times). However, the Tibet Corps itself has not been upgraded. [Source]